The 2026 Women's European Water Polo Championship will be the 21st edition of the biannual continental tournament in national women's water polo teams, organised by Europe's governing aquatics body, European Aquatics. The tournament will take place from 26 January to 5 February 2026.
The competition was intended to be held in Serbia's capital Belgrade, alongside the men's championship.[1][2] However, the Serbs would later relinquish the hosting rights for the women's event. On 4 July 2025, Portugal was awarded the hosting rights for the first time with Madeira's capital, Funchal, being selected as the host city.[2][3][4][5] This will be the second edition to have different hosts for both genders after European Aquatics made the change permanent in March 2025.[2] This edition will also witness a new format, introducing a second group stage as opposed to an extended knockout round.
16 teams will take part for the second time, following the expansion in 2024. The top eight teams from the 2024 version qualified automatically, while the remaining eights teams progressed via qualification. Future hosts, Portugal, and Switzerland qualified after a 10 and 31 year drought respectively.
Belgrade was given the hosting rights in May 2022.[1] This would've been Serbia's third time hosting after 2006 and 2016.
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. It would later become official as in March 2025, it was confirmed that the men's event will be held in Belgrade but the venue for the women's tournament would be changed due to Serbia requesting that they only host the men's event.[2][6]
"For the FPN and for Portugal, the organization of this Women's Senior European Championship is very important. It will be the first time that Portugal hosts a women's senior event in team sports. In sporting terms, this is also a commitment by the FPN to the growth of water polo and, in this case, in particular, to the women's category with this participation and organization."
Preparations
On 28 September 2025, a dedicated website went live.[10] On 8 October, a information bulletin became available.[11]
A new system will be used for this tournament. The new format was unveiled in March 2025. This is the third different format in three editions.[13]
Group stage
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 (Group A & Group C in Group E and Group B & Group D in Group F) with all results are carried over, while the bottom two drop down to the classification round.
Second group stage
The advancing teams will play the opponents from the other group in the second group stage. 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.
Knockout stage
In the knockout stage, the four remaining teams progress to the knockout stage. Two semifinals and a final will determine who wins the championship.
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.[14][15]Portugal comes back for the first time since 2016.[16][17]
Of the absentees, Czechia failed to qualify after appearing in 2024, while 2024 debutants, Bulgaria, didn't enter qualification.
The draw was held at 11:30 WET on 2 October 2025 in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal.[21][22][23] Before the draw began, speeches were done by Eduardo Jesus, Regional Secretary of Tourism and Culture, Miguel Arrobas, President of the Portuguese Swimming Federation, and European Aquatics president, Antonio Silva. The guests were seven-time Olympic windsurfer, João Rodrigues and Masters Swimming Champion, Susana Gomes, who assisted with the draw. The draw started with, in order, pots 1, 2, 3 and 4 being drawn, with each team selected then allocated into the first available group alphabetically. The position for the team within the group would then be drawn (for the purpose of the schedule).
On 24 November 2025, the following 18 referees were selected for the tournament.[25][26] The referees represent 18 countries, including the 16 participating teams alongside match officials from Malta and Ukraine.
Lea Saftic
Aurely Bouchez
Hendrik Schopp
Maxim Gerasimov
Natali Markopoulou
Nora Debreceni
Ayal Gabel
Alessia Ferrari
Massimo Angilleri
Diana Dutilh Dumas
Luis Santos
Mihnea Alexandrescu
Ivanka Rakovic Krstonosic
Martina Kunikova
Marta Cabanas
Ruben Garcia
Gokhan Can Ciger
Anna Goncharenko
Preliminary round
The match schedule was released on 12 November 2025.[27]
Tiebreakers
Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 2 points for a penalty shootout win, 1 point for a penalty shootout loss, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:
Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches.
If the ranking of one of these teams is determined, the above criteria are consecutively followed until the ranking of all teams is determined. If no ranking can be determined, a drawing of lots will decide the outcome.
First match(es) will be played: 26 January 2026. Source: [citation needed] Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) Goal difference.
First match(es) will be played: 26 January 2026. Source: [citation needed] Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) Goal difference. (H) Host
First match(es) will be played: 26 January 2026. Source: [citation needed] Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) Goal difference.
First match(es) will be played: 26 January 2026. Source: [citation needed] Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) Goal difference.
First match(es) will be played: 30 January 2026. Source: [citation needed] Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) Goal difference.
First match(es) will be played: 30 January 2026. Source: [citation needed] Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) Goal difference.
First match(es) will be played: 31 January 2026. Source: [citation needed] Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) goal difference.
First match(es) will be played: 31 January 2026. Source: [citation needed] Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) goal difference.
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