2026 Men's European Water Polo Championship

• Belgrade Belgrade was given the hosting rights on 13 May 2022. ==Preparations==

• A dedicated website was created on 25 August 2025. • During the 14th Great Sports Fair of Serbia from 26 to 28 September 2025, at Ada Ciganlija, the slogan for the tournament was unveiled, being the phrase "Power that unites". • On 11 December 2025, Uniqa was announced as a sponsor for the tournament. Tickets Tickets went on sale on 2 October 2025. Partners and sponsors • 5 Stepeni • Asee • AdmiralBet • Alta Banka • Delfina • Epam • Fluidra • Kap Seven • Malmsten • Metalfer Group • Nike • Uniqa ==Format==

A new system will be used for this tournament. The new format was unveiled in March 2025. This is the third different format in three editions. Despite some slight changes, the format is very adjacent to the format previously used for the European Handball Championship when the tournament still had 16 teams (the format has been discontinued due to the European Handball Championship expanding to 24 teams). Head coach of Croatia, Ivica Tucak, supports the format change, saying it gives teams a second chance to come back if they stumble earlier in the tournament. • Group stage In each group there will be two teams from the last tournament and two teams from the qualifiers. They will play a round-robin in their groups. The top three teams of each group will advance to the main round (Group A & Group C in Group E and Group B & Group D in Group F) with all results are carried over. The four-bottom ranked-teams will play in placement games. • Main round The advancing teams will play the opponents from the other group in the main round. From the main round, the top-two ranked teams of each group advance to the semifinals, all other teams will play in placement games. • Knockout stage In the knockout stage, the four remaining teams progress to the knockout stage. Two semifinals and a final will determine who wins the championship. ==Qualification==

For the sixth time, sixteen teams will take part after the expansion in 2016. Overall, 18 teams took part in qualification. Qualification took place in 8–11 June 2025. Qualification is broken up as follows: • The host nation • The top seven teams from the 2024 European Championship not already qualified as host nation • Final eight from the qualifiers. Regarding the teams, there is one change to the line-up, with Turkey returning after a six year drought. The Turks replaced two-time champions, Germany, who missed out for the first time since 1962 and failed to qualify for the first time ever. Slovenia qualified for the third consecutive time for the first time. The lowest ranked team to qualify was Israel, ranked 17th, while Germany is the highest ranked team to not qualify, placed 10th. Summary of qualified teams ==Venue==

Similar to 2016, the Belgrade Arena will be used for the entire competition. Built in 2004, it is the biggest indoor arena in Serbia with a capacity of 18,386. Due to the pool having to be raised, the capacity was reduced to 12,500. ==Draw==

in Belgrade hosted the draw. The draw was held at 19:00 CET on 13 September 2025 at the Beli dvor in Belgrade, Serbia. Serbian journalist, Marija Kilibarda, was the host for the draw. Before the draw began, speeches were done by Serbian water polo federation president and local organising committee chair, Viktor Jelenić, and European Aquatics president, Antonio Silva. The guests were Serbian Olympic water polo players, Filip Filipović and Milan Aleksić, who assisted with the draw. 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). Seeding The pots were decided by the rankings of the 2024 European Championship and also of the 2026 Qualifiers. • Pot 1 consisted of the teams positioned 1–4 in the 2024 Men's European Water Polo Championship • Pot 2 consisted of the teams positioned 5–8 in the 2024 Men's European Water Polo Championship • Pot 3 consisted of the group winners of the 2026 Men's European Water Polo Championship Qualifiers • Pot 4 consisted of the group runners-up of the 2026 Men's European Water Polo Championship Qualifiers Draw results Schedule ==Referees==

On 24 November, the following 18 referees were selected for the tournament. The referees represent 18 countries, including the 16 participating teams alongside match officials from Germany and Portugal. • Andrej Franulović • Julien Bourges • Frank Ohme • Levan Berishvili • Georgios Stavridis • Tamás Kovács-Csatlós • Matan Schwartz • Raffaele Colombo • Alex De Raffaele • Veselin Mišković • Peter de Jong • Eurico Silva • Mihai Balanescu • Ivan Raković • Peter Radič • Boris Margeta • David Gómez • Erkan Turkkan ==Squads==

Each nation has to submit a list of 15 players. ==Preliminary round==

Tiebreakers Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 2 points for a penalty shootout win, 1 point for a penalty shootout loss, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings: • Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams; • Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams; • Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams; • Goal difference in all group matches; • Goals scored in all group matches. If the ranking of one of these teams is determined, the above criteria are consecutively followed until the ranking of all teams is determined. If no ranking can be determined, a drawing of lots will decide the outcome. All times are local (UTC+1). Group A ---- ---- Group B ---- ---- Group C ---- ---- Group D ---- ---- ==Classification round==

All points obtained in the preliminary round against teams that advance as well are carried over. Group E ---- ---- Group F ---- ---- ==Knockout stage==

Semifinals ---- Eleventh place game Ninth place game Seventh place game Fifth place game Third place game Final ==Final standings==

Best results Rankings table Qualification table Method of qualification All Star Team The all-star team was announced on 25 January 2026. ==Statistics==

Top goalscorers Top scoring teams Top assisting teams Top sprinting teams Discipline The following suspensions were served during the tournament: Player of the match For the first time, player of the match awards will be given during the knockout stage. A player of the match award is given to the player deemed as playing the best in each match. Notable statistics • Most goals in a game: 39 (Romania 20–19 Turkey, 13 January) • Least goals in a game: 17 (Italy 5–12 Greece, 25 January; Serbia 10–7 Hungary, 25 January) • Most goals by a team in a game: 28 (Spain 28–3 Israel, 10 January) • Least goals by a team in a game: 3 (Israel 3–28 Spain, 10 January) • Biggest goal difference in a game: 25 (Israel 3–28 Spain, 10 January) • Biggest half time deficit in a game: 12 (Israel 3–15 Spain, 10 January) • Most goals scored by a player in a game: 7 ( Lars ten Broek vs Turkey, 22 January) ==Controversies==

Schedule change The championship was originally slated for the summer of 2026. However, European Aquatics announced in March 2025 that this edition would actually take place in January 2026, in a timeslot that clashes significantly with the 2026 European Men's Handball Championship. Reportedly, sources close to the European Handball Federation stated that they were surprised with this decision as the European Men's Handball Championship has always been in January without any competition from other sports and now they might have fight for prime-time slots with water polo. French handball legend, Nikola Karabatić also said this about the situation: Maltese match-fixing scandal On 16 January 2026, players from Malta were accused of placing bets on their own games. Around four players are being suspected, with the match against Montenegro being investigated particularly. Speaking about the situation, Karl Izzo, president of the Aquatic Sports Association of Malta, said the following: On 1 April 2026, European Aquatics announced a full investigation regarding the incident. ==Broadcasting rights==

The television channels broadcasting the event is as follows: ==Notes==