All Nine European Championship Fixtures And Their 2026 Tiers

Nine nations will contest the 2026 men’s European rugby league championships across Euro B, C and D, with nine matches scheduled from 3 to 31 October. Each tier has three teams, and each team plays its two opponents once. Euro B is staged centrally in Belgrade; in Euro C and Euro D, each team hosts one match and travels for the other. International Rugby League announced the schedule on 22 September.

Choose a tier to see its fixtures, announced venues and outstanding details.

Euro B, C And D Each Contain Three Teams

Tier	Teams	Match Dates
Euro B	Serbia, Ukraine, Netherlands	18–24 October
Euro C	Germany, Malta, Greece	3–17 October
Euro D	Norway, Italy, Czechia	17–31 October

These are competition tiers, not numerical world-ranking positions. A team’s placement in Euro B, C or D identifies the group in which it will play in this championship. It should not be substituted for that nation’s international ranking.

This is the second year of the current format. The 2026 groups reflect promotion for the previous year’s Euro C and Euro D winners, and relegation for the bottom teams in Euro B and Euro C. That explains the movement between groups used to form this edition, rather than establishing a permanent allocation of countries to tiers.

The European Rugby League announcement covers Euro B, Euro C and Euro D. It does not provide a Euro A schedule. The nine fixtures below are therefore the complete B, C and D schedule in that announcement, not evidence that an additional tier has been scheduled or cancelled.

All three groups use the same basic match count: three nations, three fixtures and two appearances per nation. Their hosting arrangements differ. Euro B brings all three teams to one city, while the Euro C and Euro D schedules distribute matches among the participating countries.

All Nine Fixtures Run From 3 To 31 October

All dates below are in 2026. The fixture list follows the 22 September official announcement. Venues and kick-off times are reproduced as announced; the source does not label the times with time zones.

Date	Tier	Fixture	Venue And Published Kick-Off
Sat 3 October	C	Germany v Malta	Sportsplatz Welper, Hattingen, Germany; 2pm
Sat 10 October	C	Malta v Greece	Hibernians Rugby Club, Valletta, Malta; 3pm
Sat 17 October	C	Greece v Germany	Elena Venizelou Stadium, Chania, Crete, Greece; 4pm
Sat 17 October	D	Norway v Italy	ØsterHus Arena, Sandnes, Norway; 2pm
Sun 18 October	B	Serbia v Ukraine	Belgrade, Serbia; stadium and kick-off to be confirmed
Wed 21 October	B	Ukraine v Netherlands	Belgrade, Serbia; stadium and kick-off to be confirmed
Sat 24 October	B	Serbia v Netherlands	Belgrade, Serbia; stadium and kick-off to be confirmed
Sat 24 October	D	Italy v Czechia	Abbiategrasso Rugby Club, Italy; 3pm
Sat 31 October	D	Czechia v Norway	Stadion HZS, Hradec Kralove, Czechia; 2pm

The championship opens with Germany v Malta and closes with Czechia v Norway. Euro C finishes on the day Euro D begins, while Euro B starts the following day. The tier windows overlap, so the calendar is not a sequence in which one entire competition finishes before the next starts.

There are two fixtures on 17 October and two on 24 October. The other five match dates each contain one fixture. For anyone following more than one tier, those two Saturdays are the dates with multiple scheduled games.

Ukraine v Netherlands on Wednesday 21 October is the only midweek fixture. All other matches are scheduled for Saturdays except Serbia v Ukraine, which is on Sunday 18 October. That Sunday match opens the centrally hosted Euro B programme.

Euro C Plays On Three Consecutive Saturdays

Euro C has the earliest start and the earliest finish, with fixtures on 3, 10 and 17 October. Germany, Malta and Greece each have one home match and one away match. The first-listed nation is the host country in all three Euro C fixtures.

Germany opens at Sportsplatz Welper in Hattingen against Malta on 3 October, with a published kick-off of 2pm. Germany’s second appearance is the final Euro C fixture, away to Greece in Chania on 17 October. Germany therefore plays on the first and last dates of the group, rather than in its middle fixture.

Malta travels to Germany for the opener, then hosts Greece on 10 October. The announced venue for that home match is Hibernians Rugby Club in Valletta, with a published kick-off of 3pm. Malta completes its two-match programme before the final Greece v Germany fixture.

Greece begins away to Malta on 10 October and finishes at home against Germany on 17 October. Its announced home venue is Elena Venizelou Stadium in Chania, Crete, with a published kick-off of 4pm. The venue is in Chania, not a general or unconfirmed location elsewhere in Greece.

