The Hungarian League will begin next weekend, featuring a significant change in its competition format.
Fourteen teams will participate in one of the oldest national water polo championships (founded 121 years ago), as in the previous seasons. But the Hungarian Federation has decided to reduce the number of teams in the league to 12 starting with the 2026/27 season. This reduction is the primary reason for the changes in the competition format.
In the first part of the 2025/26 regular season (September 5 – February 28), a single round-robin system will be applied. Teams will play 13 rounds before the league is split into two groups. The top eight teams will continue in the upper division, while the teams placed 9th to 14th will play in the lower division. These lower-division teams will be joined by the first- and second-placed teams from the Second League, based on the half-season standings. Therefore, both groups will feature eight teams.
There is a special rule for dividing the teams into two groups. If the point difference between the 8th-placed and 9th-placed teams is three points or less, they will play a playoff to determine which team goes to the upper division.
All clubs advancing to the upper group (1st-8th place) will carry their results against the other seven teams into this group. They will then play seven rounds, with the venues opposite to those in the first part of the season.
After the seventh round (the total of 20 rounds), the top four teams will advance to the semifinals of the playoffs. The semifinal format is the same as in the previous year: the results of the encounters between the semifinalists during the regular season will count, and the semifinal series will be played until one of the teams achieves 7 points (which means that everything could be decided after the first semifinal game). The same format applies to the semifinals for 5th to 8th place.
The final, the bronze match, and the playoff series for 5th place will start from zero and will last until one team collects three victories. Two wins will be enough in the 7th-place playoffs.
The competition format for the teams placed 9th to 16th differs. The results from the first 13 rounds will not be carried into this group, and all teams will start with no points. After 14 rounds of a double round-robin competition, the top four teams will retain their places in the First League for the 2026/27 season, while the others will be relegated to the Second League.
Only three matches of the first round will be played this weekend, while the remaining five have been postponed and will take place throughout the following four weeks, during which the matches of the Hungarian Cup will also be held. The second round of the Hungarian league is scheduled for the second week of October.
The schedule of Round 1
September 5: UVSE – Szolnok
September 6: Miskolc – Honved, Szentes – OSC Budapest
September 8: DVSE Debrecen – Vasas
September 19: Eger – BVSC
September 23: Ferencvaros – KSI
October 1: Kaposvar – Szeged
