The meeting of EXEC was preceded by the sessions of the EHF’s Technical Commissions, namely the Beach Handball, the Methods and the Competitions Commission, at the end of August, as well by the Club Handball Board meetings, namely those of the Men’s and Women’s Club Boards as well as the EHF Marketing Advisory Board, and the Finance Delegation which took place at the same time. The discussion and information exchange that took place in these meetings formed the basis of the EXEC’s decision-making process in Bucharest.
Motions
A handful of motions were tabled to the EXEC ahead of the meeting. On the club competitions’ side, the EXEC approved a new playing system for EHF Youth Club Trophy Men, now featuring 24 teams and thus mirroring the expanded line-up of the EHF Champions League Men. Four qualification tournaments with six teams each are scheduled to take place in spring next year, and the respective winners will once again qualify for the final tournament which will be played alongside the EHF FINAL4 Men 2027 in Cologne. The playing system for the EHF Youth Club Trophy Women remains unchanged.
For the national teams, the EXEC approved adaptations to the qualification system for the Women’s EHF EURO 2028 and the Men’s EHF EURO 2030 that had been proposed by the EHF Office based on changes to the number of participating teams and the international competition calendar.
Furthermore, the EXEC discussed in detail the bid code for the Men’s and Women’s EHF EURO events in 2034. 11 National Federations have expressed interest in hosting the flagship national team tournaments (for men in January 2034, respectively for women in December 2034) and will now receive the bid code for the opportunity to formally submit a bid by 1 March 2027. The EXEC confirmed several amendments to the bid code and also approved the overall financial and organisational structure for 2034 which sees the European Handball Federation assuming more responsibility in a variety of areas, reflecting the situation that as of today no agreements with external media and marketing partners are in place for 2034.
Age categories were adapted in beach handball as well as for next year’s EHF Masters tournament. In beach handball, the younger age category EHF EUROs 2028 will be played by under-18 player (born in 2010 or 2011) to reflect the approach taken for 2027. The EHF Masters in 2027 will feature the ‘women’s +50’ age category, provided that a minimum of four teams register for that category.
European handball in the future
The Executive Committee received a detailed overview on the planning and processes for club and national team competitions, for the immediate and the foreseeable future.
For the club competitions, this season’s changes to the playing systems for the EHF Champions League and EHF European League Men were discussed as well as the confirmed amendments to the EHF Champions League and EHF European League Women as of next season.
Following the discussion and also based on information that was exchanged in the Men’s and Women’s Club Boards at the end of August it was agreed that impact of the changes to the playing systems, i.e. the effect on the competition calendar, shall be evaluated and action where appropriate should be taken. At the same time, the analysis will be the basis for mid-term measures and by that for the future of the club competitions and their marketing potential.
The status of the organisation of the European Handball Games in 2030 was shared. The new event, scheduled to be held in September 2030 for the first time, was met with positive resonance when presented to the European Olympic Committee and the European Union’s Commissioner for Sport recently.
To the EXEC, the EHF’s plan to stage the European Handball Games as a ‘multi-handball’ event with the attractive combination of top-level female and male handball together with other handball activities was explained and details of the qualification system were shared. The approach to offer the ‘best-of-the-best’ of European handball, condensed over one week, has also been met with extremely positive feedback from the media market and negotiations to find a fitting venue are already in place.
Furthermore and to conclude the point on foresight, information on the process for tendering the audiovisual and marketing rights as of 2030 was provided, and the EXEC gave its mandate to the EHF leadership – with the back-up of the Finance Delegation – for further negotiations in the respective direction, considering both the national and the club inventory and with the aim of taking over more direct responsibility for further developing the product handball.
Topics in international handball
Since there have been many activities taking place on an international level, the EXEC was informed on the various topics, respectively the open points in the interaction between the Continental Federation Europe and the IHF. A further consultation process is planned for the occasion of the IHF Forum in Cairo in early October.
The EXEC took note of the different topics including the newly introduced place distribution, implemented alongside the restructuring of competitions by the IHF.
An extensive discussion on the future of handball in Europe and the relation to the IHF took place and further clarification will follow for a full presentation at the upcoming EHF Conference of Presidents in December in Katowice.
As the IHF on the level of the Council and on leadership proposal decided, after a recommendation of the IOC, on the full integration of Russian and Belarusian national teams in the respective competition cycles, the EHF EXEC dealt with the follow-up for European competitions and the IHF World Championship Qualification Europe.
After coordination with the European Team Sports – a platform shared with football (UEFA), basketball (FIBA), volleyball (CEV), ice hockey (IIHF) and rugby (Rugby Europe) – and a careful consideration of the legal and especially the organisational and security situation, the EXEC again underlined that the issue is not to be regarded as a handball topic, but rather as a consequence of the ongoing war without any visible case resolution on a political level.
To comply with the basic situation, the EXEC confirmed the possible registration of the said federations but reserved the right to follow in its further decision-making processes international developments (i.e. decisions by the Court of Arbitration for Sport) and the evaluation of the feasibility of playing matches across Europe together with the respective analysis of the different competitions and their qualifications. Furthermore, the timetable for setting up systems, registration processes, draws etc will play a relevant role.
At the same time, the cooperation with Ukraine will be strengthened to secure their presence in handball competitions in Europe and worldwide.
The EHF’s business activities
The EHF Secretary General reported on the federation’s business activities since the last meeting of the EXEC in June. Special focus was put on the several Master Plan projects in place across Europe. The EXEC confirmed the prolongation of projects run by the federations in Scotland, Luxembourg, Georgia and Italy. New projects by the Polish (with a focus on regional PE teacher education) and the Cypriot federation (with a focus on mini handball activities) were confirmed.
Special emphasis was given to the positive development of EHF’s digital activities and corresponding figures for which a more comprehensive report will be published shortly.
The EXEC also confirmed several amendments to the EHF Anti-Doping Regulations as they resulted from the updated WADA code (which comes into effect on 1 January 2027) and subsequently needed to be updated.
Meetings, conferences and the EHF Congress
The EXEC session closed with an overview of the upcoming meetings and an outlook to the two major sports-political conferences in European Handball in the next two months.
First up are the meetings of the EHF stakeholder groups – Nations Committees for men and women, Nations Board, Professional Handball Board, Women’s Handball Board, men’s and women’s European League Boards on 19 and 20 October in Vienna. On these days, the newly composed European Handball Player Board will get together for the first time and participate in the respective activities.
On Saturday, 19 December 2026, on the occasion of the Women’s EHF EURO 2026 final weekend, the EHF Conference of Presidents will take place in Katowice, Poland. Special focus will be placed on the future of the European handball activities.
Nine months later, on 18 September 2027, the EHF Congress will gather in Ljubljana, Slovenia. For both events the timeline and a first agenda were shared with the EXEC.
