THE 2025 Men’s European Championships are being hailed as a success.

The Euros operated on a multi-tiered basis and concluded on the first weekend of November with champions confirmed in each of the three designated groups.

Serbia topped Euro B, ahead of Netherlands and Malta, and Ukraine closed in pole position in Euro C, seeing off challenges from Greece and Italy.

Germany, meanwhile, were Group D champions, beating both Norway and Czechia.

Ukraine and Germany have therefore been promoted to, respectively, Euro B and Euro C for the 2026 campaign; Malta have been relegated to Euro C, and Italy to Euro D.

Dean Andrew, the chair of the European Rugby League, said: “We’ve seen nine fantastic games take place across the whole competition, which was relaunched after feedback from the membership and designed and delivered as those members requested.

“The nine teams involved were guaranteed two competitive fixtures and, because we have agreed a multi-year format, we can already start planning for the next one which helps our members enormously.”

Teams had been allocated to 2025’s groups based on IRL World Ranking positions at the end of 2024. However, groups in 2026 are determined by on-field results.

The European Championships have, since the beginning of this century, been the most frequently competed international tournaments, and discussions are continuing to integrate more nations into the framework from 2027.

Andrew said: “We will shortly arrange a review meeting with the competing nations to understand their experiences and look at any improvements that can be made as we move towards 2026, but the intention is to confirm the fixture format and dates as soon as possible, to allow teams to begin their preparations and secure travel bookings.”

He concluded: “I offer my thanks to all of the competing teams, their staff and volunteers and the match officials who travelled across Europe to get this first year of a new dawn under way, and I look forward to discussing plans with them all shortly.”