On behalf of the three EHF EURO organisers — Austria, Hungary and Switzerland — the Austrian federation’s president, Markus Plazer, participated in the EXEC meeting. He gave a brief overview of the event and an outlook on the final weekend in Vienna. The EXEC thanked him for the seamless and successful organisation of the EHF EURO.
Youth club handball competition to be introduced in 2025
The EXEC voted in favour of introducing an EHF youth club handball competition as of 2025. Following a positive market analysis in 2024 and a confirmation by the men’s clubs to support, the project has been given the green light.
Four tournaments with four under-18 teams each are foreseen, with the respective winners qualifying for the final tournament which is set to take place in parallel with the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 2025 in Cologne.
The current 16 clubs in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League have the first right to participate. The final shall be played prior to the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4’s 3/4 placement match in the LANXESS arena.
With the experience of the premiere edition, the plan is to introduce a similar tournament for women’s club teams as of 2026.
Men’s 18 and Men’s 20 EHF EUROs awarded for 2026
The EXEC was presented with the evaluation process for awarding the Men’s 18 and Men’s 20 EHF EUROs in 2026. Four applications – from Montenegro, North Macedonia, Slovenia and Serbia – were received for the U18 tournament; five applications – from the four federations bidding for the M18, as well as from Romania – were received for the Men’s 20 EHF EURO. With the evaluation report at hand, the EXEC decided to award the Men’s 20 EHF EURO to Romania (from 8 to 19 July 2026) and the Men’s 18 EHF EURO (from 29 July to 9 August 2026) to Serbia.
EHF Beach Handball Champions Cup returns to Porto Santo
The EXEC confirmed that the EHF Beach Handball Champions Cup will be played in Porto Santo, Portugal in 2025, for the fourth consecutive year. The tournament is planned to be played from 9 to 12 October 2025.
Furthermore, the EXEC took note of the ‘EHF Beach Handball Think Tank’, which will take place on 20 and 21 January in Vienna to discuss the future of the sport. The think tank aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the current state of beach handball activities in Europe and to establish clear objectives for the future.
Hosts sought for the EHF EUROs in 2030 and 2032
Detailed information was provided on the awarding process for the EHF EUROs in 2030 and 2032. Croatia had informed the EHF of its withdrawal from the bidding process, which leaves Czechia/Poland/Denmark as the sole applicants for the Men’s EHF EURO 2030 and Germany/France for the Men’s EHF EURO 2032. No applications have been admitted for the Women’s EHF EURO 2030; therefore, the right to award the event will revert to the Executive Committee. The application of Germany/Denmark/Poland for the Women’s EHF EURO 2032 remains uncontested. The awarding will take place at the EHF Extraordinary Congress on Saturday, 14 December.
2026/27 calendar approval
A draft of the competition calendar for the 2026/27 season had been sent out at the end of October to all federations and stakeholders. With the feedback at hand, the EXEC approved the calendar which continues to foresee the national team weeks as they are currently scheduled.
Hosts and new playing system announced for the EHF Championships
The EXEC confirmed the two hosts for next year’s Women’s 17 EHF Championship (4-10 August 2025) and Women’s 19 EHF Championship (12-20 July 2025). The W17 event will be played in Kosovo, while the W19 tournament will be played in Georgia. The Women’s 17 and Women’s 19 EHF EUROs, the first-tier events in this category, had previously been awarded to Montenegro.
The EXEC also confirmed a new playing system for the EHF Championships’ preliminary round based on the participation of ten teams, as of 2025. In the new system, the teams remain in one group and are divided into two pools and play against the participants in the other pool, excluding the team that was in the same pot at the draw. Therefore, each team will continue to have four games. However, the allocation of the match and rest days will be more equal compared to a system with two groups of five teams. The playing systems for the men’s and women’s younger age category EHF EUROs are not affected by this change.
‘EHF Quality Programme’ takes the next step
In its September meeting, the EXEC had approved the development of an EHF Quality Programme and the cooperation with the sports equipment testing company Sports Labs. The Executive Committee now confirmed phase 1 of the programme, to be launched in early 2025. For this, the EHF, working together with Sports Labs, will develop a testing standard for training and match balls. Sports equipment manufacturers will be invited to have their handballs tested against this standard and to have their equipment approved by the EHF.
Format for Wheelchair EHF EURO confirmed
The Executive Committee took the decision that all future European competitions in wheelchair handball shall be played in the four-a-side format. This is also done to support the efforts of the International Handball Federation to make wheelchair handball a part of the sports programme of future Paralympic Games.
Additional EHF business topics and activities
As an integral part of the meeting, the EHF EXEC received detailed updates related to the federation’s ongoing business topics and activities.
The EHF’s Master Plan, aimed at supporting Member Federation’s grassroots projects, continues to attract interest. 16 agreements have been signed since the implementation of the development scheme a couple of years ago; four additional agreements – with Czechia, the Faroe Islands, Israel and Serbia – were confirmed by the EXEC and will be signed at the Conference of Presidents on Saturday.
Following the meeting of the Finance Delegation at the end of November, the EXEC received an update on the current 2023/24 budget as well as a new forecast for the coming cycle, 2025/26.
Information was provided from the latest meeting of the Sustainability Board. Together with an overall report on sustainability, Ingrid Felipe, the Board’s Member on Environmental Sustainability, will present a survey on the sustainability situation among the Member Federations at the Conference of Presidents on Saturday.
Additional information was also provided from the latest meeting of the stakeholder bodies, including the Nations Board and the Nations Committee, the Men’s and Women’s League Board, the Professional Handball Board and the Women’s Handball Board. Furthermore, topics related to the International Handball Federation were tabled, with reference to the latest council meeting and including a forecast of the IHF activities in 2025.
The EXEC also took note of the representation of the Executive Committee members at partner events, such as the 41st Congress of the Union Sportive des Polices d’Europe (USPE) and the 25-year anniversary gala of the European University Sports Association.
The meeting closed with an outlook on the activities planned around the final weekend of the Women’s EHF EURO, namely the Conference of Presidents, the Extraordinary Congress and the EHF Excellence Awards on Saturday and the official opening of the European Handball House on Sunday.
