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2026 European Men's Handball Championship

The 2026 EHF European Men's Handball Championship, commonly referred to as the EHF Euro 2026, was the 17th edition of the EHF European Men's Handball Championship, the biennial international men's handball championship of Europe organized by EHF. It was co-hosted by Denmark, Norway and Sweden from 15 January to 1 February 2026, marking the second time the event was held in three countries, after 2020. The final was held in Herning, Denmark.

24 teams participated for the fourth time. Qualification took place in January 2023 to May 2025. The three co-hosts qualified automatically, alongside the defending champions, France. Italy returns after a 28 year absence.

This tournament will act as a qualifier for the 2027 World Men's Handball Championship in Germany and 2028 edition in Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.

France were the defending champions, having beaten Denmark in the 2024 final in Cologne, but they couldn't defend their title after being eliminated in the main round and placed 7th. Co-host Denmark won their third title and first in 14 years after defeating Germany in the final. Croatia captured the bronze medal after defeating Iceland who appeared in the medal race after 16 years. Co-hosts Norway and Sweden finished 9th and 6th. Portugal and Faroe Islands achieved their best results, placing 5th and 13th respectively.

Denmark's Mathias Gidsel won the MVP award, after scoring 68 goals, which is a tournament record at any European Championship.

Bid process

Bids

On 11 May 2021 it was announced that the following nations sent in an official expression of interest:

  • , &
  • (withdrew) in October 2021. Switzerland merged with the Iberian bid for 2028.

Host selection

As only the Scandinavian bid remained it was unanimously selected at the 14th EHF Extraordinary Congress on 20 November 2021. This marks the second time the event is held in three countries, after 2020. This is Denmark's second (after 2014), Norway's third (after 2008 and 2020) and Sweden's third (after 2002 and 2020) time hosting.

Preparations

  • Site visits in Denmark and Sweden took place in September 2024.
  • As of April 2025, the EHF stated that preparations were going smoothly.
  • On 18 September 2025, the three co-hosts were joining forces on common sustainability concept called Pure Promise.
  • On 13 November 2025, Swedish hotel company, Scandic, was announced as a national supplier for Norway.
  • On 21 November 2025, it was announced that Harald V will watch Norway's opening game against Ukraine.
  • On 19 December 2025, Gumpen Gruppen became a car supplier for the championship in Norway.
  • Herning would offer free transport to and from the Jyske Bank Boxen for the tournament.

Tickets

  • On 5 November 2024, tickets in Sweden were released.
  • Denmark and Norway's were put on sale on 14 February 2025.
  • More tickets were released on 29 October 2025.
  • More tickets in Denmark were available for purchase.
  • On 17 November 2025, the Swedish Handball Federation stated that tickets were selling fast.

Sponsors

Official partners

Qualification

36 teams registered for participation and competed for 20 places at the final tournament. After the qualification round 1, the remaining 32 teams take part in qualification round 2, where each team is drawn into eights groups of four. The top-two placed teams in each group qualified for the final tournament, alongside the four best-ranked third-placed teams, not counting the matches against fourth-placed teams. The draw took place on 21 March 2024 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Round 2 started in November 2025 and ended in May 2026.

Of the 24 qualifiers, 22 return from the previous edition. Italy qualified for only their second appearance, with their first being back in 1998. Ukraine come back having missed out in 2024.

Of the non-qualifiers, Bosnia and Herzegovina miss out for the first time since 2018, while 2024 debutants, Greece also failed to qualify.

The lowest ranked team from the EHF rankings to qualify was Ukraine, ranked 30th. The highest ranked team to not qualify was Greece, ranked 22nd.

Qualified teams

Venues

A first draft of the venues was proposed in August 2023. The tournament will be played across four venues in four cities: one in Denmark (Herning, Groups A and B), one in Norway (Bærum, Groups C and D), and two in Sweden (Malmö and Kristianstad, Groups E and F). The main round will take place in Herning and Malmö, with the former organising the final weekend. The following proposed cities in the bid didn't make the final cut: Aarhus and Copenhagen in Denmark, and Bergen, Stavanger and Trondheim in Norway. In regards to Norway, Oslo was chosen over Trondheim, after negotiations with Trondheim fell through due to financial reasons.

In September 2024, one team per venue was selected. Denmark will play in Herning (Group B), Norway in Bærum (Group C) and Sweden in Malmö (Group E). If they qualify, Germany will play in Herning (Group A), the Faroe Islands in Bærum (Group D) and Iceland in Kristianstad (Group F). The arena in Kristianstad is renovated with new seats being put in by June 2025.

Overview of venues

Draw

The draw took place in on 15 May 2025 at 18:00 CEST at the Teatersaalen in Herning, Denmark. The draw was hosted by Danish journalist, . Danish international, Simon Pytlick, French national team player, Hugo Descat, Swedish player Andreas Nilsson and former Norwegian left back Kristian Kjelling were the guests and assisted with the draw. The draw started with, in order, pots 1, 2, 3 and 4 being drawn, with each team selected then allocated into the first available group alphabetically.

Chosen teams

On 2 September 2024, the three co-hosts were allowed to choose a nation to be drawn in their country if they qualified. Denmark chose Germany, Norway picked Faroe Islands while Sweden selected Iceland.

Seeding

The seedings were announced on 12 May 2025.

