Court of Handball rules in Nachevski/Nikolov case

The EHF Court of Handball has reached its decision in a case opened against the Macedonian referee couple Gjorgji Nachevski and Slave Nikolov.

Prior to the Men’s EHF EURO 2026, the EHF withdrew the nomination of the two referees from North Macedonia due to alleged manipulation of uploaded video recordings of the so-called "Multistage Fitness Test". 

Based on the analysis of the European Handball Federation's integrity partner Sportradar, the EHF Court of Handball came to the conclusion that the videos in question were manipulated and therefore issued the following sanctions.

Both referees are suspended from carrying out any function within the EHF and participating in any EHF activities for two years as of the date of the first instance decision due to severely unsportsmanlike conduct. 

Each referee has to pay a fine of €5000 for fundamental violations of the EHF Code of Conduct. 

An appeal may be filed with the EHF Court of Appeal within seven days.