The 2026 Women's European Volleyball Championship, commonly referred to as EuroVolley Women 2026, will be the 34th edition of the biannual continental tournament for women's national volleyball teams, organised by Europe's governing volleyball body, CEV. The tournament will be held between from 21 August to 6 September 2026. It will be organised in Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Sweden and Turkey, marking the fourth consecutive time EuroVolley will be held in four countries, after the multi-country hosting system was first used in 2019. Turkey will host the final in Istanbul.
24 teams will participate for the fourth time as well. Qualification took place in August 2024 and 2025 to decide the final 12 spots. The four co-hosts qualified automatically. Montenegro will make their debut, while Austria and Latvia return after long absences.
After FIVB's calendar changes starting 2025, this will be the first European Championship since 1958 to be held in an even-numbered year.
Turkey are the defending champions, having beaten Serbia 3–2 in the final in Brussels.
Year change
On 22 June 2023, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) announced that, starting in 2026, all continental competitions would be played in even-numbered years, rather than odd-numbered.[1] This will be the first European Championship since 1958 to be held in an even-numbered year.
Host selection
Czech Republic[2][3] – Czech Republic was announced as the first co-host on 6 December 2023, with games at a new arena in Brno.[4][5] This will be Czech Republic's third time hosting after 1993 and 1997.
Sweden – On 6 March 2024, Sweden became the second host with games to take place at the Scandinavium in Gothenburg.[6][7][8] This will be Sweden's first time hosting.
Turkey[11] – While widely reported to be a host,[12][13] Turkey was officially announced as the final host on 8 November 2024.[14] According to the Turkish federation, Turkish president, Tayyip Erdoğan, helped get the competition.[15] This will be Turkey's fourth time organising after 1967, 2003 and 2019.
Rejected countries
The following countries had expressed interest but didn't make the cut:[16]
Austria – Austria was provisionally given the hosting rights, but after an unknown city unexpectedly withdrew and the Austrian federation reluctant to ask their government for more money due to the government giving money for beach volleyball events, the Austrians asked for a two week extension on making a decision. At this time as well, the Azerbaijani government had offered to host the group. With the choice to give Austria a two week extension or giving the event to Azerbaijan, they chose the latter.[17] Austria's only known possible venue was in Vienna.
Finland – Finland was briefly mentioned as a possible host in November 2022, but this never materialised.
Map of qualifiers for the 2026 Women's European Volleyball Championship:
Team qualified for 2026 Women's European Volleyball Championship
Team failed to qualify
Team banned from competition
Did not enter
24 teams qualify for the championship. The four co-hosts and the eight best teams from the 2023 edition automatically progress (in the event that one of the best eight teams is also a co-host, the next best team will inherit their place).
21 teams took part in qualification, with 12 spots on the line. The 21 teams were divided into seven groups of three, with the seven group winners plus the five best second place teams qualifying. The games were played in August 2024 and 2025. The groups were divided by the Serpentine system based off each teams' ranking.
Of the 24 teams who qualified, 20 of them were present at the previous tournament. Montenegro are the only debutants, after winning Group D.[18]Austria will return after 55 years, breaking the record for the longest-ever gap for any team between appearances;[19][20] alongside the record, Austria qualified on merit for the first time. Latvia comes back for the first time since 1997.[21][22]Portugal advanced for the first time after their debut in 2019.
Of the non-qualifiers, Finland and Switzerland both missed out in Group A, with the two taking part in the three previous editions. Bosnia and Herzegovina didn't qualify after withdrawing from the first half of qualification, causing controversy in the country. 2023 co-hosts, Estonia, failed to qualify as well.
Four venues in four countries will host the tournament. Each venue will host a group, while Istanbul and Brno will organise the knockout stage, with Istanbul hosting the semi-finals and finals. The currently in construction Arena Brno in Brno was supposed to be used for Czech's portion of the tournament, but had to be replaced by the Brno Exhibition Centre due to the arena not being built in time.[23][24] The Winning Group Arena was also considered as Brno's replacement.[25] This would've been the first major tournament held in Arena Brno.
In Czech Republic, the currently in construction Arena Brno was supposed to be hosting the Czech's portion of the tournament, but couldn't host it due to time constraints with its construction. The replacement venue is the venue Brno Exhibition Centre, which recently hosted the 2025 Men's European Volleyball League final four and will have 5,000 temporary seats for the tournament.[27]
In Turkey, the country's biggest indoor arena, the Sinan Erdem Dome, hosted the Turkish part of the competition. The venue was built in 2010 in preparation for the 2010 FIBA World Championship where, it was the main venue for the tournament, hosting the final phase. The facility was also the main host for EuroBasket 2017. This will be the first major volleyball tournament in this arena.[29]
Distribution of tournament
Istanbul will host preliminary round and knockout stage up to the final. Brno will host preliminary round and knockout stage up to the quarterfinals. Baku and Gothenburg will host preliminary round only
The final draw took place at 20:45 CET in Bari, Italy on 4 October 2025 at the Castello Normanno-Svevo.[30][31][32] Italian journalist, Simona Rolandi and CEV press officer, Federico Ferraro, were the hosts of the final draw. Azerbaijani middle blocker Ayshan Abdulazimova, Czech middle blocker Magdaléna Jehlářová, Swedish outside hitter Anna Haak and Turkish setter Dilay Özdemir were the guests for the final draw. The final draw started with the co-hosts and chosen teams being placed into their respective groups and continued with, in order, pots 1, 2, 3 and 4 being drawn, with each team selected then allocated into the first available group alphabetically.
Chosen teams
The organizers could select one team to join their pools.
The teams are seeded according to the CEV National Team rankings before the draw.[33]
The only restriction is that the two finalists from the previous edition, Serbia and Turkey, were drawn in different preliminary pools so that can only play each other in the final.
The schedule was announced on 27 October 2025.[34]
Schedule
Round
Matchday
Date
Preliminary round
All rounds
21–28 August 2026
Knockout stage
Eighth-finals
30 August – 1 September 2026
Quarter-finals
2–3 September 2026
Semi-finals
5 September 2026
Final
6 September 2026
Preliminary round
All times are local.
The top four teams in each pool will qualify for the final round.
Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 match points for the winner, 0 match points for the loser
Match won 3–2: 2 match points for the winner, 1 match point for the loser
Tiebreakers
Number of matches won
Match points
Sets ratio
Points ratio
If the tie continues as per the point ratio between two teams, the priority will be given to the team which won the match between them. When the tie in points ratio is between three or more teams, a new classification of these teams in the terms of points 1, 2, 3 and 4 will be made taking into consideration only the matches in which they were opposed to each other.
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Azerbaijan 
Czech Republic 
Sweden 
Turkey 
