LEN has confirmed the composition of the pots for the draw of the groups at the 2024 European Championships in Netanya (January 3 – 16).
The draw will take place on Tuesday (September 12) in Netanya.
As we reported a few months ago, LEN introduced a new competition formula. The teams will play in two divisions in the group stage. The top 8 nations from the previous championships are in Division 1, and the qualifiers are in Division 2. There will be two groups of four teams in each division.
A novelty is that 16 nations will participate in the women’s tournament for the first time.
According to the rules, the teams are sorted into pots based on their rankings in the previous championships and in the qualifications, which took place in June.
The finalists of the 2022 Europeans in Split (Croatia and Hungary for men, Spain and Greece for women) are seeded in the first pots for Division 1, followed by the semifinalists in the second pot, and so on. Division 2 has two batch, with the winners of the qualification groups in the first and the 2nd-placed teams, along with the male team of Israel, which qualified directly as a host, in the second pot.
The draw for Division 2 of the Men’s tournament is expected to be more interesting, as Olympic champion Serbia has been sorted in this division since it finished 9th in Split. So, everybody would like to avoid the team that finished 4th at the World Championships in Fukuoka.
As for Division 1, all groups will be balanced. There will be a lot of favorites.
The winners and the 2nd-placed teams of Division 1 groups will qualify for the quarterfinals. The 3rd-placed and 4th-placed in the higher division and 1st-placed and 2nd-placed in the groups of Division 2 go to the crossover round.
Pots for the draw
Men
DIVISION 1
1st batch: Croatia and Hungary
2nd batch: Spain and Italy
3rd batch: Greece and France
4th batch: Montenegro and Georgia
DIVISION 2
Batch 5: Netherlands, Germany, Serbia, Romania
Batch 6: Israel, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia
Women
DIVISION 1
1st batch: Spain and Greece
2nd batch: Italy and Netherlands
3rd batch: Hungary and Israel
4th batch: France and Croatia
DIVISION 2
Batch 5: Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Great Britain
Batch 6: Bulgaria, Turkey, Czechia, Germany
Pairings after the group stage
(The teams in Division 1 will be in Groups A and B and the nations in Division 2 in Groups C and D)
Crossover round: CO MATCH 1: 4A – 1C; COM 2: 4B – 1D; COM3: 3B – 2D; CO4: 3A – 2C.
The winners of the crossover matches will qualify for the quarterfinals: 1B – Winner CO1; 1A – Winner CO2; 2A – Winner CO3;
2B – Winner CO4.
