Norway won a record eighth EHF EURO title in December 2020, defeating France 22:20 at the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning, Denmark.

Norwegian goalkeeper Katrine Lunde, left wing Camilla Herrem and line player Marit Malm Frafjord tied compatriots Breivang, Linn Kristin Riegelhuth-Koren and Kari Aalvik Grimsbø as the only players with five EHF EURO titles.

Nora Mørk was the tournament’s top scorer, finishing the final with 52 goals. She became the first female player to win the top scorer award twice, having previously led the standings at the EHF EURO 2016.

France took their first EHF EURO silver medal to add to the 2018 gold and three earlier bronze medals, with the loss in the final their only defeat of the tournament.

Meanwhile Croatia wrote history by not just reaching the main round for the first time ever, but winning bronze against hosts Denmark.

The four semi-finalists all booked their tickets to the World Championship 2021 in Spain, alongside the hosts and reigning world champions the Netherlands.

The final was the culmination of a unique championships which took place amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Denmark stepped up as the sole hosts after Norway withdrew shortly before the tournament due to the coronavirus crisis, and were able to host the tournament in Herning and Kolding through the adoption of strict hygiene protocols protecting players, officials, staff and volunteers from infection.

Although fans were unable to attend the games live, the championship saw huge fan engagement across Europe with millions tuning in to watch the matches on TV and online as well as engaging with the official EHF EURO social media channels and those of the federations.

Live data was also provided to fans, the media and teams through analytics provider Kinexon and the SELECT iBall.

Fan engagement high for Women’s EHF EURO 2020

Fans may not have been able to attend the Women’s EHF EURO 2020 in person, but millions were able to experience the passion and excitement of the tournament through digital media.

Social media engagement soared during the competition. A clip of a handball sticking to the shirt of French player Alexandra Lacrabère was viewed nearly 10 million times on the EHF’s official TikTok channel, further highlighting handball’s ever-growing expansion into younger audiences.

The success of the Lacrabère clip helped generate a colossal 200 per cent increase in followership of the EHF EURO TikTok account, with an additional 25,000 followers recorded in less than a week during the tournament.

Community growth on social media also increased in general during the tournament, with over 16,000 new users following official EHF EURO Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube accounts and video views surpassing 7 million.

Download numbers of the EHF’s new mobile game also suggest a younger audience is engaging with handball in different, fresher ways. The game has been downloaded 10,000 times.

Listenership of the official EHF EURO podcast, produced by the (Un)Informed Handball Hour, also continues to rise, with 35,000 trackable downloads recorded since the beginning of the tournament.

Matches were shown live and on demand by over 30 broadcasters to fans in more than 50 countries, with over 200,000 unique users also logging on to EHFTV to watch action during the tournament including over 20,000 new users.

During the final weekend millions of handball fans tuned in. The final between France and Norway proved incredibly popular with fans in front of their televisions with four million people watching in France alone. In Norway, 1.2m witnessed the Norwegian team lift the trophy – a market share of 21.4 per cent.

Interest in Denmark was also incredibly strong, with 1.7 million fans watching the Danes’ semi-final against Norway – a hugely dominant 70.5 per cent share of the market. Many of the host nation’s earlier games were watched by a market share of 50 per cent.

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