Vardar is back among the elite, Pelister is a seeded club, and the Youth World Championship is coming to us

Vardar returns to the Champions League, and the EHF said it first

The European Handball Federation dedicated a post to the Macedonian champions: „EHF Champions League nights are back in Skopje. Two-time winners Vardar are returning. Are they ready to surprise Europe once again?" The post came with footage from the final fours where Vardar lifted the title in 2017 and 2019, including the last-second goal by current head coach Ivan Čupić against PSG for that first trophy. After several years away, Skopje is back on the European handball map. That it took the EHF, and not anyone at home, to remind people what that club means - that is a story of its own.

Pelister in pot one: Bitola waits for the draw from a privileged seat

Eurofarm Pelister goes into the group-stage draw of the EHF European League placed in pot one among the seeded clubs. It means the Bitola side cannot be drawn into the same group as Benfica, Bidasoa Irun, Flensburg, Nexe, Tatabánya, Sävehof and Izviđač. Pot two holds Karviná, Granollers, Valur, Kadetten Schaffhausen, Elverum, Limoges, Tatran Prešov and Gummersbach. A Macedonian club sitting as an equal next to Benfica and Flensburg is no small thing - that is a position earned through years of work, not through statements.

Russia and Belarus are coming back into handball

Following the decisions of the International Olympic Committee's Executive Board on 7 May and 7 July 2026, the Council of the International Handball Federation decided to align its position with the IOC's latest line - meaning Russia and Belarus will again be able to compete under the IHF banner. The ban had been in place since the start of the war in Ukraine. Sports federations spent years repeating that sport and politics are separate, then banned, and now reinstate - each time with the same conviction. What changed in the meantime, apart from the decision?

Macedonia's youth side thrashed Turkey 41:24

The men's youth national team recorded a big and deserved win over Turkey, 41:24, at the European Championship in Romania. It is a second win for our young hopes at the tournament, after the one against Latvia. A seventeen-goal margin at a European championship is not an accident - this is a generation that knows what it is doing. While the big clubs argue about pots and groups, in Cluj a group of lads from Macedonia is quietly stacking up wins. Hardly anyone writes about them when they lose, and even fewer when they win.

The Youth World Championship comes to Macedonia next summer

The eight quarter-finalists of the European Championship for players under 20 - Sweden, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Hungary, Slovenia and France - have already secured their place at the 26th Junior World Championship (U21) in 2027, held in Macedonia. There are 15 places in total, with the remaining seven decided in additional matches. Today's semi-finals in Cluj feature Denmark, Sweden, Slovenia and Hungary, with Sweden still unbeaten. Next summer the best young handball players in the world are coming to us - the question is whether by then we will be talking about the arenas and the organisation, or only about who gets photographed at the opening ceremony.