Article by Cezar Titor – Published Thursday, April 16, 2026, 7:02 p.m. / Updated Thursday, April 16, 2026, 7:07 p.m.
The draw for this year's European Women's Handball Championship takes place now in Katowice, Poland, as reported by the official YouTube channel of the EHF and Voyo.
The final tournament will take place between December 3-20, and Romania is the host, along with Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Turkey. In the preliminary round, the 24 qualifying teams are to be divided into six groups of four teams each. EURO 2024 medalists Norway, Denmark and Hungary are seeded in Pot 1, while the home five are in either Pot 2 or Pot 3. The Tricolore are in Pot 2.
LIVE » The draw for the 2026 European Women's Handball Championship:
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At the moment, EHF officials are giving speeches before the draw, after the cities where the final tournament will be held have also been presented.
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Four players were selected to witness the draw: Katarzyna Cygan (Poland), Silvie Polaskova (Czech Republic), Barbora Lancz (Slovakia) and Elif Sila Aydin (Turkey).
What the ballot boxes look like for Euro 2026:
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Urn 1: Norway, Denmark, Hungary, France, Sweden, Netherlands
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Urn 2: Germany, Montenegro, Poland, RomaniaSpain, Czech Republic
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Urn 3: Turkey, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Austria, Faroe Islands
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Urn 4: Croatia, Serbia, Iceland, North Macedonia, Ukraine, Greece
The teams were allocated into value boxes based on the results of the 2026 qualifiers and the final ranking from the 2024 European Championship.
According to the regulations, six teams have already been assigned to groups: Hungary in group A, Romania in group B, Turkey in group C, Czech Republic in group D, Poland in group E, Slovakia in group F.
Where will the games from the 6 groups be played:
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Group A: Oradea
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Group B: Cluj-Napoca (where Romania will also evolve)
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Group C: Antalya, Turkey
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Group D: Brno, Czech Republic
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Group E: Katowice, Poland
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Group F: Bratislava, Slovakia
The first two ranked teams from each group will qualify for the main round, which will be played in Cluj-Napoca (teams from groups A, B and C), respectively Katowice (groups D, E and F). The Final Four will be played in Katowice, Poland – Spodek Arena, on December 18, the semifinals, with the final scheduled for December 20.
The five host nations, along with the top three placed in the previous edition, automatically got the tickets for the final tournament. The other 16 teams earned their place following the recently concluded qualification campaign. Romania did not take part in the preliminaries, participating in this period in the EHF Euro Cup.
