According to the LEN calendar, the next European Championships is scheduled for October 7 – 21 in Israel.
In the past few months, there were unofficial pieces of information that the Championships could be moved to January.
LEN hasn’t confirmed the rescheduling, but the Israel Water Polo Association announced that the tournament would begin in January next year.
Yesterday evening, the Association issued a statement on its official Facebook page. It said that the preparation for the European Championship in water polo, Israel 2024, continued at a high pace.
President of the Israel Water Polo Association Revital Gluska Cohen said:
“Last week, we conducted a site tour with representatives of the production company with several relevant suppliers and Wingate Institute management. We decided where each complex would stand and how the competition pool and the warm-up pool would look and where the training pool would be located.
In the upcoming days, the first payment out of the 2 million Euros that we were asked to pay will be transferred, and as LEN asked, we are preparing for the opening of the competition on 1/1/24 according to the guidelines and regulations of LEN”.
It was planned that the tournament would take place in the temporary pool in the multisport arena in Tel Aviv.
Still, the latest news says the venue of the European Championships will be the pool in Netanya, where the 2022 European U19 Championship for girls was held. Netanya is 30 km away from Tel Aviv,
The start of the qualifications for the Europeans in Israel is scheduled for March.
As for the reasons for moving the Championships to January, there are two explanations, which are yet to be confirmed by official sources. One is that LEN wants to avoid two long pauses in the 2023/24 season of the competitions for clubs (the FINA World Championships in Doha will be held between February 2 and 14, 2024). The other is very high accommodation costs in Israel in October.
So, the national teams participating in the European and World Championships won’t have much time to rest between the European and the World Championship.
Both tournaments are part of the qualifications for the Olympic Games in Paris.
Two Olympic berths (one for male and one for female teams) will be available in Israel. The latest six quotas (four for men and two for women) will be allocated in Doha.
