The European Handball Federation (EHF) has excluded top team Vardar Skopje from the European Cup for the 2022/23 season.
As the EHF announced on Wednesday (June 22, 2022), the reason for this was the lack of salary payments to the players. One has in a period “of almost two years” tries to solve the problem with the club from North Macedonia, the statement said. Discussions were held and deadlines were set, “Unfortunately, the club representatives were not able to comply with them”, announced the EHF. The club only made partial payments.
“The European competition system at club level has a highly sensitive structure and depends very much on the integrity of the participating clubs. This asset must be protected,” it said in an EHF message. The place of the North Macedonians could now be awarded in the wildcard procedure.
Champions League trophies for Vardar Skopje
Skopje won the Champions League in 2017 and 2019. In the past season, the club played in a preliminary round group with THW Kiel and failed in the playoff round at the Hungarian representative Telekom Veszprem.
As the North Macedonian champions, Vardar would have been eligible to compete in the Champions League again in the new season.