2026 Women's European Water Polo Championship

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2026 Women's European Water Polo Championship
Tournament details
Host countryFlag of Portugal (official).svg Portugal
Venue(s)1 (in 1 host city)
Teams16 (from 1 confederation)
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The 2026 Women's European Water Polo Championship will be the 21st edition of the tournament. Originally intended to be held in Belgrade, Serbia, [1] [2] Portugal was given the hosting rights with Funchal as the venue to host a women's tournament since July 2025. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Host selection

Belgrade was given the hosting rights in May 2022. [1]

Hosting change

At a press conference in Valletta, Malta, held in June 2024, it was briefly mentioned that the bidding process had reopened for this competition, but no official statement was made at that time. While it was confirmed that the men's event will be held in Belgrade in March 2025, the venue for the women's tournament was changed due to Serbia requesting that they only host the men's event. [2] [6]

Italy [7] and Tenerife, Spain [8] [9] were touted as potential hosts, but in July 2025, Portugal was given the hosting rights with Funchal as the venue. [3] [4] [5]

Format

A new system will be used for this tournament. The 16 teams will be split into four groups of four teams. In each group there will be two teams from the last tournament and two teams from the qualifiers. They will play a round-robin in their groups. The top two teams of each group will advance to the second group stage (Groups A&C in Group E and Groups B&D in Group F) with all results are carried over. The teams will play the opponents from the other group. The same will be done by the third-and fourth-placed teams as they will play in two groups and classification games afterwards. From the second group stage, the top-two ranked teams of each group advance to the semifinals, all other teams will play in placement games. [10]

Qualification

Map of qualifiers for the 2026 Women's European Water Polo Championship: .mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{} Team qualified for 2026 Women's European Water Polo Championship Team failed to qualify Team banned from competition Did not enter 2026 Women's European Water Polo Championship qualified teams map.svg
Map of qualifiers for the 2026 Women's European Water Polo Championship:
  Team qualified for 2026 Women's European Water Polo Championship
  Team failed to qualify
  Team banned from competition
  Did not enter

16 teams will be able to compete at the main event. They are broken up as follows:

Of the sixteen teams who qualified, fourteen took part in the previous edition. Switzerland returned for the first time since 1995 and did so on merit for the first time. [11] [12] Portugal comes back for the first time since 2016. [13] [14]

Of the absentees, Czechia failed to qualify after appearing in 2024, while 2024 debutants, Bulgaria, didn't enter qualification.

EventDateLocationQuotasNation(s)
2024 European Championship 5–13 January Flag of the Netherlands.svg Eindhoven 8Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands
Flag of Spain.svg  Spain
Flag of Greece.svg  Greece
Flag of Italy.svg  Italy
Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary
Flag of France.svg  France
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain
Flag of Croatia.svg  Croatia
Qualifiers 6–8 June 2025 Flag of Portugal (official).svg Setúbal 2Flag of Portugal (official).svg  Portugal
Flag of Romania.svg  Romania
Flag of Germany.svg Hannover 2Flag of Germany.svg  Germany
Flag of Turkey.svg  Türkiye
Flag of Serbia.svg Novi Sad 2Flag of Serbia.svg  Serbia
Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg   Switzerland
Flag of Slovakia.svg Nováky 2Flag of Israel.svg  Israel
Flag of Slovakia.svg  Slovakia

Summary of qualified teams

TeamQualification methodDate of qualificationAppFirstLastStreakBest placement in tournamentRank [15]
Flag of Greece.svg  Greece Top eight in 2024 6 January 202419th 1989 2024 19Runners-up (2010, 2012, 2018, 2022)TBD
Flag of Italy.svg  Italy Champions (1995, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2012)TBD
Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands 21st 1985 21Champions (1985, 1987, 1989, 1993, 2018, 2024)TBD
Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 17th 1993 17Champions (2014, 2020, 2022)TBD
Flag of Croatia.svg  Croatia 8 January 20247th 2010 6Eighth place (2022, 2024)TBD
Flag of France.svg  France 17th 1985 7Third place (1987, 1989)TBD
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 10th2Sixth place (1985)TBD
Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 21st21Champions (1991, 2001, 2016)TBD
Flag of Portugal (official).svg  Portugal Top two in Group A 7 June 20254th 1995 2016 1Tenth place (2016)TBD
Flag of Romania.svg  Romania 3rd 2022 2024 3Eleventh place (2022)TBD
Flag of Israel.svg  Israel Top two in Group D 5th 2018 5Sixth place (2022)TBD
Flag of Slovakia.svg  Slovakia 5th 1993 4Eighth place (2020)TBD
Flag of Germany.svg  Germany Top two in Group B 20th 1985 6Third place (1985)TBD
Flag of Turkey.svg  Türkiye 4th 2016 2Twelfth place (2016, 2018)TBD
Flag of Serbia.svg  Serbia Top two in Group C 7th 2006 6Eighth place (2006)TBD
Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg   Switzerland 8 June 20253rd 1993 1995 1Tenth place (1993)TBD

Venue

Similar to 2016, the Štark Arena will be used for the entire competition. [16] A new venue was also announced to be revealed in the near future. [17]

Belgrade
Štark Arena
Capacity: 18,386
2016 European Water Polo Championship - Day 1 (Portugal - Greece).jpg

References

  1. 1 2 "Tel Aviv, Belgrade To Host Next Two European Water Polo Championships". swimswam.com. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 "Two host cities and new format for 2026 European Water Polo Championships - European Aquatics®". March 31, 2025.
  3. 1 2 https://europeanaquatics.org/competition-dates-confirmed-for-2026-water-polo-events-and-artistic-swimming-youth-championships/
  4. 1 2 "Portugal organiza Europeu feminino absoluto no Funchal em 2026". www.fpnatacao.pt.
  5. 1 2 "Portugal organiza Europeu feminino de polo aquático de 2026 | Abola.pt". Abola.pt. July 4, 2025.
  6. ↑ https://www.origo.hu/sport/sport-csapat/2025/04/alaposan-felforgatjak-a-vizilabda-eb-k-eddig-ismert-rendszeret#google_vignette
  7. ↑ Curcic, Ivan (June 8, 2025). "Portugal and Switzerland return to European Championships".
  8. ↑ https://infostart.hu/sport/2025/04/01/valtozik-a-vizilabda-europa-bajnoksagok-lebonyolitasa
  9. ↑ https://index.hu/sport/vizilabda/2025/04/02/vizilabda-polo-europai-kupasorozat-kupaporond-konferencia-kupa-eb-europa-bajnoksag-atszervezes/
  10. ↑ "2026 Men's European Championships in Belgrade by new format; women won't play in Serbia". total-waterpolo.com. 31 March 2025.
  11. ↑ "Switzerland set to return to Euros after 30 years - European Aquatics®". June 8, 2025.
  12. ↑ "Switzerland has made history by qualifying for the European Championship for the very first time".
  13. ↑ "Roménia vence a Chéquia (12-11) no Torneio de Apuramento em Setúbal". www.fpnatacao.pt.
  14. ↑ "Portugal vence Roménia e está na fase Final do Europeu". www.fpnatacao.pt.
  15. ↑ "Women Country Ranking - European Aquatics®". February 20, 2023.
  16. ↑ "Београд домаћин Европског првенства у ватерполу 2026. године". РТС.
  17. ↑ "Opet Beograd! Srpska prestonica zvanično domaćin EP u vaterpolu!". INFORMER.
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