European Water Polo Championship 2024 is set to be in January with co-hosts Croatia and the Netherlands

The venue and dates of the 35th European Water Polo Championship have already been announced: January 2024 will see the women’s competition held in the Netherlands and the men’s competition held in Croatia. The Royal Dutch Swimming Federation and the Croatian Water Polo Federation will organize the continental competition.

The 2024 European Water Polo Championships will take place in January, with two locations serving as co-hosts, according to a statement from European Aquatics.

The women’s competition will take place in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, from January 5–13, while the men’s competition will take place in the Croatian cities of Dubrovnik and Zagreb from January 4–16.

The event was moved from Netanya, Israel, by European Aquatics due to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.

The rescheduling of the event will enable participating countries to continue their quest for qualification to the 2024 Olympics in Paris and the 2024 World Championships in Doha.

The men’s competitions are slated to take place in the cities of Dubrovnik and Zagreb from January 4 to January 16. Meanwhile, the best women’s water polo in Europe will be held in Eindhoven from January 5 to January 13. The European event is especially important because, in addition to medals and the continental title, spots for the 2024 Paris Olympics and the Doha World Championship are also up for grabs.

President Antonio Silva explained the decision to hold the event in early January 2024. “We were forced to postpone the European Championship in Netanya due to terrorist attacks against the Israeli people. In the interest of the athletes, I am pleased that we have been able to secure two excellent hosts, and I want to thank our federations in Croatia and the Netherlands for doing everything possible to make these championships happen.”

The Vice President, Josip Vardovic, also expressed gratitude to Croatia and the Netherlands for their cooperation. “I also want to strongly thank the political authorities in both nations who stepped up to provide the necessary support and resources in very little time,” Vardovic observed that all authorities were prepared to guarantee extremely high standards of professionalism and that this competition could take place promptly.

“I would like to thank the Prime Minister of Croatia, Mr. Andrej Plenkovic, for helping to guarantee enough resources for the use of two venues, just one year after Croatia organized the last edition of the European Championships, both for men and women, in Split.” He did not forget the effort made by the Royal Dutch Swimming Federation “to obtain the support of local and national political authorities to ensure the hosting of this event.”

Finally, Vardovic made the following wish, which he publicly stated: “Now we can look forward to great promotion of water polo in the Netherlands and Croatia.”

This was not the first time an event had been moved from Israel since Hamas’s attacks on October 7. World Aquatics had moved a major open water race scheduled for December from Israel to Portugal last month, just after hostilities broke out.

The “political situation in Europe” has also caused delays in the planning of the 2024 European Aquatics Championships, according to European Aquatics. However, they did not clarify if this was because of plans in Israel, Ukraine, both, or some other location.