Exciting clashes await after 2026 Women’s European Water Polo Championships draw

The draw for the 2026 Women’s European Water Polo Championship was held on Thursday on the beautiful island of Madeira, in Funchal, where the tournament will be staged from 26 January to 5 February.

For the first time ever, a separate draw ceremony was held for the women’s tournament. The championships will be staged as a stand-alone event for the third time, but while in 1985 a round-robin tournament was played at the inaugural meet in Oslo, so no draw was needed, back in 2024 the draw was held alongside the men’s draw as usual, but then it turned out the tournaments had to be organised in different countries.

From 2026, similarly to other team sports, the men’s and women’s continental showcases have become different events, and the draws visited the eventual hosts, Belgrade and Funchal.

After welcome speeches by Eduardo Jesus, Regional Secretary of Tourism and Culture, Miguel Arrobas, President of the Portuguese Swimming Federation, and European Aquatics President Antonio Silva, the draw process started, featuring seven-time Olympian windsurfer Joao Rodrigues, Masters Swimming Champion Susana Gomes, and EA TWPC Secretary Matjaz Rakovec.

Fittingly, the freshly-crowned world champions, Greece, were picked first, alongside with the seeding number 1. Since the women’s meet features five overwhelming favourites, as usual, all eyes were on Batch 2, where Hungary were drawn to one of the four groups, each having one big team from the first batch.

It was Group B where the Magyars landed, next to Spain. And thanks to the seedings, their grand clash will be the absolute highlight right away of the opening day – kind of rematch of their memorable semi-final from the World Championships in Singapore, where the Hungarians smashed their arch-rivals for the first time at a major since 2012.

According to the new playing format, the top two seeded from each group shall advance to the following stage, where they will form two groups of four (A&C, B&D), and after the conclusion of this round robin, the first and the second-placed teams will carry on to play in the semis (quarter-finals omitted, just like in the men’s event, but the second round will have eight teams, not twelve).

This also means that while Greece and Italy’s path to the semis seems to be a bit easier, in the BD-bracket, one of the three giants, Olympic champions Spain, World Championships silver-medallists Hungary and European title-holders Netherlands, will miss the top flight.

As for the other groups, the good old duel of France and Germany for the second qualifying spot behind Greece should be the top story in Group A.

Croatia and Serbia were drawn together in Group C, in the company of Italy and Türkiye, and that clash is just as exciting as it is at any time.

In Group D, Great Britain should challenge Israel – just like in the U18 Europeans a couple of weeks ago – to advance to the top eight behind the Netherlands.

The women’s Europeans kick off on 26 January and the medals will be presented after the finals on 5 February.

2026 Women’s European Water Polo Championships – Draw

Group A: Greece, France, Slovakia, Germany
Group B: Hungary, Romania, Spain, Portugal
Group C: Italy, Serbia, Croatia, Türkiye
Group D: Netherlands, Switzerland, Great Britain, Israel

Stay tuned to the European Aquatics Water Polo social media accounts for more news and live updates on Facebook and Instagram

Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics

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