European Universities Games
Salerno 2026
July 18 - August 1

EUG 2026: First whistle for Football

Credits: Official Team Photo Ag.Pica – EUG Salerno 2026

Another exciting chapter kicked off at EUG 2026, with the Football tournament officially starting across different venues.

The day was intense both on and off the field: General Technical Meetings were held for the upcoming Badminton, Tennis and Handball competitions, providing key organisational and technical information.

The Football tournament officially got underway with the opening matches of the group stage, bringing together universities from across Europe in pursuit of the EUG 2026 titles.

credits: Official team photo Ag.PICA – EUG Salerno 2026

A total of eight men’s matches and four women’s matches were played, marking the beginning of the group stage. The opening day offered a glimpse of the quality and competitiveness expected throughout the tournament, with teams ready to play high-level and fast-paced matches. Over the coming days, the group stage will continue as universities battle for qualification to the knockout rounds, where the race for the medals will intensify.

credits: Official team photo Ag.PICA – EUG Salerno 2026

Alongside the action on the football pitches, three General Technical Meetings (GTMs) took place ahead of the start of the Badminton, Tennis and Handball competitions.

Bringing together representatives of the participating universities, EUSA officials and members of the Local Organising Committee, the meetings provided an important opportunity to review all organisational and technical aspects of the competitions. All the teams received information about the competition regulations, updates on EUSA, and were also briefed on the EUSA and Safeguarding and Incident policy. Each session concluded with the official competition draws, determining the groups and match schedules for all participating teams.

EUSA Competition Chair of the Badminton tournament and EUSA EC Member, Julia Zlatkova, welcomed representatives of 20 universities to the Badminton GTM, before leaving the floor to EUSA Technical Delegate Jozef Kuprivec for the technical details. With the draw completed, the participating athletes are now ready to begin their quest for the European Universities Games titles.

The Tennis General Technical Meeting was opened by EUSA Tennis Competition Chair and EC Member Bill Thompson, who welcomed representatives from the 32 universities competing in the tournament. Following the technical briefing, led by EUSA Technical Delegate Tomas Pavlovsky, the official draw took place. The competition schedule is now confirmed, setting the stage for several days of high-level university Tennis.

EUSA Technical Delegate, Urmo Sitsi, and EUSA Assistant Technical Delegate, Paivi Mitrunen, went through technical details, ensuring that all 23 competing teams were fully informed ahead of the opening matches, completing the final preparations for another exciting competition at EUG 2026.

With Football now underway and three more sports ready to begin, the European Universities Games 2026 continue to bring together Europe’s student-athletes for more days of competition and friendship.