Men’s EHF EURO 2026: a celebration of pure greatness

Danish Handball Federation president Torsten Laen thanked the EHF for the trust it gave to co-hosts Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

“We are proud of the outcome, proud of the intensity of the games on the playing field, proud of the equal level of the competition,” said Laen. “Side-by-side with our fans we could celebrate the pure greatness of our sport. We are looking forward to organising the next tournament together in the future.”

EHF First Vice President Predrag Bošković, who said he felt like he was “at home” after 20 days in Herning, said it was a difficult challenge for Denmark, Sweden and Norway after the record-breaking EHF EURO 2024 in Germany.

“All three hosts truly delivered. Oslo presented a great picture with more than 7,000 fans from Faroe Islands. Kristianstad saw many fans from Iceland and the first victory for Italy since 1998, the main round in Malmö was the closest group ever,” said Bošković.

“Herning provided the perfect backdrop for the final weekend, this is a handball heartland and you can feel it every time you enter the arena,” Bošković said. “The fan zone is a class of its own and a great inspiration for future organisers.”

Bošković also highlighted the second edition of the EHF Grassroots Convention in Malmö, at which 140 participants from more than 30 countries discussed the development of the next generation of handball players.

EHF Secretary General Martin Hausleitner presented the most important facts and figures of the EHF EURO 2026: 660,000 day tickets were sold for the four arenas in three countries, 85 per cent of all available tickets.

“This was a big, big success, only Germany 2024 had better numbers,” Hausleitner noted, adding there had been overwhelming requests for tickets, particularly from fans from countries such as the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Germany and Switzerland.

TV audiences were also good, said Hausleitner, revealing that the main round match between Denmark and Germany was watched by 1.5 million spectators in Denmark, a market share of 68 per cent; while eight million people in Germany watched the semi-final against Croatia.

“And in many other countries we had significantly high TV figures,” Hausleitner said.

The EHF covered the event on 22 different digital platforms, with an increase of 100,000 followers joining the digital EHF EURO community and attracting views of over one million to 13 reels published on Instagram; the most successful reel has had 10 million views. 

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EHF President Michael Wiederer explained the decisions taken by the EHF Executive Committee (EXEC) on the new Players’ Board and the new officiating structure for EHF officials. Wiederer also praised the “well-prepared organisation in three countries”.

One of his topics was EHF’s reaction to criticism about the playing schedule, raised in particular by Croatia head coach Dagur Sigurdsson.

“We had decided even before our EXEC meeting in Herning to adapt the EHF EURO schedule from 2030 on. Now we decided that this is valid already for the 2026 Women’s EHF EURO and the 2028 EHF EURO events,” Wiederer said.

After the official statements, Wiederer honoured a veteran of handball: Czech Frantisek Taborsky, who was a long-standing council member at the International Handball Federation for a long time and official IHF Supervisor for EHF EURO events. After retiring from his IHF position, the EHF EURO 2026 was Taborsky’s last European championship. The Czech has held a variety of different positions in the EHF and IHF, mainly focusing on the development of sport.

Siân Rowland special media award for Joachim Schütz

For more than 10 years, photographer Joachim Schütz has highlighted handball on his platform stregspiller.com, named after the Danish word for line player. Schütz is the 2026 winner of the Siân Rowland special media award, which is awarded at Men’s EHF EURO events since 2010 to recognise special contributions made by journalists and media professionals to handball. Established in 2010, it honours former EHF communications manager, Siân Rowland, who passed away in 2008.

On to the next tournaments

Finally, the organisers of the upcoming EHF EURO events presented their tournaments. From 3 to 20 December 2026 Poland, Romania, Czechia, Slovakia and Türkiye will host the next Women’s EHF EURO in the cities of Katowice (preliminary round to final weekend), Oradea (preliminary round), Cluj-Napoca (preliminary and main round), Brno, Antalya and Bratislava (all preliminary round).

Representatives from Türkiye, Romania and Poland gave information about the tournament, which will be the largest women’s sport event in Europe in 2026, with arenas holding between 5,360 and 13,300 fans. The draw for the preliminary round will take place on 16 April in Katowice.

Former EHF Champions League winner Victor Tomàs and the presidents of the three organizing federations then presented the Men’s EHF EURO 2028, co-hosted by Switzerland, Spain and Portugal.

“Our goal is to reach as many fans as possible and to organise the best EHF EURO ever,” said Tomàs.

The motto of the tournament is “Unleash the moment”. The new, 12,000 seater Swisslife Arena in Zurich  will be the venue for two preliminary round groups in Switzerland, Lisbon will host two preliminary round groups and the main round group, while the Spanish venues will be in Valencia and Madrid, and one of them will host the final weekend.

Photos © kolektiff images