Cycle-ball Worlds 2026 in Ludwigsburg: every nation, group and player
The field for the 2026 cycle-ball World Championships in Ludwigsburg is set. According to the competition format the UCI published on 11 October, 14 nations will play at the MHPArena: eight in the men's Elite League, six in the Challenger League and three teams in the women's event. The Elite League is split into two groups of four. Group A brings together Germany, France, Japan and Belgium, while Group B has Austria, Switzerland, Czechia and Hungary. Belgium is the newcomer: it won the 2025 Challenger League and then beat Slovakia 3:2 in the relegation match. Slovakia therefore drops into the Challenger League, in Group A with Hong Kong and Great Britain, while Armenia, Italy and Malaysia make up Group B. In the women's event Germany, Switzerland and Japan are entered; Czechia, fourth in 2025, is missing. The UCI had announced preliminary entry lists for 14 October, but they were still not online on 15 October, so the player names below come from the national federations' nominations and from reports on the qualifying events.
Hosts Germany will be without their world champions. Raphael Kopp and Bernd Mlady, who won the title in 2024 and 2025, ended their international career after the World Cup final in Hofen on 6 December 2025, the UCI reported. On 12 October German Cycling named Michael Birkner and Robert Mlady of RMC Stein for the men's event, with Jannes Müller and Simon Becker of RV Gärtringen as reserves. Birkner and Mlady won the most recent World Cup round in Elzach, beating France's Mathias and Quentin Seyfried 5:0 in the final. In the women's event, Judith Wolf and Danielle Holzer of SG Hofen/Prechtal defend their title. They were world champions in 2024 and 2025 and beat Switzerland's Sava Baumann and Chiara Dotoli 6:1 in the Göppingen final; in Elzach they won again, 4:1 against Winterthur in the final. In the group stage the German men face France, Japan and Belgium, and their match against France is the fourth game of the tournament.
In Group B, Austria, runners-up in 2025, meet Switzerland as early as game three. Cycling Austria is sending Patrick Schnetzer and Markus Bröll of RV Dornbirn, who won six world titles together between 2013 and 2019. Schnetzer's partner of recent seasons, Stefan Feurstein, is injured; according to vol.at, Schnetzer and Bröll have already taken European gold together in Amorbach this year. They secured the World Championship place as Austrian champions by winning the final tournament in Koblach in early October. Pascal Fontain and Patrick Köck, also of RV Dornbirn, are the reserves. Switzerland will be represented by Timon and Yannick Fröhlich from Altdorf, according to the Urner Wochenblatt and the Urner Zeitung: the brothers won the Swiss title in Altdorf on 3 October, which also earned them the trip to Ludwigsburg. They took silver at the 2023 Worlds and bronze in 2025. By mid-October no official Swiss delegation list had been published, including for the women. The 2026 Swiss women's champions are Sava Baumann and Chiara Dotoli of RC Winterthur, world silver medallists in 2024 and 2025.
France named its team on 5 October: brothers Mathias and Quentin Seyfried of VCE Dorlisheim, with Thomas Leclerc and David Luck from the same club as reserves and Luc Doell as coach. The Seyfrieds finished fourth at the 2025 Worlds, and Quentin Seyfried already won bronze in Johor Bahru in 2015. Czechia will be represented by Jiří Hrdlička st. and Jan Kripner of SC Svitávka, the Czech Cycling Federation reports. They won the final of the Czech championship in Zlín 5:4 on 26 September, having already secured the nomination by reaching that final. Hrdlička was world champion in 2003 and 2008, while this will be Kripner's first World Championships. Japan has not yet officially named its teams. The Japanese championship, which also served as the selection event, was won on 30 August by Yusuke Murakami and Noboru Tokuhiro (RSV Kobe 1) and, in the women's event, by Nana Yamashita and Kana Murabayashi (KNV). Murabayashi took world silver in 2023, Yamashita bronze in 2025.
Hungary and Belgium have not published any names yet. Hungary finished seventh in 2025 with Vilmos Toma and Tamás Árendás, the country's best World Championship result so far according to the Hungarian federation. Belgium earned promotion with Koen Uitterhaegen and Robby Gubbelmans. The Challenger League offers a route into the 2027 Elite League: its winner plays the loser of the match between the two last-placed Elite League teams. No Challenger League nation has announced its players so far. In 2025 Slovakia fielded Ján Holár and Martin Kobeš, Armenia Arnak Mkhitaryan and Artak Voskanyan, Hong Kong Wing Tai Ho and Ka Kin Kenny Chan, Malaysia Muhammad Dhiaulhaq Bin Zulkifli and Muhamad Zikri Dahalan, and Great Britain Jenson Harris and Mark Percival. Armenia finished second in that league and Hong Kong third. Italy did not take part in the last two World Championships; at the World Cup round in Elzach in October it was represented by Renato and Elia Bianco.
Play runs from Friday 30 October to Sunday 1 November. Friday and Saturday feature games in all categories, the Challenger League is decided on Saturday, and Sunday brings the last men's games followed by the men's and women's finals; the opening ceremony is on Friday evening. Japan versus Belgium opens the tournament, followed by Czechia versus Hungary, Austria versus Switzerland and Germany versus France. After the group games, a second round pairs the teams that finished in the same position in each group. The winner of the clash between the two group winners goes straight to the semi-finals, and the other three semi-finalists are decided in quarter-finals. The three women's teams play each other twice, and the top two meet in the final. The Worlds were originally scheduled for Derby from 16 to 18 October; after they were cancelled there, German Cycling took over at short notice. Tickets are sold through the official website rad-wm.com.