In Belgrade and with a new system of the European Pole of 2026

Significant changes to European water polo championship EUROPEAN AQUATICS announced, which at the same time announced that the men will be organized in 2026 at Belgradewhile the one of women in a place that will become known shortly.

The European Athletics Federation has decided to separate men and women eventssomething that happened in 2024 by necessity, as it was not possible to accommodate the Games in Nettia, Israel (due to the struggle in the Middle East) and the tournaments were assigned to Croatia and the Netherlands for men and women, respectively. Another major change concerns the era of the European Championship, which is being transferred in January (10-25/1 the Belgrade event), which has been happening so far only in the Olympic years.

The most important change, however Format of the event. Both in men and women, the 16 participating teams will be divided into four groups, each one of which will be drawn two teams from the first eighty of the previous European Championship (which qualify directly) and two teams resulting from the qualifiers. To menthe first three of each group will move on to the next phase, where two new groups of the six teams are formed (1st with the 3rd group and the 2nd with the 4th), transferring all the points they gained in the first phase. From the second phase groups will come out the four semifinals (the first two from each group), which means that the – usually very critical and ambiguous – quarter -finals are abolished. The other teams to compete in Phase II will give rankings for 5-12 positions, while the last of the first phase groups will play for the 13-16 group in groups (all against all).

To womenafter the first phase, the first two from each group qualify and create two new groups of the four, conveying their score. After playing two more games (with opponents who did not face the first phase), the semifinals and the four will claim the positions 5-8. Similarly, two groups will be created in 9-16 positions and will compete in the same way.

Greece has secured its presence in both events, as the Men’s National was Thursday in 2022 in Zagreb and the Women’s Tuesday National in Eindhoven. Overall, the ticket to the European Belgrade has been secured by Spain, Croatia, Italy, Hungary, Greece, Montenegro, Serbia and Romania, while in the women’s tournament the Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Italy, Hungary, France, France, France, France.

Belgrade will host the European Water Tennis Championship for the third time, after 2006 and 2016 (when the tournaments were made in both men and women in the Serbian capital). The games are expected to be held again in the Beyograka Arena, where a record was set in 2016, with 18,000 spectators watching the “Plavi” victory over Montenegro in the final.