The 2026 Women's European Water Polo Championship was the 21st edition of the biannual continental championship for women's national water polo teams, organised by Europe's governing aquatics body, European Aquatics. The tournament was played from 26 January to 5 February 2026.
The competition was intended to be held in Serbia's capital Belgrade, alongside the men's championship.[1][2] However, the Serbs would later relinquish the hosting rights for the women's event. On 4 July 2025, Portugal was awarded the hosting rights for the first time with Madeira's capital, Funchal, being selected as the host city.[2][3][4][5] This was the second edition to have different hosts for both genders after European Aquatics made the change permanent in March 2025.[2] This edition also witnessed a new format, introducing a second group stage as opposed to an extended knockout round.
For the second time, 16 teams were participating in the tournament, following the expansion in 2024. The top eight teams from the 2024 edition qualified automatically, while the remaining eight teams progressed via qualification. Future hosts, Portugal, and Switzerland qualified after a 10 and 31 year drought respectively.
Netherlands were the defending champions, beating Spain, 8–7, in the final in Eindhoven. They defended their title with a 15–13 penalty shootout win over Hungary.[6]Croatia achieved their best result, placing 6th.
Belgrade was given the hosting rights in May 2022.[1] This would've been Serbia's third time hosting after 2006 and 2016.
Hosting change
At a press conference in Valletta, Malta, held in June 2024, it was briefly mentioned that the bidding process had reopened for this competition, but no official statement was made at that time. It would later become official as in March 2025, it was confirmed that the men's event will be held in Belgrade but the venue for the women's tournament would be changed due to Serbia requesting that they only host the men's event.[2][7]
After that announcement, Italy[8] and Tenerife, Spain[9][10] were touted as potential hosts, but on 4 July 2025, Portugal was given the hosting rights with Funchal as the venue.[3][4][5] This is Portugal's first time hosting the event and first time the country hosted a senior women's championship in any sport. Miguel Arrobas, President of the Portuguese Swimming Federation said the following:
"For the FPN and for Portugal, the organization of this Women's Senior European Championship is very important. It will be the first time that Portugal hosts a women's senior event in team sports. In sporting terms, this is also a commitment by the FPN to the growth of water polo and, in this case, in particular, to the women's category with this participation and organization."
Preparations
On 28 September 2025, a dedicated website went live.[11]
On 8 October, an information bulletin became available.[12]
A new system was used for this tournament. The new format was unveiled in March 2025. This was the third different format in three editions.[15]
Group stage
The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. In each group, there were two teams from the last tournament and two teams from the qualifiers. They played a round-robin in their groups. The top two teams of each group advanced to the main round (Group A & Group C formed Group E and Group B & Group D formed Group F) with all results against the teams that advanced aswell carried over. The bottom two teams were dropped to the classification round, which was played in a similar style to the main round.
Second group stage
In the main round, the teams played against opponents from the other first-round group. From this round, the top-two ranked teams of each group advanced to the semifinals; the other teams were dropped to the 5th–8th place semifinals.
In the classification round, the teams played against opponents from the other first-round group. Then each team played one classification game for the final position.
Knockout stage
The four remaining teams progressed to the knockout stage, where two semifinals and a final determined the European champions.
Of the sixteen teams who qualified, fourteen took part in the previous edition. Switzerland returned for the first time since 1995 and did so on merit for the first time.[16][17]Portugal comes back for the first time since 2016.[18][19]
Of the absentees, Czechia failed to qualify after appearing in 2024, while 2024 debutants, Bulgaria, didn't enter qualification.
The lowest ranked team to qualify was future hosts Portugal, ranked 20th, while Ukraine is the highest ranked team to not qualify, placed 15th.
The draw was held at 11:30 WET on 2 October 2025 in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal.[23][24][25] Before the draw began, speeches were done by Eduardo Jesus, Regional Secretary of Tourism and Culture, Miguel Arrobas, President of the Portuguese Swimming Federation, and European Aquatics president, Antonio Silva. The guests were seven-time Olympic windsurfer, João Rodrigues and Masters Swimming Champion, Susana Gomes, 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).
On 24 November 2025, the following 18 referees were selected for the tournament.[27][28] The referees represent 18 countries, including the 16 participating teams alongside match officials from Malta and Ukraine.
Map of final standings for the 2026 Women's European Water Polo Championship:
Winner
Runner-up
Third place
Fourth place
Main round
Classification round
The match schedule was released on 12 November 2025.[29]
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.
For the first time, player of the match awards will be given during the knockout stage.[34] A player of the match award is given to the player deemed as playing the best in each match.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Netherlands (7th title)
Hungary 
Greece 
Italy 
Beatriz Ortiz (25 goals)
Mariia Dvorzhetska (49 saves)
