The European Handball Federation (EHF) has withdrawn the appointment of referees Slave Nikolov and Gjorgji Nachevski, from North Macedonia, for the 2026 European Championship, following suspicions of manipulation of videos related to the mandatory physical assessment. As explained by the EHF in an official statement, all referee pairs are required to comply with a training plan and carry out a physical test, documented through two video recordings. At the end of December, the federation was alerted to the possibility that the videos submitted by Nikolov and Nachevski had been altered and did not correspond to a continuous and reliable recording of the test. A subsequent analysis revealed “strong signs” of manipulation. Given the seriousness of the situation and with the aim of safeguarding the integrity of the competition, the EHF decided to remove the two referees from the list of nominees, who will therefore not be present at the 2026 European Championship. Remember, the European Championship will take place between January 15th and February 1st, 2026, in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Portugal is placed in group B with Denmark, North Macedonia and Romania. The debut of Heroes of the Sea takes place on January 16th against the Romanians.