Vardar took the Super Cup in a match that ran to the last second

The ninth edition of the Macedonian Super Cup was played in Gevgelija and ended the way everyone hoped it would not - decided in the final attacks. RK Vardar beat GRK Ohrid 32:31 and took a fifth trophy in this competition. Ohrid's coach, Boris Rojević, was as honest after the match as people rarely are in defeat: they had their chances, they did not take them, and some things he did not like will still be analysed. Ohrid remains without the first major trophy in its history, but a one-goal margin against the domestic champion says the Bitola-Ohrid axis is no longer background, it is competition. Vardar has a new captain this season too - goalkeeper Vasil Gogov, who succeeded Goce Georgievski, with Jaka Malus as his deputy.

Tomovski leads the Bundesliga for saves, and that is no accident

Martin Tomovski has collected 28 saves in the first two rounds of the German Bundesliga and leads the league on that measure. In round one he made 15 interventions and was among the main reasons for Bietigheim's win over Wetzlar. Against the giants of Kiel he made 13 - and lost. That is the whole story of a goalkeeper in a team that is not among the favourites: the better you save, the more it means your defence is leaving you alone out there. We have had Macedonian goalkeepers in foreign leagues for decades, but this one holds the number at the top of the strongest club league in the world. If that is not an argument for the national squad, then nothing is.

The EHF ruled against Croatia: 10,000 euros for a flag at the medal ceremony

The Court of Appeal of the European Handball Federation rejected the appeal of the Croatian Handball Federation and upheld the fine of 10,000 euros, of which 2,500 is suspended for two years. The reason: at the medal ceremony of EHF EURO 2026 the player Matej Mandić unfurled a flag not provided for in the EHF protocol. The court at the same time partly upheld the EHF's own appeal and imposed an additional fine of 2,500 euros on Mandić personally. The deadline for appeal to the European Handball Court of Arbitration is 21 days. One flag, two fines, and an entire federal budget spent on legal procedure - while the same institution in the same period has an open investigation into racist abuse at the EHF European Cup final between GRK Ohrid and Tatabánya. The priorities can be read off the size of the fines.

Eurofarm Pelister is building a team for more than a domestic title

The Bitola runners-up are, days before the start of the domestic championship, negotiating for a centre back from the Paris Saint-Germain academy - 26-year-old Sadou Ntanzi, with talks running for weeks. At the same time the second team has signed Danilo Gutić, a young Montenegrin who will be the only foreigner in the Pelister 2 squad. Former Vardar and Pelister player Ilija Abutović, now at Partizan, described Macedonian handball this week with a sentence Bitola will frame: the derbies here are a real war, on the court and in the stands. He played nine years in Macedonia. He knows what he is talking about.

The Champions League begins, and the Balkans is in it again

The men's Champions League starts on 9 September, and the first round brings a Balkan derby straight away - Zagreb host Slovenia's Celje. In the women's competition the season starts even earlier, with Krim against CSM Bucharest, Podravka against Győr and Budućnost against FTC. Barcelona enter as champions with twelve titles won in the men's competition, while in the women's game the title is defended by Metz, who beat Győr 31:29 in the Budapest final. There is no Macedonian club on those lists. Which is why the whole season for Vardar, Ohrid, Pelister and Alkaloid is measured in the regional league and the domestic championship - and that is the point where it is decided whether that league is a step up or a ceiling.