2026 European Men's U-18 Handball Championship
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| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country |  Serbia |
| Venues | 3 (in 1 host city) |
| Dates | 29 July – 9 August |
| Teams | 24 (from 1 confederation) |
The 2026 European Men's U-18 Handball Championship, commonly referred to as the M18 EHF Euro 2026, was the 15th edition of the EHF European Men's Handball Championship, the biennial international under-18 men's handball championship of Europe organized by EHF. It was will be hosted by Serbia from 29 July to 9 August 2026, marking the first time the event will be held in the country. The final will be in Belgrade.
24 teams participated for the second time, following the expansion in 2024. This tournament will act as a qualifier for the 2027 IHF Men's U19 Handball World Championship in an unknown country.
Sweden are the defending champions, having beaten Denmark in the 2024 final in Podgorica.
Quotes
On 13 December 2024, at a meeting in Vienna, the hosting rights were awarded to Serbia.[1][2] This will be the first time Serbia hosts the tournament, although it previously organised the 2004 edition as Serbia and Montenegro.
This is a great victory for our Federation, we are not even aware of how big a thing it is to win the hosting of the European Championship. The organization of this competition will bring a lot of good to Serbia, Belgrade and our handball because we will host as many as 24 countries. Our country has not had this privilege since 2013, when it won its last medal in a major competition. Incredibly, twenty years have passed since the organization of the Cadet European Championship when our country won the gold medal. A year later, we were also world champions. May such success be repeated. I must also point out that this is the only way to bring our handball back to the world map and to get children to come to our sport. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but we are ready to push all the boundaries when it comes to organization. We owe a great debt of gratitude to all members of the EHF Executive Board, as well as to the Competition Committee headed by Božidar Đurković
— Ivan Milivojević, president of the Serbian Handball Federation.
Format
The tournament consisted of three phases: The first two were played in a round-robin-groups format. The third phase was played in a playoff format with consolations.
In the First phase, 24 teams were drawn into six groups of four.
- The top two teams from each group advanced to the Main round.
- The third- and fourth-placed teams advanced to the Intermediate round.
In the Second phase, all teams were again divided into groups of four, but this time, against the teams that advanced to the same round as them. Each separate round (Main and Intermediate) was played by 12 teams, divided into three groups of four.
- In the Main round, the top two teams from each group and the best two third-placed teams advanced to the quarterfinals. The other four teams advanced to the 9th–16th place playoffs.
- In the Intermediate round, the winners of each group and the best second-placed team advanced to the 9th–16th place playoffs. The other eight teams advanced to the 17th–24th place playoffs.
In the Third phase, the teams were divided into three playoff tiers of eight teams each, with each team playing three more matches there. Each of the three playoffs consisted of four quarterfinals, two semifinals, two consolation semifinals, and four final placement matches.
The format changed from the previous edition. This new format was previously adopted to in the 2025 women's under age European Championships.[3]