The schedule contains one meeting for each pairing: Germany–Malta, Malta–Greece and Greece–Germany. There are no reverse fixtures listed. A home-and-away interpretation would double the number of games and would not match the published three-match programme.

Euro B Holds Every Match In Belgrade

Euro B brings Serbia, Ukraine and Netherlands together in Belgrade from 18 to 24 October. Serbia is hosting all three matches to ease Ukraine’s travel logistics while Ukraine cannot stage home games. This is the specific reason given for the central arrangement; it is not the hosting model used by Euro C or Euro D.

Serbia faces Ukraine on Sunday 18 October and Netherlands on Saturday 24 October. Ukraine’s other match is against Netherlands on Wednesday 21 October. Netherlands enters the fixture programme on that Wednesday and plays Serbia on the final Saturday.

Ukraine v Netherlands is also in Belgrade. Although Ukraine is listed first, the fixture is not scheduled in Ukraine. In this tier, the order of team names cannot be used to determine the country where a match takes place.

The city is announced, but the stadiums and kick-off times remained to be confirmed in the 22 September announcement. A Belgrade listing should therefore be read as a confirmed host city with an outstanding ground allocation, not as a complete venue entry.

The missing kick-offs also prevent a reliable time-based comparison with Italy v Czechia on 24 October. Both fixtures are scheduled for that Saturday, but only the Euro D match has a published time. There is no announced Euro B time to convert or use when assessing whether the matches overlap.

Euro B is the most compressed of the three programmes: all its fixtures fall within one week. That is a calendar distinction, not evidence of a different number of matches or a different points system. Each of its teams still has the same two scheduled appearances as the nations in Euro C and Euro D.

Euro D Runs From Norway To Italy To Czechia

Euro D starts on 17 October, the same day Euro C ends, and continues on 24 and 31 October. Norway, Italy and Czechia each host once and travel once. As in Euro C, the first-listed team is the host country for each announced fixture.

Norway opens at ØsterHus Arena in Sandnes against Italy on 17 October, with a published kick-off of 2pm. Its second match is away to Czechia on 31 October. Norway appears on the opening and closing dates of the tier, with Italy v Czechia between them.

Italy follows its trip to Norway by hosting Czechia on 24 October. Abbiategrasso Rugby Club is the announced venue, and 3pm is the published kick-off. Italy’s two fixtures are therefore the first two games of the Euro D programme.

Czechia starts away to Italy on 24 October, then hosts Norway at Stadion HZS in Hradec Kralove on 31 October. The published kick-off for the closing fixture is 2pm. That game is also the last of the nine matches across the three announced tiers.

The three Euro D pairings are Norway–Italy, Italy–Czechia and Czechia–Norway. As with Euro C, the weekly sequence produces two appearances for each team without a return meeting against either opponent. The venues rotate between countries rather than concentrating the group at one site.

Published Kick-Offs Have No Time-Zone Labels

Six matches have published kick-off times: all three Euro C fixtures and all three Euro D fixtures. None of the three Euro B matches has an announced kick-off in the source used here. Those missing values are unknown, not afternoon defaults or estimates.

The six published times are shown exactly as announced. Because the announcement does not attach time-zone labels, this schedule does not convert them into UK time, UTC or a reader’s local time. A converted time would require a confirmed interpretation that the announcement itself does not supply.

For venue planning, the distinction is equally specific. Euro C and Euro D have named grounds. Euro B has a named city but no confirmed stadiums in the announcement. The missing Euro B details should not be extended to the other tiers, whose venue entries are already provided.

The source schedule also does not supply scores: these are scheduled fixtures, not completed results. Until matches have been played and results reported, the calendar supports a record of opponents, dates and announced locations, not a standings table or a scoring comparison.

Two Ranking Games Do Not Mean A Home-And-Away Series

ERL chair Dean Andrew describes the framework as guaranteeing participating members at least two world-ranking games each year. For this 2026 championship schedule, that means two scheduled appearances per nation: one against each of the other teams in its tier.

Across the nine nations, those appearances make up nine matches because each fixture accounts for two teams. The format does not give a country two games against every opponent. Nor does Euro B’s central hosting alter the number of ranking-game appearances listed for its participants.

The federation says it will consult members after this competition about 2027 and beyond. Promotion and relegation were used to form the 2026 groups, but that does not confirm the next cycle’s rules, destinations or fixtures.

The firm record for this edition is the nine-match October schedule, the three announced tier line-ups and their hosting arrangements. Euro A fixtures, the next competition cycle and the outstanding Euro B stadiums and kick-offs are not established by this announcement.