The president reacts to an important decision of the federation. This is something he is particularly proud of

On Friday, March 8, the latest reports regarding the organization of the European Women's Handball Championships were confirmed. On that day, the European Handball Federation officially announced that it had been granted the rights to organize women's EURO 2026. By decision of the EHF Executive Committee, this tournament will be held in Poland, as well as in the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Turkey.

Poland officially hosts Euro 2026 for women's handball players

As previously reported, the championship was originally supposed to take place in Russia, but due to the geopolitical situation in June 2023, the European Handball Federation decided to withdraw the right to organize these competitions. In November 2023, six federations expressed their willingness to organize this event – Poland together with the Czech Republic, Slovakia with Romania and Turkey. Initially, Spain was also interested, but withdrew its candidacy.

“In the following months, the European Handball Federation carried out inspections and talks with the national federations concerned. Based on them, a decision was made to entrust the role of organizers of the EHF EURO 2026 women's tournament to all five registered federations with the hope of further development of the discipline in many countries,” informs ZPRP.

The 2026 European Women's Handball Championship will take place from December 3 to 20 and will feature 24 teams. The preliminary round is scheduled for Oradea (Romania), Cluj-Napoca (Romania), Antalya (Turkey), Brno (Czech Republic), Katowice (Poland) and Bratislava (Slovakia). Moreover, all phases of the tournament will be held in Poland, i.e. the preliminary, main and final rounds (semi-finals and final).

The president reacts to the EHF's decision

The President of the Polish Handball Association, Henryk Szczepański, reacted to this decision of the EHF. – We are very happy that one of the most important tournaments in European handball will come to our country again. After the Men's European Championship in 2016, we will have the opportunity to host the best teams in the women's competition for the first time, he said.

– We are particularly proud of the fact that Poland will host the decisive matches, including the grand final of EHF EURO 2026 in Katowice. We sincerely hope that the tournament will be a great success and will contribute to the further development of women's handball not only in Poland, but in Europe and around the world – he added.

For Poland, this will be the third championship-level tournament in history. In the past, we hosted the 2016 Men's European Championships and the 2023 Men's World Championships. Moreover, in June 2025, Poland will organize the Men's Under-21 World Championship.