World Men’s Championship Qualification 2026

• November 8, 2026
  Event date:
• November 13, 2026
  Event end:

The gateway to the 2027 men’s worlds

The World Championship Qualifier Men 2026 is the final step on the road to the BKT World Men’s Curling Championship 2027. It is one of the new events created by World Curling for the 2026–2030 Olympic cycle, replacing earlier routes such as the Pan Continental Championships, and it carries a big reward: six of the 16 nations will earn promotion to the 2027 world championship, which grows to 18 teams. Sweden are the reigning world men’s champions.

Format and field

The 16 teams are split into two groups of eight for a round robin. The top two in each group go straight through to the semi-finals (A1 v B2 and A2 v B1) and are promoted to the worlds; the remaining two promotion places are settled in extra qualification games involving the third- and fourth-ranked teams of each group. At the other end of the table, the bottom two nations in each group are relegated to the next World Championship Pre-Qualifier.

That Pre-Qualifier stage has already produced four of the participants. Mexico and India came through the Pan Continental event in Dumfries, Scotland – India’s men reaching this level for the first time – while Slovenia and Latvia took the two places at the European Pre-Qualifier in Ljubljana. The rest of the field will be confirmed by World Curling ahead of the event.

• Dates: November 8–13, 2026
• Teams: 16 men’s teams in two groups of eight
• At stake: 6 places at the 2027 World Men’s Championship
• Confirmed via Pre-Qualifiers: Mexico, India, Slovenia, Latvia

Host city and venue

The tournament is staged at Curl Aberdeen, one of Scotland’s leading curling venues and a regular World Curling host. It staged the Pre-Olympic Qualification Event in 2025 and the World Junior Curling Championships in 2018, and will host the World Juniors again from February 6 to 14, 2027. Aberdeen, the granite city on Scotland’s north-east coast, has excellent rail and air links for visiting supporters. The women’s equivalent is played later the same month in Östersund, Sweden.

Tickets

Spectator and ticket information for the Aberdeen qualifier has not yet been published and will be announced by the organisers ahead of the event.

Regions

• Europe & Rest of World

Location