On Saturday evening, the draw for the 2026 European Men’s Championships, which will be held in Belgrade (January 10 – 25), will take place in the capital of Serbia.
The list of participants was completed in June after the qualification tournaments.
As in all editions of the ECH since 2016, sixteen teams will play, and they will be split into four groups of four teams in the first stage.
Batches for draw
Pot 1 (1st – 4th placed at 2024 ECH): Spain, Croatia, Italy, Hungary
Pot 2 (5th – 8th placed at 2024 ECH): Greece, Montenegro, Serbia, Romania
Pot 3 (winners of qualification groups): France, Georgia, Netherlands, Slovakia.
Pot 4 (runners-ups of qualification groups): Turkiye, Slovenia, Malta, Israel.
Compared to the 2024 European Championships held in Zagreb and Dubrovnik, the only team missing this time is Germany, which will be replaced by Turkiye, returning after a six-year absence. The Turks played a crucial role in preventing the Germans from qualifying for the European Championships by defeating them in a key match during the qualification group. This marked the first time Germany failed to qualify for the European Championships.
New competition format
The list of participating teams is nearly the same as in 2024, but the competition format has undergone significant changes. European Aquatics has updated the regulations for the Championships for the second time in less than four years. The previous system, which featured two divisions in the group stage, has been abandoned after just one edition of the senior European Championships.
Starting in 2026, there will be more matches during the group stages, while the knockout round will be shortened.
Following the Group Stage I, the top three teams from each group will advance to the Group Stage II, where two new groups ( E and F) will be formed.
Group E: A1, A2, A3, C1, C2, C3.
Group F: B1, B2, B3, D1, D2, D3.
The teams that played in the same group in Group Stage I will carry the results from the mutual encounters to the second phase. In Group Stage II, the teams will play only against the teams that didn’t play against them in Group Stage I.
The 1st-placed and 2nd-placed teams in Groups E and F will advance to the semifinals, while the other will play placement matches immediately after Group Stage II (E3 vs. F3 for 5th place, E4 vs. F4 for 7th place, etc).
The 4th-placed teams in Groups A, B, C, and D will compete in the group for 13th–16th place classification.
Most stressful match scrapped
With this new formula, the most stressful match for the medal contenders has been removed. There will be no crossover round and quarterfinals.
In recent decades, typically seven to nine teams have emerged as medal contenders in major European and world tournaments. Favorites have rarely lost crossover matches, but the quarterfinals have been critical.
If favorites do not perform well in that match, their dreams of winning a medal can quickly vanish, regardless of how well they have played up to that point. A recent example is Croatia’s experience at the World Championships in Singapore, where the Croats performed very well for most of the tournament. They defeated two big rivals, Greece and Montenegro, in the group stage, but they failed to maintain that level in the quarterfinals, suffering a convincing loss to Hungary. The Croats later regained their momentum to secure 5th place, finishing ahead of Montenegro. However, this was a small consolation. Croatia finished 5th with a record of five wins and one loss, while Greece, which lost to both Croatia and Montenegro, captured bronze, achieving a 5-2 record.
There are different opinions regarding the new formula.
It appears that the new competition formula with no quarterfinal matches could alleviate some psychological pressure on players. Teams will have more opportunities to recover from mistakes and bounce back after some defeats.
On the other hand, the results from the first phase carry over into the second phase, meaning that a match outcome from Day 1 could influence which teams advance to the semifinals. Such circumstances demand a consistently high level of play and minimal errors throughout the tournament.
Many players and coaches often say, “A new tournament begins at the quarter-finals. It is crucial to reach the top eight and only then give our best.”
It has been proven to be true. However, at the European Championship in Belgrade, the teams should not allow themselves such an approach at any stage of the tournament if they target medals.
All in all , the reflections and comments from coaches and players before, during, and after the championship will reveal whether the new format introduces more stress or provides psychological relief.
Third time in Belgrade
Belgrade will host the European Championships for the third time. Since 2006, the Serbian capital has been chosen to host ECH every ten years – 2006, 2016, and 2026.
The upcoming championships will take place in the Belgrade Arena, as in 2016. The highest-ever attendance for a single water polo match was set in the final of the 2016 Europeans. Serbia beat Montenegro in that game in front of 18,473 spectators.
Belgrade was initially chosen to host both the men’s and women’s European Championships next year, which was expected to take place during the summer, as is customary in every even non-Olympic year. However, European Aquatics, along with the Water Polo Federation of Serbia and other involved parties, decided that only the men’s championships would be held in Belgrade and that the tournament would be scheduled for the winter instead.
A few months later, it was confirmed that the women’s Championships would be organized in the Portuguese island of Madeira, located in the Atlantic Ocean, from January 26 to February 5.
The competition formula of the women’s Europeans is similar to the men’s Championships. There will be two group stages, but only the top two teams from the groups in the first stage will progress to the following.
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