The 2026 EHF European Women's Handball Championship, commonly referred to as the EHF Euro 2026, will be the 17th edition of the EHF European Women's Handball Championship, the biennial international women's handball championship of Europe organized by EHF. The tournament will be held from 3 to 20 December 2026.
The championship was originally scheduled to be held in Russia, who were stripped of their hosting rights due to the invasion of Ukraine. On 8 March 2024, it was announced that all five applicants, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Turkey will co-host the tournament, marking the first time the event was staged in more than three countries. The final will be held in Katowice, Poland.
24 teams will participate for the second time. Qualification took place in March 2024 to April 2025 to decide the qualifiers. The five co-hosts qualified automatically, alongside the top three from 2024, Norway, Denmark and Hungary. Greece will make their debut.
This tournament will act as a qualifier for the 2027 World Women's Handball Championship in Hungary and 2028 EHF Euro edition in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Norway are the defending champions, having beaten Denmark in the 2024 final in Vienna.
Bid process
First bidding process Bids On 11 May 2021 it was announced that the following nations sent in an official expression of interest:
, & (withdrew)
On 20 October the final bids were presented. The Scandinavian bid was withdrawn, leaving Russia unopposed.
As only the Russian bid remained it was unanimously selected at the 14th EHF Extraordinary Congress on 20 November 2021.
Second bidding process On 4 July 2023, the EHF confirmed that Russia would not host the event due to the war in Ukraine, and thus reopened the bidding process. On 25 October, the EHF announced the official bids.
and and
The hosts were originally going to be announced on 28 January 2024 in Cologne, but the EHF decided to delay the announcement to April while also inviting every bidding nation to a meeting in mid-February.
During the meeting in mid-February, Romanian media reported that a possible five-country co-hosting plan was being negotiated by all five bidding countries and the EHF after it was reported that none of the three bids fulfilled all the requirements.
On 8 March 2024, the EHF announced all five countries, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Turkey, as co-hosts. This marks the second time a European championship has been held in more than four countries, after UEFA Euro 2020.
Preparations EHF Each nation signed the contracts in Katowice, Poland in May 2024. Throughout February and March 2025, site visits took place in every city except Brno took place. As the new arena in Brno hadn't been built yet, a separate site visit, which includes also a meeting with the architect, was held.
Czech Republic On 24 April 2024, president of the Czech Handball Association, Ondřej Zdráhala, had affirmed that if Arena Brno wasn't built in time, the Winning Group Arena would be their backup venue.
Poland On 2 February 2026, Polish representatives attended an EHF conference.
Romania In July 2024, the EHF observed Romania's venues, On 26 October 2024, the mayor of Cluj-Napoca, Emil Boc, met with Romanian Handball Federation president, Constantin Din to discuss how to promote the tournament.
Slovakia On 4 December 2025, head of the organising committee, Ivan Sabovik stated that the budget is 1.5 million Euros. They will organise numerous activities in preparation for the tournament and want to show Slovakia and Bratislava in the best light. The president of the Slovak Handball Federation, Jaroslas Holeša, had stated that he was originally worried about the five countries hosting but the organisation of the competition has been great.
Turkey Turkish Handball Federation president, Uğur Kılıç, signed the host contract in May 2024.
Tickets On 3 December 2025, tickets were first released with group and venue packages being put on sale.
Venues Six venues will be used for the tournament. Each country will use one arena with the exception being Romania who will use two in Cluj-Napoca and Oradea. While none of these arenas have hosted the championship, the Spodek in Katowice and Tipos Arena in Bratislava have experience organising the men's edition.
Overview of venues In Czech Republic, Arena Brno is a newly built arena that will host the Czech's portion of the tournament. The venue broke ground in September 2023. This will be the first major tournament held in this arena. In Poland, the Spodek will be the Poles' venue. Built in 1971 but renovated in 2011, the facility has hosted numerous high-profile championships: 2009 and EuroBasket 2025, 2014 and 2022 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship. Handball-wise, the 2016 European Men's Handball Championship and 2023 World Men's Handball Championship was hosted at the arena. The BTarena in Cluj-Napoca will organise matches. The venue was built in 2014 but expanded in preparation for EuroBasket 2017. Romania's largest arena would later host the 2021 Women's European Volleyball Championship and 2026 Men's European Volleyball Championship. Basketball team, U-BT Cluj-Napoca, plays their home games here. The Oradea Arena is Romania's second arena for the tournament. With 5,300 seats, it is the smallest arena for the competition. Opened in 2022, this will be the arena's first major tournament hosting. In Slovakia, the nation's biggest arena, Tipos Arena, in the country's capital, Bratislava, will hold the games. Since its construction in 1940, the following sports have held major championships at this arena: Basketball, Figure skating, Floorball, Ice hockey, Volleyball. The 2022 European Men's Handball Championship is the only previous time a handball tournament has been in Slovakia. In Turkey, the Antalya Sports Hall was used for matches at this tournament. This will be the first major national team tournament held in the arena in any sport, but the venue hosted the 2022 FIVB Women's Volleyball Club World Championship, alongside rounds of the Men's and FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League in 2023 and 2024.
