The European Handball Federation has confirmed the launch of the U16 Regional Challenge Cup for the 2026/27 season. Twelve national federations — Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Turkey, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Greece — will each enter a boys and a girls team.
The competition is built for players born in 2010 and 2011. It gives national teams in this age category a guaranteed programme of six competitive international matches in the group stage, followed by a final window in which every participating team plays for a definitive placement between first and twelfth.
Teams are drawn into four groups of three, with separate group compositions for the boys and the girls competition. Each group plays a full round-robin in three tournament windows, and every federation hosts exactly one of those windows.