Women’s EHF Euro 2026: Draw preview

Breaking down the pots, groups and format. Here is everything you need to know ahead of the Women’s EHF Euro 2026 draw.

(Image credit to IHF)

Now that all teams have secured their qualification for the Women’s EHF Euro 2026, it's time for the draw, which will be taking place on Thursday, the 16th of April in Katowice, Poland at 18:00 CEST.

This draw will determine the six groups, consisting of four teams each.

The nations are right now divided in four pots with six nations in each. Pot 1 contains the highest-ranked teams, followed by Pot 2 and so on.

These pots are based on the results of the 2026 Qualifiers and the final ranking of the Women’s EHF EURO 2024.

They look like this:

Pot 1: Norway, Denmark, Hungary, France, Sweden, Netherlands

Pot 2: Germany, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Spain, Czechia

Pot 3: Türkiye, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Austria, Faroe Islands 

Pot 4: Croatia, Serbia, Iceland, North Macedonia, Ukraine, Greece

Due to regulations and nations getting to play at homebase - as there are five hosts this year - six nations have already been placed in the groups.

• Hungary to group A

• Romania to group B

• Türkiye to group C

• Czechia to group D 

• Poland to group E

• Slovakia to group F

After the draw has happened, there will be a preliminary round, where each nation in each group will play each other once. The two best nations from each group will then move on to the next round.

This leaves 12 nations advancing to the main round and the other 12 are eliminated.

The draw will be streamed live on EHFTV and the EHF’s Home of Handball YouTube channel.

Article written by Laura Friis