“With the experience from 2021, everything is much easier for us”, says Iliev, who hopes for a huge interest from the fans.
“We are located at a huge beach area, and with a sports, music and entertainment programme we will try to attract local people and tourists and make beach handball and handball in general more popular in Bulgaria.”
Two famous DJs and a singer – Theo, Teddy Gorgo and Galina – have even produced an official song for the events. The scenes for the video will be filmed right before the start of the men’s and women’s event.
Almost all Bulgarian players in the national teams play indoor handball too.
“In the future, we hope for more specialists in our beach handball teams, but this will take some time – like for our plan to get many more kids involved in indoor and beach handball,” says Iliev. “But hosting events like those in Varna is important to become more popular.”
One focal point of hosting the EHF YAC16 Beach Handball EURO and the EHF Beach Handball Championships is funding: the Bulgarian ministries of sports and tourism and the local Varna municipality have not only provided financial support, but also helped in terms of infrastructure, logistics and volunteers. The sustainability concept for the events includes reusable water bottles and water dispensers on all courts instead of single-use bottles.
“We have a big plan and we are already in the middle of this project to have a permanent beach handball stadium at a different beach at Varna with a centre court for 2,500 fans and the offices and dressing rooms being built under the tribunes. We hope that this new stadium is ready in 2025.
“We hope that after a successful 2024 EHF EURO the project gets running, again funded by the Bulgarian government and the Varna municipality,” says Iliev, a former indoor national team player.