The 2026 UEFA Futsal Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Futsal Euro 2026, is the 13th edition of the UEFA Futsal Championship, the quadrennial international futsal championship organised by UEFA for the men's national teams of Europe.
This is the second tournament to be held on a four-year basis after 2022. It is taking place between 21 January and 7 February 2026.[1] The tournament was supposed to be held solely in Latvia and Lithuania, but due to their unwillingness to accommodate Belarus, UEFA added Slovenia as a third co-host as the Slovenians agreed to hosting the Belarusian team.[2][3] This marks the first time the Futsal Euro is co-hosted and the first UEFA tournament to have three nations hosting (excluding UEFA Euro 2020 as twelve cities across Europe hosted the event). This is the first time a senior UEFA national team tournament is held in the Baltics.
For the second time after the expansion in 2022, 16 teams are taking part. Qualification took place between April 2024 and September 2025. The original two co-hosts, Latvia and Lithuania, qualified automatically, becoming the first host nations to make their debut at the same tournament they are hosting. Armenia also made their debut.
Portugal are the two-time defending champions after previously winning in 2018 and 2022.
The bidding procedure for hosting was launched in 2022, with a deadline of January 2023 to express their interest in hosting. UEFA requirements states the host country needs to have two arena, one with a spectator capacity of at least 7,500 and the other with at least 4,500.[4]
The final proposal had to delivered with the bid dossier in May 2023 at the latest, and UEFA received four bids:[4]
On 2 December 2023, Latvia and Lithuania were awarded the hosting rights in Hamburg, Germany.[5][6]
Slovenia added as a co-host
However, problems emerged with the hosting arrangement after Belarus qualified, with neither country willing to host them due to the Russo-Ukrainian war.[7][8] Latvia had stated that they were ready to relinquish their hosting rights if they had to host Belarus.[9] UEFA was supposed to make a decision in May 2025 but it was delayed.[10] On 27 June 2025, Slovenia were added as a third co-host, with two venues in Ljubljana.[3]Lithuanian Football Federation general secretary, Edgaras Stankevičius, stated he supports the hosting system.[11] The plan was approved by the Slovenian government as well.[12][13]Belarus and Kazakhstan also stated an interest in hosting the event.[14][15] The arrangement was very similar to the India and Pakistan cricket arrangement where neither side can play a world cup in the other country, so a neutral venue had to be found. Arena Stožice and Tivoli Arena were selected by Slovenia.
Preparations
2024
On 22 October, UEFA representatives went to observe Lithuania's preparations for the second time.[16]
2025
On 30 September, Slovenia's official website was released.[17]
On 17 October, Slovenian captain, Igor Osredkar, and former Slovenian football international, Bojan Jokić, were revealed as Slovenia's ambassadors.[18][19]
On 24 October, on the day of the draw, Slovenia set up a countdown clock for the tournament.[20]
A total 48 teams took part in qualification. After the preliminary round, 40 teams were divided into ten groups of four, held in a round-robin home-and-away format. The group winners secure qualification while the best eight runners-up advanced to the play-offs. The eight play-off teams were split into four separate ties. The four winners of the play-offs took the final four spots. Qualification was held between 9 April 2024 and 24 September 2025.
Of the sixteen teams, only 8 took part in 2022. Co-hosts Latvia and Lithuania automatically qualified and debuted, marking the first time that the host nations made their debut at the same tournament they hosted. From the qualification process, Armenia qualified for the first time, with the Armenians qualifying for a UEFA tournament for the first time ever. Regarding the returnees, Belarus made their second appearance after 2010, 2014 hosts Belgium qualified after failing to make it since that year, Czech Republic and Hungary secured their passage after a 10-year absence and France progressed after a one edition drought.
Regarding the absentees, the most notable teams are Kazakhstan and former champions Russia. The Kazakhs have reached the knockout stage of the last six major tournaments but due to new rules regarding naturalized players, their squad was weakened during qualification, leading to them missing out after losing their play-off tie against Italy on penalties. The Russians did take part for the first time due to UEFA's ban after the country's invasion of Ukraine. Perennial participants, Azerbaijan, also failed to qualify for the first time since 2007 after coming bottom of their qualification group. 2022 hosts and 2024 FIFA Futsal World Cup participants, Netherlands, could not make it after finishing as the one of the worst runner-ups, being the first team since Belgium in 2016 to not qualify after hosting. Serbia failed to advance after making the previous three editions. Having made their debut in the previous edition, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland and Slovakia all failed to qualify, leaving Georgia as the only team who managed to do so.
The highest ranked team to fail to qualify was 8th, Kazakhstan[A] while Belgium[B] was the lowest ranked team to make it ranked 34th.
