Handball Leagues and Associations: IHF, USA Team Handball, EHF and LA28

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On a Friday night in August 2026, a recreation center in downtown Sioux City, Iowa, hosted something new: the US men’s national team beat Canada 40-18 in the first game of a qualifying series for the 2027 Pan American Games, one stop on the road to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. Two months earlier, Europe’s best clubs had played for the Champions League title in Cologne. Handball has a clear structure from the world body down to your local club, and this guide maps it: the IHF, the big handball leagues in Europe, USA Team Handball, college club handball and the LA28 Olympic tournament. Facts are as of the 2026 season.

Who runs handball: at a glance

Level	Organization	What it runs
World	International Handball Federation (IHF)	Rules of the Game, World Championships (indoor, beach, wheelchair, youth), Olympic handball with the IOC
Continents	EHF (Europe), NACHC (North America and Caribbean) and four more confederations	Continental championships and club competitions such as the EHF Champions League
USA	USA Team Handball	National teams, US championships, club and college directories, youth development
College	College club teams under USA Team Handball	College Nationals each spring
Olympics	IOC, IHF, LA28	12-team men’s and women’s tournaments at the Long Beach Arena in 2028

The IHF: handball’s world governing body

The International Handball Federation was founded in 1946 and is based in Basel, Switzerland. Its membership is 211 national federations, grouped into six continental confederations: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and the Caribbean, Oceania, and South and Central America. The IHF writes the Rules of the Game for indoor and beach handball (the current indoor edition dates from July 2025), approves match balls and runs the World Championships for men, women, juniors, youth, beach and wheelchair handball. USA Team Handball puts the worldwide game at more than 180 countries and about 19 million players.

European handball and the EHF Champions League

Europe is handball’s heartland, and the European Handball Federation’s club competitions are the sport’s biggest stage outside the Olympics.

• Men’s EHF Champions League: in 2025–26, 16 clubs played in two groups of eight, home and away, before the knockout rounds and the Final4 weekend at the LANXESS arena in Cologne, Germany. Barça beat Füchse Berlin 37:34 in the final on June 14, 2026, for their 12th Champions League title.
• Women’s EHF Champions League: the 2026 Final4 was played at the sold-out MVM Dome in Budapest on June 6–7. Metz Handball of France beat the defending champions Győri Audi ETO KC 31:29 for the club’s first title.
• National leagues: the clubs come from strong domestic leagues across Europe, among them Spain, Germany, France and Hungary, judging by the 2026 finalists.

The official Champions League match ball is the Select Ultimate. If you want to train with the same look, Select sells a Replica EHF Champions League v24 training ball, hand-stitched and EHF approved, which the listing says grips well with and without resin (size 3, about $107, seen October 2026).

USA Team Handball

USA Team Handball is the sport’s national governing body in the US. It runs the men’s, women’s and wheelchair national teams, the men’s and women’s beach national teams, and a growing pathway of age-group teams: cadet (U17), youth (U19) and junior (U21) programs, plus the first-ever U16 women’s national team in 2026, which qualified in Mexico City for the first IHF U16 Women’s World Championship. In 2026 the senior men and women both qualified for the 2027 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, and US beach teams won gold at the North America and Caribbean championships. Rehband was named the federation’s official supplier of protective equipment in September 2026.

For players, USA Team Handball keeps a club directory and a collegiate club directory, and it runs the national club championships. At the 2026 US Open Championships in May, New York Athletic Club won the men’s elite title 36-34 in overtime against New York City Team Handball Club, and Chicago Inter won the women’s title with a 4-0 record; the women’s field of 14 teams was the largest in the event’s history. Separate from the federation, the Handball Futures project, started by US Olympians and national team alumni in 2024, held its first festival for 48 of the country’s top emerging women players in Colorado Springs in July 2026.

College club handball

Handball isn’t an NCAA sport, so college handball in the US is played by club teams. USA Team Handball’s collegiate directory lists clubs such as Army West Point, Air Force Academy, Auburn, Case Western Reserve, James Madison, Johns Hopkins, North Carolina, Ohio State and SUNY Cortland, with women’s teams at several of them. The College Nationals are held each spring. The 2026 edition was at North Carolina State University in Raleigh on April 24–26: Army West Point beat Air Force 46-36 for the men’s title, its 18th in a row and 40th since 1976, and in the women’s final West Point Black beat West Point Gold.

If your college has no team, the club directory can point you to the nearest adult club.

The Olympics: LA28

Handball was first played at the Olympics outdoors in Berlin in 1936; indoor handball has been on the program since Munich 1972 and the women’s tournament since 1976. France has won the most Olympic golds in the sport, and the US has yet to win a medal. At Los Angeles 2028:

• Venue: the Long Beach Arena on the downtown Long Beach waterfront, which hosted volleyball at the 1984 Games.
• Dates: July 12–28, 2028. The men’s tournament starts July 12 and the women’s July 13, before the Opening Ceremony.
• Format: 12 teams per tournament in two groups of six; the top four in each group reach the quarterfinals, then semifinals and medal games.
• Qualification: as hosts, the US men and women are already in. Other places go to continental and world champions, starting with the Women’s EHF EURO in December 2026 and the 2027 IHF Men’s World Championship in January 2027.

A different sport with the same name

In the US, “handball” also means the wall game, played one-wall, three-wall or four-wall by hitting a small ball against a wall with a gloved hand. Its governing body is the US Handball Association, founded in 1951. It’s a great sport, just not this one.

Gear for the road to LA28

Whether you’re joining a college club or an adult team, the first buys are a good ball and heart-rate data for conditioning. The Molten 5000 is a hand-stitched match ball that the listing calls the official ball of the IHF (size 3, about $82). The Polar H10 chest strap is an ECG-style heart-rate sensor that connects over Bluetooth and ANT+ to watches, phones and gym equipment; see our handball wearables page for more.

Back to the handball hub, or see handball rules, youth handball and handball training. For how another sport is organized in the US, see our soccer leagues and associations page.

Handball leagues questions

Is there a professional handball league in the US?

Not a fully professional one as of 2026. US handball is played by adult and college clubs that meet at USA Team Handball’s national championships each year.

What is the best handball league in the world?

The top club competition is the EHF Champions League, which brings together Europe’s best clubs. Barça won the men’s title in 2026 for the 12th time, and Metz Handball won the women’s.

Can you play handball in college?

Yes, at club level. Handball isn’t an NCAA sport, but schools such as Army West Point, Air Force, North Carolina and Ohio State have club teams that compete at USA Team Handball’s College Nationals each spring.

Where will handball be played at the LA28 Olympics?

At the Long Beach Arena, from July 12 to 28, 2028, with 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams. The US teams are qualified as hosts.

How do I join USA Team Handball or find a club?

Use the club directory and membership pages on USA Team Handball’s website. Most clubs welcome beginners, and several run youth programs.