Vardar returns to the Champions League: Melsungen at the start and at the end

After a three-year absence, Macedonian handball champions Vardar are back among the elite. The „red and blacks“ are in Group B, facing Melsungen, Nantes and Wisła Płock, and the schedule has a symmetry you rarely see - the group stage opens and closes against the Germans. The first match is away at Melsungen on 10 September, the home debut is against Nantes on 16 September, and it all closes in Nantes on 28 October. Vardar beat Melsungen twice in the European League last season, so the opening is not unfamiliar terrain. The target has been stated plainly: the top two places lead to the second phase. Third or fourth means a move to the European League - which is not a disaster, but is not what three years of waiting were for either.

Eurofarm Pelister in Group G with Gummersbach - and with a squad already talking

The draw for the EHF European League placed Eurofarm Pelister in Group G, against Gummersbach, Logroño and Wybrzeże Gdańsk. The group stage runs from 29 September to 2 December over six rounds, with the top two from each group advancing to the play-offs - where the third and fourth-placed sides from the Champions League await. Of the eight groups, the region is also represented by Nexe, Izviđač and Sesvete alongside the Bitola side. Pelister meanwhile strengthened with Serbian centre back Aleksa Kolaković, arriving after years in French handball. „It is a pleasure to work with a legend like Lino Červar“, Kolaković said, adding that he believes the team has enough quality to fight for the title. Pre-season statements are cheap; six rounds in Europe are the real test.

A 24-team Champions League: more handball, fewer strolls

The EHF has confirmed the dates for the men's Champions League group stage, and the format is new: 24 teams instead of 16, split into six groups of four. The group stage runs six rounds and ends on 29 October 2026, after which the top two from each group move into the main round from 18 November. It starts on 9 September at 6:45pm, with matches in Veszprém, Aalborg, Zagreb and Kielce; Barcelona defend the title the same evening at 8:45pm against Aarhus. From the region, Partizan return to the elite after a 13-year gap, and Celje play a derby against Zagreb in the very first round. Shorter groups mean fewer matches with nothing at stake - a reform worth having, unless it turns out that all it does is make more clubs pay for the same two places.

Skopje hosts the M18 EHF Championship - without the home national team

Skopje is hosting the Men's 18 EHF Championship I 2026, with eight national teams split into two groups of four. Group A holds Romania, Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine; Group B holds Greece, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Estonia. The semi-finals are on the 8th, with the final and third-place match on the 9th - the final starting at 7:30pm central European time. Latvia finished second at the 2024 edition, while the Netherlands reached the semi-finals and came fourth. And here is the detail worth noticing: hosts Macedonia are not playing in Skopje, because our generation is competing at the M18 EHF EURO in Serbia. We are staging a tournament we are not in - good news for the infrastructure and slightly odd news for the stands.

Ilinden and Pelister are building from the bottom - the assistants are the real story

Former international Dejan Pecakovski becomes assistant coach at RK Ilinden, the club that appointed Darko Janev as head coach. Pecakovski brings a career through Pelister, Metalurg, Vardar, Zomimak and Eurofarm Rabotnik - exactly the experience a club assembling a squad lacks. In Bitola, alongside Kolaković, young Croatian right back Diego Basanese has also arrived, a Croatian youth international. News like this does not make headlines and does not fill stands, but it is precisely what shows whether a club is thinking about next season or the next five. Macedonian handball has long had a continuity problem - people who stay longer than one term are rarer than trophies.