The 2021 European Championships for both Men and Women is set to take place in Madrid, Spain between the 2 - 13 December 2021.
IWBF Europe have announced that they have awarded hosting rights of the Men's and Women's European Championships División A to Federación Española de Deportes de Personas con Discapacidad Física (FEDDF).
Twelve men’s teams and six women’s teams will take part in the event which is the qualification event for the 2022 Wheelchair Basketball World Championships set to take place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates next year.
In the men’s competition Great Britain, Spain, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Poland, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, and Israel will compete along with the teams who finish first and second in the Men’s European Championship Division B planned to take place later this summer in Greece.
The same teams from the Women’s 2019 Europeans - Netherlands, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, France, and Turkey - will again compete against each other for this year’s title.
Netherlands take on Spain at the 2019 Women's European Championship Photo credit - Eike Michler
The venues for the matches will be at the municipal sports centres of San Blas and Barajas, while the municipal complex of Moratalaz will be used as a training ground.
IWBF Europe would like to acknowledge the hard work FEDDF are putting in to organising the event. After originally planning to host solely the Men's Championship, the Spanish Federation took on the greater responsibility and achieved the bigger goal of hosting a combined event.
President of FEDDF, José Alberto Álvarez, said:
"To be able to host the joint celebration of the male and female Europeans in Madrid is enormously satisfying after both were held at different venues in the previous edition.
"The European Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF Europe) has highly valued the protocols that have been designed against COVID-19 enabling us to organise these championships."
The championships will be organised by FEDDF, IWBF Europe, and the Madrid City Council and has the collaboration of the Madrid Community, the Higher Sports Council, the ONCE Foundation, Caixabank, Plus Ultra Seguros, and Ilunion hotels.
Precautionary measures are being established by FEDDF and the Local Organising Committee, in collaboration with IWBF Europe, to ensure that the event will proceed with the health and safety of everyone participating the highest priority. The decision on whether spectators will be allowed to attend the games will be made at a later date based on the evolution of the Coronavirus pandemic and its restrictions.
