Qualification tournaments draw European Water Polo Championships Belgrade 2016

With the draw of the first of two rounds of qualification tournaments for the 2016 European Championships held Friday, the road to 'Belgrade 2016' became visible for most of the participants after the draw as performed in Barcelona on the occasion of the 2014 European Supercup matches, to be played later that day. Both the men's and women's teams will play 2 round robin tournaments at different venues with a new draw to be held after this round 1. With the points achieved carried to round 2 the eventual top 2 sides of the cumulative rankings from each groups (8 teams total for the men, best 3 of 2 groups = 6 total for women) will make it to the final 2016 European Championships tournament, to be held early 2016 in Serbia's capital. The chances to reach the big stage is definitely better as for the first time the field of the European Championships will feature 16 teams among men and 12 among the women. Major absentees were the national teams of Great Britain whos financial difficulties held their senior national sides out of contention and, for the women, a possible second straight appearance at the major European stage. The tournament matches in round 1 are scheduled to take place early February with more details to be announced later.

MEN

Round I - to be played 6-8 February 2015

Group A (to be played in Georgia)
Georgia
Slovakia
Portugal
Switzerland

Group B (to be played in Poland)
Russia
Ukraine
Israel
Poland

Group C (to be played in the Netherlands)
France
Malta
Netherlands

Group D (to be played in Turkey)
Germany
Turkey
Belarus
Lithuania

Hosts in Round II (9-11 October, 2015): Russia, Israel, France, Malta.

Playing format:
• Two rounds of robin tournaments at different venues.
• New draw will be conducted after Round I, with new seeding based on the classification in Round I. Points achieved are carried to Round II. Teams of a group of three will have three points added.
• First two seeded sides of the cumulative rankings from each group (8 teams) will promote to the European Championships to be held in Belgrade (SRB) in 2016.

Women

Group A (to be played in France)
France
Portugal
Ukraine
Switzerland
Turkey

Group B (to be played in Croatia)
Greece
Germany
Israel
Croatia

Hosts in Round II (9-11 October, 2015): Germany, Portugal.

Playing format:
• Two rounds of robin tournaments at different venues.
• New draw will be conducted after Round I, with new seeding based on the classification in Round I. Points achieved are carried to Round II.
• First three seeded sides of the cumulative rankings from both groups (6 teams) will promote to the European Championships to be held in Belgrade (SRB) in 2016.