Draw results

Schedule

Referees

The 18 referee pairs were selected on 8 October 2025. However, on 22 December 2025, the Czech referee pair and withdrew their nomination due to recent injury, getting replaced by the Serbian pair Marko Boričić and Dejan Marković. On 10 January 2026, the EHF withdrew the nomination of the pair from North Macedonia and , due to suspected manipulation of a video recording of their Multistage Fitness Test, no other pair was nominated instead, leaving the tournament with only 17 pairs.

Squads

Each team consists of up to 20 players, of whom 16 may be fielded for each match. If an injury occurred during the tournament, the competing teams would be able to replaced the injured player with someone who was in the provisional squad. A maximum of six replacements would be allowed during the tournament.

Preliminary round

The schedule was released on 10 November 2024.

Tiebreakers

In the group stages (preliminary and main rounds), teams are ranked according to points (2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams have the same number of points, the ranking will be determined as follows:

During the round matches:
  1. Superior goal difference from all group matches;
  2. Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
  3. Alphabetical order.
After completion of the round matches:
  1. Highest number of points in matches between the teams directly involved;
  2. Superior goal difference in matches between the teams directly involved;
  3. Highest number of goals scored in matches between the teams directly involved;
  4. Superior goal difference in all matches of the group;
  5. Highest number of plus goals in all matches of the group;

If the ranking of one of these teams is determined, the above criteria are consecutively followed until the ranking of all teams is determined. If no ranking can be determined, a decision shall be obtained by EHF through drawing of lots.

All times are local (UTC+1).

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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Group E

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Group F

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Main round

Points and goals gained in the preliminary group against teams that advance were transferred to the main round.

Group I

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Group II

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Knockout stage

Bracket

Semifinals

Fifth place game

Third place game

Final

Rankings

Final ranking

The teams ranked fourth in each group after the completion of the preliminary round matches will be ranked 19 to 24, while teams ranked third in each group after the completion of the preliminary round matches will be ranked 13 to 18 according to the number of points won in the preliminary round. Places seven and eight will be attributed to the two teams ranked fourth in the main round groups, places nine and ten to the two teams ranked fifth in the main round groups, places eleven and twelve to the two teams ranked sixth in the main round groups according to the number of points won by the respective teams after completion of the main round matches. Places one to six will be decided by play–off or knock–out.

Best results

Ranking table

Qualification table

Method of qualification

All Star Team

The all-star team was announced on 1 February 2026.

Statistics

Players

Top goalscorers

Top goalkeepers

Teams

Top scoring

Most saves

Fair play ranking

Discipline

The following suspensions were served during the tournament:

Player of the match

A player of the match (POTM presented by Grundfos for sponsorship reasons) award will be given to the player deemed as playing the best in each match.

Notable statistics

  • Highest attended game: 15,000 (Nine games)
  • Lowest attended game: 2,026 (Switzerland 35–38 Slovenia, 20 January)
  • Most goals in a game: 84 (France 46–38 Portugal, 24 January)
  • Fewest goals in a game: 47 (North Macedonia 24–23 Romania, 20 January, Hungary 23–24 Iceland, 20 January)
  • Most goals by a team in a game: 46 (France 46–26 Ukraine, 17 January, and France 46–38 Portugal, 24 January)
  • Fewest goals by a team in a game: 21 (Switzerland 21–34 Sweden, 28 January)
  • Biggest goal difference in a game: 20 (Ukraine 26–46 France, 17 January)
  • Biggest half time deficit in a game: 13 (France 28–15 Portugal, 24 January)
  • Most goals scored by a player in a game: 15 (Filip Kuzmanovski vs Portugal, 18 January, Jonáš Josef vs Ukraine, 19 January)

Notable occurrences

  • On 16 January, Slovenia and Montenegro broke the record for most goals (combined) in a Euro game. Slovenia won 41–40, bringing the total to 81 goals. Consequently, the highest number of goals ever scored by the losing team in a match is 40.
  • On 17 January, France's 46–26 win over Ukraine broke the record for the biggest win at the tournament's history and most goals ever scored by a team in one game.
  • On 17 January, the 9,130 spectators for Serbia vs Germany broke the record for most fans at a match with Denmark not involved on the day. The record was later broken again with 9,526 spectators for Germany vs Spain.
  • On 18 January, Faroe Islands secured their first ever win at Euro tournaments by beating Montenegro 37–24.
  • On 18 January, Iceland won their fourth consecutive game at Euro tournaments for the first time.
  • On 20 January, Switzerland reached the main round for the first time since 2004.
  • On 20 January, Italy won their first game in 28 years after beating Poland 29–28.
  • On 24 January, France and Portugal broke the record of most goals (combined) in a game at a Euro, with a 46–38 win for the French equating to 84 goals. This result beats the record that Slovenia's 41–40 win over Montenegro held for eight days. The French also broke the record of most goals at half time with 28.
  • Italy, Montenegro, Romania and Ukraine suffered their worst losses at Euro tournaments.
  • France, Iceland and Switzerland secured their biggest victories at Euro tournaments.

Tournament venues attendance

Controversies

Schedule criticism

Before their semifinal against Germany, Croatian coach, Dagur Sigurðsson criticised the schedule as his team had to play two games in less than 24 hours and then go on a bus the Herning, meaning they had no training day before their semifinal, as well as the fact that the Croatian team as the only semifinalists had to stay in Silkeborg, 40 km away, rather than in Herning. As a response, the EHF acknowledged the criticism and stated that changes will be made in the future.

Broadcasting rights

The television channels broadcasting the event is as follows:

Outside of Europe

Notes

References

Preview reports
Matchday reports

External links