Vardar know their fixtures: they start at Melsungen, first home test against Nantes

The Macedonian champions open the Champions League group stage away to Germany's Melsungen on 10 September, with the first match in front of a home crowd against France's Nantes on 16 September. Then come two ties with Wisla Plock (8 and 15 October), an away game at Nantes on 21 October and a home closer against Melsungen on 28 October. Four of the six rounds are played at 20:45, two at 18:45. Germany, France, Poland - not one easy slot in the schedule and not one excuse if the season goes badly. The red-and-blacks are once again the only Macedonian address in the most elite club competition, and once again the entire story hangs on six evenings.

Pelister in Group G: Gummersbach, Logrono and Gdansk on the road to the play-offs

The draw for the EHF European League put Eurofarm Pelister in Group G alongside Gummersbach, Logrono La Rioja and Gdansk. Thirty-two clubs are split into eight groups, the group stage runs from 29 September to 2 December, and two teams from each group go through to the play-offs - where the third- and fourth-placed sides from the Champions League are waiting for them. The Bitola side already has experience of the top competition, which means this is not a group where they can hide behind „strong opponents”. Two spots out of four - that is a task you solve, not a task you get used to.

The Champions League with 24 teams: more sides, smaller groups, less room for error

The new EHF Champions League season is played with 24 clubs instead of 16, spread across six groups of four, with two teams per group advancing to the main round running from 18 November 2026 to 4 March 2027. It starts on 9 September in Veszprem, Aalborg, Zagreb and Kielce, with Barcelona defending the title the same evening against debutants Aarhus. Partizan return to the elite after a 13-year absence and immediately host Fuchse Berlin. The second round brings a rematch of last season's quarter-final Berlin - Veszprem, a tie that last year ended after 120 minutes with no winner and went to penalties. A bigger format usually means a more diluted one. This time the groups are so small that one bad match costs a season - which is precisely the point.

Markovic has taken over the women's team, and the Euros are just over four months away

Montenegrin Igor Markovic is the new head coach of the women's senior national team. Ahead of him is the European Championship from 3 to 20 December across five countries, where Macedonia is in Group B and will play in Cluj-Napoca against Norway, Romania and Switzerland. Norway in the same group is almost a sporting handicap in itself. Markovic promises „a preparation period in which we will work hard to build a strong team”, and federation president Aleksandar Stefanov presents him as a coach with a rich playing and coaching career. The promises are standard for any unveiling. The question is how much time a national coach is given here before the same sentence starts being repeated about his successor.

Macedonia's juniors had no chance against France, and Kosovo hosted the European finish

Macedonia's young handball players ended the cycle with an expected defeat by France - simply another dimension, as the domestic media wrote. In the same period Pristina hosted the finals of the European junior competitions for teams that did not qualify for the Euros: the Netherlands beat Estonia to take the trophy in the first tier, and Finland beat Slovakia 30:26 in the second. Twelve national teams, two weeks of matches, entirely organised in the region. It is exactly at tournaments like that where a young national side gets minutes against an equal opponent - and not only against France.