Brno Katowice Spodek Capacity: 13,300 Capacity: 11,036 Bratislava Antalya Tipos Arena Antalya Sports Hall Capacity: 10,055 Capacity: 10,000 Cluj-Napoca Oradea BTarena Oradea Arena Capacity: 10,000 Capacity: 5,300 Katowice will host preliminary round, main round and knockout stage. Cluj-Napoca will host preliminary round and main round. Brno, Bratislava, Oradea and Antalya will host preliminary round only.
+Tournament venues information Venue Spodek Group E, Main round II, Semifinals and Final 19 BTarena Group B and Main round Group I 15 Oradea Arena Group A 6 Antalya Sports Hall Group C 6 Arena Brno Group D 6 Tipos Arena Group F 6
Qualification
30 teams registered for participation and competed for 16 places at the final tournament. After the preliminary round, the teams were drawn into six 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 qualifiers draw took place on 20 March 2025 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Qualification started in March 2024 and ended in April 2025.
Of the 24 qualified teams, 23 were present in the previous edition. Greece will make their debut, replacing Portugal, who failed to qualify after their sporadic appearance in 2024.
Austria qualified on merit for the first time since 2008.
North Macedonia made their third consecutive appearance at the Euro for the first time ever.
Qualified teams
Draw
The draw was originally going to take place on 16 May 2026, but was brought forward to 16 April 2026 at 18:00 CEST at the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, Poland. The draw was hosted by Polish sports journalist, . Czech player, Silvie Polášková, Polish international , Slovak national team player, Barbora Lancz and Turkish player Elif Sıla Aydın were the guests and assisted with the draw. The draw started with, in order, pots 2, 3, 1 and 4 being drawn. Each selected teams' group would then get decided by another pot.
Chosen teams As early as February 2024, Hungary was reported to be the only team that was not a co-host to be pre-drawn into a group, being drawn into group in Oradea, likely due to its proximity to the Hungarian border. The co-hosts were all seeded into their home groups.
Team Group A B C D E F
Seeding The seedings were announced on 13 April 2026. The teams were seeded based on the results of the 2026 qualifiers and the final rankings of the 2024 European Women's Handball Championship.
Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4
Draw results + Group A in Oradea Team A1 A2 A3 A4 + Group B in Cluj-Napoca Team B1 B2 (H) B3 B4 + Group C in Antalya Team C1 C2 C3 (H) C4
+ Group D in Brno Team D1 D2 (H) D3 D4 + Group E in Katowice Team E1 E2 (H) E3 E4 + Group F in Bratislava Team F1 F2 F3 (H) F4
Schedule
ScheduleRoundMatchdayDatePreliminary roundMatchday 1 3–5 December 2026Matchday 2 5–7 December 2026Matchday 3 7–9 December 2026Main roundMatchday 4 10–11 December 2026Matchday 5 12–13 December 2026Matchday 6 14–15 December 2026Matchday 7 15–16 December 2026Knockout stageSemi-finalsFifth place 18 December 2026FinalThird place 20 December 2026
Referees 16 referee pairs were selected on 3 July 2026.
Referees Vesna BalvanTatjana Praštalo Titouan PicardPierre Vauchez Ramesh ThiyagarajahSuresh Thiyagarajah Zsófia MartonRita Dáné / Andrea PepeSimona Stancu Tomas BarysasPovilas Petrušis Igor CovalciucAlexei Covalciuc Danielo BozhinovskiViktor Nachevski
Referees William WeijmansRick Wolbertus Mads FremstadJørgen Jørstad Małgorzata LidackaUrszula Lesiak Daniel MartinsRoberto Martins Georgiana MurariuMihaela Chiruță Vanja AntićJelena Jakovljević Barbora BočákováLucia Jánošíková Ozren BackovićMirko Palačković
Preliminary round All times are UTC+1.
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 Superior goal difference from all group matches; Higher number of goals scored in all group matches; Alphabetical order. After completion of the round matches Highest number of points in matches between the teams directly involved; Superior goal difference in matches between the teams directly involved; Highest number of goals scored in matches between the teams directly involved; Superior goal difference in all matches of the group; 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.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Main round Points and goals gained in the preliminary group against teams that advance will be transferred to the main round.
Group I
Group II
Knockout stage Bracket
Semifinals
Fifth place game
Third place game
Final
Rankings Final ranking