With the past week seeing some record temperatures in Europe, it is without doubt that the European summer is coming and that means one thing – beach handball.

ihf.info provides a news round-up of recent beach handball news in Europe, as the continent looks forward to its sandy summer.

Ready for Türkiye 2025

The 2025 editions of the senior and YAC (younger age category) EHF Men’s and Women’s European Beach Handball Championships will take place in Alanya, Türkiye in July.

The YAC event will be played from 3 to 6 July, followed by the senior event, known as ‘EHF Beach Handball EURO 2025’, which will take place from 8 to 13 July and features16 teams in each competition.

The draw for the preliminary round was made at the new EHF headquarters in Vienna earlier this year, with teams divided into four pots based on their current ranking.

Highlights of the draw include two-time reigning champions and 2024 IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship title-holders Germany facing 2019 champions Denmark in the women’s event.

Winners of the 2023 men’s event, Hungary, will face Norway, Ukraine, and Italy. Record winners and 2024 IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championship winners Croatia will line-up against 2023 bronze medallists and the team they beat in the world final last year, Denmark. 

Jarun Cup takes place in Zagreb, Croatia

The traditional ‘curtain-raiser’ to the EHF’s European Beach Handball Tour (ebt) saw the Jarun Cup 2025 take place on the shores of Lake Jarun in Croatia’s capital, Zagreb.

Officially, the third stage of the 2024/25 ebt Tour, the Jarun Cup is the first one of the season played outside, following the indoor tournaments in the Netherlands (Karin Cup) and Czechia (Prague Open).

The four-day event saw Portuguese side GRD Leca – Spar retrain their men’s 2024 title and Hungarian team Multichem Szentendrei NKE taking the women’s senior title.

A record-breaking 48 senior teams competed at the 17th edition of the event which featured nearly 800 players across a number of different age categories.

The event also saw four potential EHF couples whistle as part of the ‘EHF Beach Handball Candidate Referee Programme’.

The 2024/25 season is the 21st edition of the ebt, which started on 1 December 2024 and will conclude on 31 October 2025, followed by the ebt Finals the following year.

For all results and interviews from the Jarun Cup 2025, click HERE.

ebt Finals line-up complete for July

The finale of last season’s ebt (2023/24) is the ebt Finals, which will take place from 5 to 8 June in Trapani, Italy.

In March, the EHF confirmed the 14 men's and 14 women's teams who will play in the event which will see teams play a preliminary phase in two groups of seven with the top four then moving through to the last eight and then playing for the podium.

Both the reigning men's and women’s champions will be in Italy, with Portguese side EFE Os Tigres and CBMP Ciudad de Málaga of Spain competing, respectively.

For more information on the draw, click HERE.

Croatia men and Germany women end year in top spot

Both 2024 IHF Beach Handball World Championship winning teams – Croatia’s men and Germany’s women – ended in their respective top spots in the EHF Beach Handball Rankings revealed at the end of last year.

The official rankings take into account all major senior and YAC national team events from the past three years.

In addition to their senior world championship win, Croatia’s ranking included their 2022 IHF Men’s Youth Beach Handball World Championship win in Greece, plus fourth place at the EHF Men's 16 Beach Handball EURO 2024.
 
Having won both the 2022 and 2024 world titles, Germany’s women also saw their EHF Beach Handball EURO 2023 win add to their points total for the rankings, narrowly followed by the Netherlands.

For more on the EHF Ranking, visit HERE.

Ricardo Castro and Meike Kruijer honoured by EHF

The 2024 edition of the ‘EHF Excellence Awards’ took place in Vienna, Austria late last year with beach handball recognised in front of a star-studded crowd.

National team players Ricardo Castro and Meike Kruijer, from Portugal and the Netherlands’ respectively won the ‘Beach Handball MVPs’ awards, which added to their bronze medals and All-star Team selections from the 2024 IHF Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships held in China.

The EHF awards were in recognition of their selections into the All-star Teams of the ebt Finals 2024, China 2024 and the EHF Beach Handball Champions Cup 2024.

2025 EHF Beach Handball Champions Cup date and venue confirmed

Further EHF business saw the Executive Committee confirm that the 2025 edition of the EHF Beach Handball Champions Cup will take place in Porto Santo, Portugal from 9 to 12 October. It will be the fourth time in a row the event has taken place at the venue.

Credit photo: Jozo Cabraja / kolektiff