Can we handball? Yes we can!

Despite the host trio of Slovenia, FYR Macedonia and Montenegro being the sole bidder for the Women’s EHF EURO 2022 with their triple-hosting, they have cut no corners in their impressive bid ahead of the vote in Glasgow at the EHF Congress 2018, scheduled to take place on the morning of Wednesday, 20 June.

Throughout their bid presentation  they are keen to make clear that the EHF EURO 2022 will “bring the biggest women’s handball event in Europe closer to what the biggest men’s events represent.”

Describing the bidding cities as “modern cities in the heart of the Balkans with a Balkan flavour,” their Women’s EHF EURO 2022 bid features four destinations, including all three capital cities hosting games.

The 2016 European Green Capital, Ljubljana (SLO), will see matches at the 12,480-capacity Arena Stozice, while the 2,000-year old Macedonian capital Skopje will host games in its 6,173-capacity Boris Trakovski Arena.

Slovenia’s second venue is the home of VELUX EHF Champions League team RK Celje Pivovarna Lasko, the 5,800-capacity Arena Zlatorog in Celje. The final venue is the famous Moraca Hall in Podgorica (MNE). Home of the all-conquering Women’s EHF Champions League side Buducnost for many year, it was renovated in 2005 and has a capacity of 5,000.

For the host countries the championship not only represents a visit from 16 of the world’s best national handball teams, it is part of a long-term mission to “enhance the brand and image of women’s handball and improve all its products.”

Slovenia, FYR Macedonia and Montenegro have decided on promoting the bid, and subsequent tournament under the global message heading of ‘We Can Handball’.

Under this heading comes an impressive array of proposed initiatives including: ‘We Teach Handball’, which aims to use handball to promote inclusion of sport in young people’s everyday lives, ‘We Care Handball’, a global community outreach initiative addressing important social issues, ‘We Work Handball’, workshops around the championship led by lecturers and representatives of the EHF Women’s Handball Board (WHB), ‘We Support Handball’, a focus on sponsors and partner companies, which provide valuable assistance in promoting the game.

Finally, ‘We Travel Handball’, will be a social media push from the three host national teams to highlight interesting insights into the journeys the players make to their games, with the aim of inspiring smaller clubs, fans and players to join in and share their handball stories to promote the game and the championship.

Alongside a proposed Women’s EHF EURO Trophy Tour throughout the region, ‘We Can Handball’ will “enhance the brand and the image of the women’s handball, improving the products of the women’s handball and shortening the gap of women’s handball with men’s handball by making the Women’s EHF EURO campaign a multiple-year series of events which concludes with the final Tournament in 2022.”

Bid Links:

EHF EURO Beyond 2020 website
Beyond 2020 official bid presentation
Bid website