2026 Women's European Water Polo Championship

For the women's tournament, see 2026 Men's European Water Polo Championship.

2026 Women's European Water Polo Championship

Tournament details
Host country	Portugal
Venue(s)	1 (in 1 host city)
Dates	26 January – 5 February
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
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The 2026 Women's European Water Polo Championship will be the 21st edition of the tournament from 26 January to 5 February 2026. 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]}

Host selection

•   Serbia

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

Main article: 2026 Women's European Water Polo Championship Qualifiers

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:

• The top eight teams from the 2024 European Championship not already qualified as host nation
• Final eight from the qualifiers.

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.

Event	Date	Location	Quotas	Nation(s)
2024 European Championship	5–13 January	Eindhoven	8	Netherlands   Spain   Greece   Italy   Hungary   France   Great Britain   Croatia
Qualifiers	6–8 June 2025	Setúbal	2	Portugal   Romania
		Hannover	2	Germany   Türkiye
		Novi Sad	2	Serbia    Switzerland
		Nováky	2	Israel   Slovakia

Summary of qualified teams

Team	Qualification method	Date of qualification	App	First	Last	Streak	Best placement in tournament	Rank [15]
Greece	Top eight in 2024	6 January 2024	19th	1989	2024	19	Runners-up (2010, 2012, 2018, 2022)	TBD
Italy							Champions (1995, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2012)	TBD
Netherlands			21st	1985		21	Champions (1985, 1987, 1989, 1993, 2018, 2024)	TBD
Spain			17th	1993		17	Champions (2014, 2020, 2022)	TBD
Croatia		8 January 2024	7th	2010		6	Eighth place (2022, 2024)	TBD
France			17th	1985		7	Third place (1987, 1989)	TBD
Great Britain			10th			2	Sixth place (1985)	TBD
Hungary			21st			21	Champions (1991, 2001, 2016)	TBD
Portugal	Top two in Group A	7 June 2025	4th	1995	2016	1	Tenth place (2016)	TBD
Romania			3rd	2022	2024	3	Eleventh place (2022)	TBD
Israel	Top two in Group D		5th	2018		5	Sixth place (2022)	TBD
Slovakia			5th	1993		4	Eighth place (2020)	TBD
Germany	Top two in Group B		20th	1985		6	Third place (1985)	TBD
Türkiye			4th	2016		2	Twelfth place (2016, 2018)	TBD
Serbia	Top two in Group C		7th	2006		6	Eighth place (2006)	TBD
Switzerland		8 June 2025	3rd	1993	1995	1	Tenth 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		Belgrade
		Štark Arena
		Capacity: 18,386

Draw

The draw was held on 2 October 2025 in Madeira, Portugal. ^[18]

The pots were decided by the rankings of the 2024 European Championship and also of the 2026 Qualifiers

Pot 1 (1st-4th Euro 2024)	Pot 2 (5th-8th Euro 2024)	Pot 3 (Winner Qualification's group)	Pot 4 (Runner-up Qualification's group)
Netherlands   Spain   Greece   Italy	Hungary   France   Great Britain   Croatia	Portugal   Germany   Serbia   Israel	Romania   Turkey    Switzerland   Slovakia

Preliminary round

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	PSW	PSL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Greece	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Main round
2	France	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Slovakia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Classification round
4	Germany	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

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.

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	PSW	PSL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Hungary	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Main round
2	Romania	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Spain	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Classification round
4	Portugal (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

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

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	PSW	PSL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Italy	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Main round
2	Serbia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Croatia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Classification round
4	Turkey	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

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.

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	PSW	PSL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Netherlands	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Main round
2	Switzerland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Great Britain	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Classification round
4	Israel	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

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.

Classification round

Group E

Pos	Team	Pld	W	PSW	PSL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	A3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	C3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	A4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	C4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: 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.

Group F

Pos	Team	Pld	W	PSW	PSL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	B3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	D3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	B4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	D4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: 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.

Main round

All points obtained in the preliminary round against teams that advance as well are carried over.

Group E

Pos	Team	Pld	W	PSW	PSL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	A1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Semifinals
2	C1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	A2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	C2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: 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.

Group F

Pos	Team	Pld	W	PSW	PSL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	B1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Semifinals
2	D1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	B2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	D2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: 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.

Knockout stage

	Semi-finals				Final
	February
					February
	February
					Third place
					February

Final standings

Rank	Team
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

References

1. "Tel Aviv, Belgrade To Host Next Two European Water Polo Championships". swimswam.com. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
2. "Two host cities and new format for 2026 European Water Polo Championships - European Aquatics®". March 31, 2025.
3. https://europeanaquatics.org/competition-dates-confirmed-for-2026-water-polo-events-and-artistic-swimming-youth-championships/
4. "Portugal organiza Europeu feminino absoluto no Funchal em 2026". www.fpnatacao.pt.
5. "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.
18. "Watch the 2026 Women's European Water Polo Championships draw live from Funchal". europeanaquatics.org. Retrieved 28 September 2025.

External links

• Official website