The 2026 Men's European Water Polo Championship was the 37th edition of the biannual continental tournament in men's national water polo teams, organised by Europe's governing aquatics body, European Aquatics. The tournament took place from 10 to 25 January 2026. This edition marked the 100 year anniversary of the championships. This edition was the first one ever to have a 25 meter swimming pool, down from 30 meters.
The competition was held in Serbia's capital, Belgrade, for the third time. This was the second edition to have different hosts for both genders after European Aquatics made the change permanent in March 2025. This edition also witnessed a new format, introducing a second group stage as opposed to an extended knockout round.
16 teams took part for the sixth time. The top eight teams, including hosts Serbia, from the 2024 version qualified automatically, while the remaining eights teams progressed via qualification. Turkey qualified after a 6-year drought, while Germany failed to qualify on merit for the first time.
This tournament acted as a qualifier for the 2027 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest and 2028 European Championship.
Spain was the defending champions, beating Croatia, 11–10, in the final in Zagreb. However, they failed to defend their title after missing out on the semifinals. Host Serbia won their ninth title after beating Hungary 10–7 in the final. Greece managed to be on the podium for the first time after beating Italy in the bronze medal game with an score of 12–5. Greece and Malta achieved their best placements, finishing 3rd and 13th respectively.
Host selection Belgrade Belgrade was given the hosting rights on 13 May 2022. This will be Serbia's third time hosting after 2006 and 2016. Serbia had originally been given the women's event as well, but decided not to host it in order to focus on the men's championship.
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.
+EventDateLocationQuotasNation(s)Host13 May 2022 12024 European Championship4–16 January Croatia7Qualifiers 8–11 June 2025 Kranj2 Istanbul2 Tbilisi2 Gzira2
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.
BelgradeBelgrade ArenaCapacity: 12,500
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
+ Pot 1Team1234 + Pot 2Team56 (H)78 + Pot 3TeamABCD + Pot 4TeamABCD
Draw results + Group A TeamA1 A2 A3 A4 + Group B TeamB1 B2 B3 B4 + Group C TeamC1 C2 C3 (H)C4 + Group D TeamD1 D2 D3 D4
Schedule
ScheduleRoundMatchdayDateGroup stageMatchday 1 10–11 January 2026Matchday 2 12–13 January 2026Matchday 3 14–15 January 2026Classification roundMatchday 1 16 January 2026Matchday 2 17 January 2026Matchday 3 18 January 2026Main roundMatchday 4 16–17 January 2026Matchday 5 18–19 January 2026Matchday 6 20–21 January 20265–12 placement gamesAll games 22 January 2026Knockout stageSemi-finals 23 January 2026Final 25 January 2026
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
Main 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 Team 4th (1999, 2016) 3rd 14th (2022) 13th
Rankings table
Qualification table
Rank Team Qualification WC EC Q Q Q Q Q Q 4 Q 5 Q 6 Q 7 Q 8 Q 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
QQualified directly to a main tournament
Method of qualification Qualified for the phase indicated based on this tournament
2026 Men's European Water Polo Championship SerbiaNinth title
Team roster: Radoslav Filipović, Dušan Mandić, Strahinja Rašović, Sava Ranđelović, Miloš Ćuk, Đorđe Lazić, Radomir Drašović, Nikola Jakšić, Nemanja Vico, Nikola Dedović, Petar Jakšić, Viktor Rašović, Milan Glušac, Vasilije Martinović, Nikola Lukić.Head Coach: Uroš Stevanović
All Star Team The all-star team was announced on 25 January 2026. "After the final, the top seven players of the Championships were awarded, by the choice of a special jury. Those are: Stylianos Argyropoulos, Strahinja Rasovic, Konstantinos Kakaris, Krisztian Manhercz, Akos Nagy, Dusan Mandic, and goalkeeper Milan Glusac."
Position Player Goalkeeper Milan Glušac Field player Dušan Mandić Field player Strahinja Rašović Field player Krisztián Manhercz Field player Ádám Nagy Field player Stylianos Argyropoulos Field player Konstantinos Kakaris
Statistics
Top goalscorers +RankNameGoalsShots1 Stylianos Argyropoulos26 38 68 Thomas Vernoux 53 49 3 Vlad-Luca Georgescu 24 43 56 4 Steven Camilleri 22 45 495 Dušan Mandić20 35 57 Balsa Vučković 35 57 Kas te Riele 37 548 Dušan Matković19 32 59 Strahinja Rašović 37 51 Andrei-Radu-Ionuț Neamțu 38 50 Yuşa Han Düzenli 42 45
Top scoring teams +RankNameGoalsShots 1 131 273 48 2 116 286 40.6 3 113 270 41.9 4 112 274 45.3 5 109 240 45.4 6 106 241 44 7 101 241 41.9 8 96 248 38.7 9 90 203 44.3 10 89 208 42.8 11 86 228 37.7 1280 194 41.2 13 208 38.5 14 68 176 38.6 15 57 183 31.1 16 56 186 30.1
Top assisting teams +RankTeamAssists 1 602 583 574546 427 358 339 3210 2911 2812 2413 2014 1915 1616 8
Top sprinting teams +RankNameSprints 1 23/28 82.12 22/28 78.522/3268.7 5 18/32 56.2 6 16/32 50 7 15/28 53.5 8 12/28 42.8911/2839.211 10/24 41.610/2835.7 14 9/24 37.5 15 8/24 33.3 16 5/24 20.8
Discipline The following suspensions were served during the tournament:
Player Offence(s) Suspension(s) Dušan Mandić in Group C vs Spain (matchday 2; 12 January) Group C vs Israel (matchday 3; 14 January), Group E vs France (matchday 4; 16 January) Álvaro Granados in Group C vs Serbia (matchday 2; 12 January) Group C vs Netherlands (matchday 3; 14 January) Dinos Genidounias in Group B vs Croatia (matchday 3; 15 January) Group F vs Turkey (matchday 4; 17 January), Group F vs Italy (matchday 5; 19 January)
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.
Round Team Match Team Player Semifinals 17–13 Milan Glušac 12–15 Krisztián ManherczThird place game 5–12 Konstantinos KakarisFinal 10–7 Dušan Mandić
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)