IQA confirms European Games 2026 in Salou, Spain

The International Quadball Association has locked European Games 2026 into Salou, Spain, placing the continent’s top national-team tournament at the Mediterranean Sport Village on Oct. 3-4. The move gives Europe a clearer competitive schedule, with the European Games set on the opposite year from the IQA World Cup and built around national and regional teams that fit the sport’s travel realities.

That structure matters because the IQA is treating 2026 as a full international cycle rather than a cluster of isolated events. The federation says the year will include Pan-American Games in Amecameca, Mexico, on Aug. 22-23, Oceania-Asian Games in Seven Hills, Australia, on Sept. 26-27, and then European Games in Salou a week later. For Europe, the timing places continental play inside a larger calendar that links domestic competition, regional championships and the World Cup more deliberately than before.

European Games 2026 will be the seventh edition of the event. The IQA’s continental-games page lists previous hosts in Sarteano, Italy, in 2015, Oslo, Norway, in 2017, Bamberg, Germany, in 2019, Limerick, Ireland, in 2022 and London, UK, in 2024. London’s edition took place at King’s House Sports Grounds on July 27-28, 2024, while Limerick’s 2022 tournament was the first IQA event in Europe since 2019 and drew 20 national teams from across the continent, including France, Italy, Germany and Sweden.

Salou’s selection also ties the European Games to the Quadball Nations Cup, a pairing the IQA said made sense because of the venue’s established facilities, logistical advantages and existing tournament structure. The federation said Daniel Edward Price Croft, the Quadball Nations Cup tournament director, led the bid, working with the Associació de Quadbol de Catalunya and the Asociación Quádbol España. The IQA membership list already recognizes the Associació de Quadbol de Catalunya as Catalonia’s full-member organization, while board minutes identify Price Croft as president of the Altafulla Quadball Association, the group expected to host alongside the IQA and the Nations Cup.

The result is a cleaner roadmap for national teams and federations planning the next two years. Europe’s clubs still have the European Quadball Cup for club competition, but the European Games now sit more firmly in the national-team lane, with regional representation, travel planning and roster-building aligned to one host and one weekend. In practical terms, Salou becomes more than a venue. It becomes the center of Europe’s 2026 quadball pathway.