Qualified teams
The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.
Note BLR: Latvia's sports law states that it is prohibited in Latvia to organize team sports competitions of national teams (adults, youth and juniors) in which national teams of Russia or Belarus participate under their flag or in a neutral status (2nd paragraph of article 171).[32][33] On 27 June, UEFA announced they would play all their games in Slovenia.
Note UKR: The Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine approved Ukraine national team's participation at this competition, though a boycott of the tournament had previously been considered (to protest Belarus national team's participation due to Belarus' role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine).[34]
Venues
The tournament is being held at four venues, with two in Ljubljana and one each in Riga and Kaunas.[3] Before Slovenia's inclusion, the final was planned to be in Riga.[35][36] The opening match was in Riga.[37] The final will be at Arena Stožice in Ljubljana. Latvia and Lithuania each host one group and a quarterfinal, while Slovenia host two groups and the remaining knockout stage matches. With UEFA not allowing arenas to include sponsors in their names, the Xiaomi Arena was changed to its original name, Arena Riga, for the tournament. Ljubljana became the first city to host two UEFA Futsal Euros.
The draw was held at 12:00 EET on 24 October 2025 at the Žalgiris Arena in Kaunas, Lithuania.[42][43][44][45] Lithuanian presenter, Gabrielė Martirosian hosted the draw. The guests were Portuguese futsal legend, Ricardinho and Lithuanian professional boxer and tournament ambassador Eimantas Stanionis, who assisted with the draw. Before the draw started, co-hosts Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia were all pre-allocated into positions A1, B1 and C1 in each of their groups respectively. 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).
There were two restrictions on the draw. Firstly, Belarus had to be drawn in a group held in Slovenia due to domestic laws in Latvia and Lithuania which prohibit matches involving Belarusian teams to be played in their countries. Secondly, Ukraine had to be drawn into a group held in Latvia and Lithuania to avoid playing Belarus as far into the tournament as possible (if the scenario does happen).
Seeding
The seeding was based off the UEFA men's futsal national team coefficient rankings as of 26 September 2025.[46]
Each national team had to submit a squad of 14 players, two of whom must be goalkeepers. During the tournament, each team is allowed to replace a maximum of one outfield player if they are injured or ill preventing them from participating in the tournament. Each team is also allowed to temporarily replace a goalkeeper if there are fewer than two healthy goalkeepers.[47]
Referees
A total of 32 referees and four referee observers were selected for the tournament. They were split into two groups – one for matches in Latvia and Lithuania, and one for matches in Slovenia.[48]
The group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals. The schedule was announced after the draw by UEFA.[49]
Tiebreakers
In the group stage, teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 20.01 and 20.02):[47]
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams have the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and are tied after applying all criteria above (not used if more than two teams have the same number of points, or if their rankings are not relevant for qualification for the next stage);
Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
UEFA coefficient ranking for the final draw.
All times are local.[50][51] Latvia and Lithuania use EET (UTC+2) and Slovenia uses CET (UTC+1).
In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary, except for the third place match where extra time is not played but a direct penalty shoot-out is used, instead.
Most goals by a team in a game: Spain 10–3 Belgium
Least goals by a team in a game: Latvia 4–0, France 5–0 Latvia, Belarus 0–4 Belgium, Belarus 0–2 Spain, Poland 0–4 Italy, Armenia 0–3 Croatia
Biggest goal difference in a game: Spain 10–3 Belgium
Biggest half time deficit in a game: Slovenia 0–4 Spain at half (1–4 final)
Most goals scored by a player in a game: 3 goals – Omar Rahou, Belarus 0–4 Belgium; Julio De Oliveira, Poland 0–4 Italy; Souheil Mouhoudine, Armenia 0–3 Croatia
Notable occurrences
On 21 January, Latvia became the first hosts since Serbia in 2016 to win their opening game.
On 22 January, at 18 years and 69 days old, Ukrainian player, Illia Prykhodko became the youngest player to appear at the finals.[79]
On 24 January, at 19 years and 168 days old, Polish player, Kacper Pawlus, became the youngest player to score at the finals, after scoring Poland's first goal in a 4–2 defeat to Hungary.[80]
On 26 January, at 40 years and 209 days old, Belgian player, Gréllo, became the oldest player to score at the finals, after scoring Belgium's first goal in a 5–4 defeat to Slovenia.[81]
On 29 January, Spain's 10–3 win over Belgium broke the record for most goals by a team in one match at the Euro.[82]
Broadcasting rights
On 2 December, the broadcasting rights were announced.[38][83][84] For countries with no stated broadcasting rights, matches will be broadcast on UEFA.tv.
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Omar Rahou 
Souheil Mouhoudine 
