Russia not to host European women's handball championship in 2026

MOSCOW. July 4 (Interfax) - The European Handball Federation (EHF) has decided to shift the 2026 European Women's Championship out of Russia, the Handball Federation of Russia said.

"Unfortunately, the situation today is such that Russian national teams and clubs are banned from taking part in any international competitions. And the current conditions are preventing [us] from timely completing all the stages of preparation for such a big tournament. This concerns inspection visits by EHF representatives, technical support at arenas, arrivals by fans from most foreign countries and other key operational issues," the Handball Federation of Russia said in a statement on its website.

"Therefore, following consultations with the EHF leadership, it was decided to move the 2026 European championship from Russia to some other country. For the entire Russian sport and handball community, it was quite hard to take [the decision] since a great amount of work had been done to win the right to organize the tournament. We hope that handball fans will understand," the federation said.

Russia secured the right to host the 2026 European Women's Championship in November 2021.