“We must all be proud of this event”

Michael Wiederer, EHF President:

“The closing press conference gives the chance to meet and exchange with the organisers. It is a great pleasure to be here with the presidents, who took over the responsibility of the last Women’s EHF EURO with 16 teams. It was a pleasure to work with the three organisers.

This event has proved that we need a final tournament with 24 teams: we have strong new countries, smaller countries which made their way to the EHF EURO and showed good matches. In general, we saw very good performances of the teams and especially many young players. With the EHF EURO events and our initiatives such as Respect your Talent and the new Player of the Year award, European handball has a value to present to the outside world.”

Predrag Boskovic, First EHF Vice President:

“This event again underlined the importance of national team competitions. For two weeks, all eyes were on Slovenia, North Macedonia and Montenegro.  For a long time, I was the President of the Montenegrin federation, and I know the importance of women’s handball in this region. All three organisers are proud of their long-term successes in women’s handball, teams from all three countries won the Champions League. Therefore, this event was a great opportunity to promote women’s handball in this region.

The gratitude of the EHF goes to the three federations and their LOCs for their extremely hard work to make this EHF EURO become a success, which would not be possible without them. This event was not only about what happened on the court, but it was a meeting place for experts, partners and the whole European handball family, with side events such as the EHF women’s handball conference as platform for an exchange on women empowerment in the next years. The EHF is looking forward to all those efforts in women’s handball.

Martin Hausleitner, EHF Secretary General:

“The EHF EURO was broadcasted in 80 countries in Europe and beyond – and even more countries were reached by EHFTV. Our TV partner Infront delivered a new style of emotional pictures, and we only received positive response on those TV pictures we sent all over the world. More than 50% of all Danish households watched the matches of their team, and even higher numbers are expected for the final. In France, more than four million TV viewers watched the semi-final. In terms of TV numbers, this EHF EURO was a great success also in this region and the will contribute to the future of women’s handball.

Besides, we had millions of clicks for our digital content on various platforms. Many influencers, players and stars shared our content on Instagram or Tiktok, besides, the daily EHF EURO Twitch show was a huge success.

Thanks to our partners we emotionalised the event like by the Player of the Match award by Grundfos, which created emotional moments. As EHF we are always seeking for innovations, this time we created a special tool for virtual advertisement, which enables us to have more opportunities to reach the marketing environment.

In cooperation with other technical partners such as Kinexon, Swiss Timing and the iBall from Select, we could generate millions of data, which were used for TV graphics and also the entertainment in the venues for a new level of fan service.

In general, I have to praise the great cooperation from EHF with the organisers, they all had a very positive approach to this project.”

Franjo Bobinac, President Handball Federation of Slovenia:

Thanks to the EHF and its leadership and the entire European handball family, who entrusted us to host this event. Thanks for the great cooperation with my colleagues in North Macedonia and Montenegro. It was not easy in the beginning, but with the strong support and collaboration of EHF and the three hosts we have organized this fantastic event. We wanted to be unique by bringing other ideas in the focus through sports events, such as sustainability and women empowerment. We organised a sports and business conference with top speakers, 1,000 ladies and girls created a chain of love and sports from Celje to Ljubljana, we focused on many elements beyond sports.

This EHF EURO was the biggest women’s sport event ever in Slovenia – and we finish it with a success. The motto of the event was “Play with Heart” and the Slovenian girls were playing with heart. Finally, we take good memories from the event, everybody will remember Slovenia, Montenegro and North Macedonia as great organisers.

Zhivko Mukaetov, President Handball Federation of North Macedonia:

“It is an honour to be here, and I also thank the EHF for entrusting us and to give us this chance. After five years of dedicated work, we can be proud. Women’s handball has a long tradition in North Macedonia, and together with Slovenia and Montenegro we were the place to be for two weeks. Maybe this was even the start for bigger events in future.”

Petar Kapisoda, President Handball Federation of Montenegro:

“This EHF EURO was the biggest sports event in Montenegro and the biggest challenge for us and our country. But in the end, this joint project was a success. We were reliable partners of the EHF, but it was a massive job for our small federation. From Podgorica, we sent the most beautiful pictures to Europe with our sold-out arena. We all must be proud on this event.”