European Aquatics unveils plans for 2025/26 water polo season

European Aquatics leaders met club and National Federation representatives on Saturday in Malta to discuss the challenges water polo may face and also shared the results European Aquatics and its stakeholders had achieved in the past year. Details for the reshaped club competition system as well as the key dates for the upcoming season were also revealed.

It’s a tradition for years that on the occasion of the pinnacle of the club competition season, the Champions League Final Four, the stakeholders of European water polo come together to discuss the challenges and the proposed changes in the regulations, as well as to evaluate the results achieved.

In his welcoming speech, President Antonio Silva underlined the efforts European Aquatics have done recently to fulfil the goals set out in European Aquatics’ strategic plans.

Promoting all aquatic disciplines, as well as making them accessible for all, and also making European Aquatics fit for the future and running a transparent European Aquatics – and under good governance – are the most important tasks.

As President Silva put it, “We’ve made significant progress to fulfil these goals, but we have more to do in order to reach the 100% mark.”

Water polo has played an important part of this strategic plan and got a significant boost in several areas. New competitions and adjusted regulations helped the promotion of the sport and to be able to sell it as valuable TV product.

Accessibility has also enjoyed a significant jump with a unified age-group competition system (harmonised with World Aquatics), allocating the events to reliable hosts which triggered record numbers of participation at the U16-U18 European Championships.

Keeping up with the current era’s requirements, all water polo matches have been made available on EA’s new live streaming website and a new monthly TV Show, the Water Polo World Magazine, has also been launched.

At the same time, former stars of the sport, Italy’s Roberta Bianconi and Hungary’s Denes Varga were chosen as ambassadors for the top two events – the Champions League Final Four tournaments.

The coming years will also see a great deal of innovations, including a water polo Development Camp, new TV rights and sponsorship deals. The competition system will further be adjusted, while the level of officiating will also be improved.

Intermediate and Advanced Certification Clinics have already been held involving hundreds of referees and delegates and this academy system shall be maintained as Technical Officials Manager Dejan Perisic announced at the meeting.

Evaluating the current season, EA Vice President Kyriakos Giannopoulos shared that more than 280 matches were played across the EA competitions.

The Vice President thanked all the clubs for their commitment in these financially demanding times. At the same time, he underlined that, “Particular emphasis is needed on improving TV production, streaming quality, and the overall visibility and professionalism of our presence on social media platforms.”

The women’s game also evolved, with 47 clubs from 16 nations taking part in the respective series, and the 194 matches played showed significant progress, EA Bureau Liaison Fernando Carpena said.

TWPC Secretary Matjaz Rakovec shared the details of the reshaped competition system for the 2025-2026 season, with EA aiming to ensure an even more balanced playing field, while launching a fourth club event, the Conference Cup.

The entries from the top nations in the men’s Champions League have been cut to two teams per country (nations at the top of the EA ranks could enter three teams in previous years), and the number of qualification spots in the Group Stage has been raised to six from four (only Novi Beograd could alter that if they beat FTC on Sunday as the Champions League winners shall have a wild card).

Based on the EA rankings, the top 10 nations can enter two teams (the champions will have the wild card), while the 11th and 12th countries can send their champions to the battlefield. The Euro Cup winners will also have a place in the Champions League (in case the team doesn’t win their league title).

Teams ranked 3-4th in the top 10 national championships can enter the Euro Cup, and the 5-6th placed sides can play in the Conference Cup, alongside teams from lower-ranked nations. The Challenger Cup remains the territory for clubs representing countries placed 13th or lower in the EA rankings.

With the men’s Europeans Championships scheduled for 10-25 January 2026 in Belgrade, Serbia, the end of the club season is set for mid-June – which is good news for fans around Europe, as many could enjoy some outdoor games under the sun.

The women’s competition will see fewer changes – and next season’s schedule will be finalised once the dates and venue for the women’s standalone European Championships are announced.

EA WP Director Renato Zivkovic outlined what clubs are required to do for even better promotion of the sport. He said, “Having expert specialists in key areas such as media, television, and marketing are essential, and we also need to take a huge step forward in event organisation to respect TV schedules and to prioritise the optimal promotion of the events.”

EA Bureau Liaison Milos Mracevic talked about the developments in national competitions. Having 89 national teams aboard across all age-group Europeans this season is a tremendous feat.

Milos also mentioned that the host nation for the 2026 women Europeans will be revealed soon and the bidding process for the 2028 editions are set to kick off soon.

A pilot project will also start shortly, the EA Development Camp, which “Aims to provide opportunities for less developed countries to grow and improve in water polo” Mr Mracevic said.

EA TV Manager Toni Zivkovic and Marketing Director Kirill Goncharov shared a couple of encouraging numbers in broadcasting, however, many clubs need to devote more attention to venue branding.

To support, EA will issue new branding guidelines which will recognise the very different possibilities in the respective venues. The expected exposure split shall favour the clubs in 70-30 ratio.

EA Communication Director Nick Davies revealed a series of outstanding numbers the EA social media platforms produced in the ongoing season, like 4.6 million views and the Champions League drew 355,000 organic views on EA’s Youtube and TikTok channels.

“The number of viewers outside Europe is constantly on the rise, coming from the US, Australia, Mexico and Brazil, showing that the Champions League has become a global power in water polo,” said Mr Davies.

In association with EPAM, EA is also developing a next generation digital asset management platform, which will serve as a cross-collaboration engine between aquatics organisations for preprocessing and sharing digital assets, like photos, videos and more.

Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics

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