Macedonia's under-18s qualified for the World Championship with a win over the Faroe Islands

The men's under-18 national team beat the Faroe Islands 34:32 at the European Championship in Belgrade and with it secured a place at the 2027 World Championship. At half-time the lead was five goals (18:13). Top scorers were Stefan Gjorgieski and Stefan Gjorgjievski with seven each, Boban Popovski added five, and goalkeeper Gjorgji Nikolovski collected 11 saves. That's a third straight win, and it didn't come easily. Coach Goran Kuzmanoski explained the team was down two players - Nikoloski and Gjorgieski were sent off - while Trajche Kostov played with a broken finger and scored the last goal. "Already in the first half we managed to neutralise their main player Skipagotu," Kuzmanoski said. That name isn't incidental: Boas Ellefsen á Skipagøtu is among the tournament's top scorers with 56 goals and is the younger brother of the Faroe Islands senior team's star.

Twelfth place, with Sweden and Norway finishing behind Macedonia

Kuzmanoski also gave the most interesting number: "We deservedly sit in 12th place and behind us are teams like Sweden and Norway." That's the context worth holding on to. At the same tournament, reigning champions Sweden went out in the preliminary phase - of 24 teams at the start, only half went through to the main round. Macedonia is now fighting for a ninth to twelfth place finish, with Portugal next. "We mustn't relax. We still have two matches ahead," the coach added. Reaching ninth would be a huge success for a generation that, as he puts it, has quality and a big future. The question always asked here is a different one - how much of that generation will still be at domestic clubs in three years.

Vardar is shifting Champions League kick-off times, and the field has doubled

RK Vardar informed fans of two changes to the EHF Champions League group stage schedule. The home match in round two against Nantes on 16 September at the "Jane Sandanski" sports centre will start at 6:45pm instead of 8:45pm. The away trip to Wisła Płock in round four has moved from 15 to 14 October, also at 6:45pm. The club says it will provide further information on tickets and organisation. Behind these small shifts sits a bigger change: the competition looks entirely different this year.

The Champions League goes to 24 teams - the first reform in six years

The EHF Champions League in the 2026/27 season starts on 9 and 10 September with 24 teams instead of the previous 16, split into six groups of four. It's the first reworking of the format since all European club competitions were reformed ahead of the 2020/21 season. The competition now has four phases - group stage, main round, quarter-finals and the Final Four. The top two from each group go into the main round, the remaining 12 continue in the EHF European League playoffs. The effect is that every team reaching the Final Four will have played exactly 18 matches, which was not the case until now. More teams means more places for clubs from our region - Partizan returns to the elite after a 13-year absence and immediately hosts Füchse Berlin in Belgrade. Veszprém, Aalborg, Zagreb and Kielce open the season, and Barcelona defends the title.

Alkaloid is training in Mavrovo, and Lazarov says names aren't enough

The handball players of RK Alkaloid have moved from Skopje to Mavrovo, where they're doing physical preparation for the new season in considerably better weather. The squad is complete apart from under-18 international goalkeeper Gjorgji Nikolovski, who is at the European Championship. Coach Kiril Lazarov says the club supplies more than 50 internationals across all categories and that the project with RK Multi Essence last season produced a junior and youth champion and an under-18 runner-up. Three experienced players have been added this year because, as he puts it, the competitors are strengthening and the Super League is getting stronger. His best line is the one that holds well beyond handball: "Names don't give you the whole picture; to build a team you have to work, have discipline, establish a system." In domestic sport, where every summer brings transfers announced with fanfare, that's a reminder rarely heard.