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Kvindeligaen 2026/27 (F)

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Kvindeligaen 2026/27 (F) · 61 members

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Kvindeligaen 2026/27 (F)

Handball · 2026/27

Fourteen clubs in a country of six million people, ranked fourth in Europe on the EHF coefficient and ahead of Norway. In Denmark winning the regular phase isn't enough: a championship round follows and reshuffles everything, so twenty-six rounds only serve to position you.

Team Esbjerg finished the regular phase top on 51 points, three ahead of Odense Håndbold, in a tug-of-war that has repeated season after season. Nykøbing Falster and Ikast completed the leading group. The 2026/27 season starts in late August and asks the same question again: who holds on until the championship round.

Esbjerg against Odense is the duel, and one detail makes it hard to call: these are tight games. Last season half the league's matches were decided by five goals or fewer.

From 1936 to fourth place in Europe

Denmark's first women's championship was played in 1936 and won by K.I. of Copenhagen; 2026/27 will be season number 91. For much of that run, Denmark was the reference country in women's club handball: the EHF placed its league first in the continental coefficient every year from 2008 to 2014.

Domestically, Viborg HK leads with 14 titles, though the last one dates from 2014. Abroad, six European Cups carry a Danish stamp and all of them fit inside seven seasons: Slagelse won in 2004, 2005 and 2007 — and the club was wound up in 2013 — and Viborg in 2006, 2009 and 2010. None since. There is more silverware one rung down: the women's club of Holstebro lifted two EHF Cups, in 2013 and 2015, plus a Cup Winners' Cup in 2016.

Today the league sits fourth in the EHF coefficient, behind Hungary, France and Russia and just ahead of Norway. The tug-of-war with the Norwegians turned sharply in 2025: Vipers Kristiansand, European champions in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and seven times Norwegian champions in a row, filed for bankruptcy on 13 January. Four months later, in Budapest, two Danish clubs climbed onto the Champions League podium.

An unbeaten regular phase and a final that went to three

Twenty-five wins, one draw and no defeats in 26 rounds: that is how Team Esbjerg closed the 2025/26 regular phase, on 51 points with a goal record of 920 for and 668 against. Odense Håndbold finished three points back (24-0-2), Nykøbing Falster were third on 40 and Ikast fourth on 39. Viborg came fifth.

None of that handed out medals. On 16 April the top eight split into two groups of four, carrying two bonus points for the top two of the table and one for third and fourth. Esbjerg won all six games again (209-157). The best-of-three semi-finals were settled in two: 37-21 and 29-26 against Ikast, and 34-26 and 31-27 for Odense over Nykøbing Falster.

The final needed all three dates. On 27 May Esbjerg won 37-30 at the Blue Water Dokken; on the 30th Odense answered 33-30 at the Sydbank Arena; on 2 June, back in Esbjerg, 35-29 and a sixth title. Bronze went to Nykøbing Falster (36-34 and 29-28 against Ikast). And at the bottom Bjerringbro FH went down with three wins in 26 rounds.

Who is up, who survived and who chases Esbjerg

The 91st edition starts on 26 August and the calendar wastes no time: Ikast-Odense is on the opening day. Esbjerg defend the title as the team to beat; Odense — Danish runners-up and Champions League finalists in 2025, beaten 29-27 by Győr while Esbjerg took bronze (30-27 over Metz) — are the natural rival. Behind them Nykøbing Falster and Ikast line up again, and Viborg, 14 times champions but none since 2014, are still looking for a way back onto the podium.

Two faces are new for opposite reasons. EH Aalborg keep their place because they won the relegation play-off: they lost the second leg in Copenhagen (23-21) and saved themselves in the third, 31-26 against Ajax on 17 May. And up comes the Holstebro club, today named Nordvestjysk Elite: it was created on 14 April 2020, when TTH split its men's and women's sections, dropped down in 2022 and returns four seasons later without a single league title.

The goals last season were shared by Julie Scaglione (225 for Ikast), Sweden's Clara Lerby (223 at Nykøbing) and Norway's Henny Reistad (217 at Esbjerg).

Twenty-six rounds to get in position, three rounds to win

Fourteen teams, home and away, 26 rounds: 182 matches spread between 26 August and 17 March. And that is only the first half of the year. The top eight move into the championship phase, split into two groups of four that carry bonus points: two for the top two of the regular phase, one for third and fourth, none for the rest. Six more games, and the best two in each group cross over in the semi-finals, first in one against second in the other, best of three, as are the final and the bronze match.

At the bottom the machinery is just as long. The last team of the regular phase drops straight to the 1. division. Sides finishing ninth to thirteenth play a group of their own, and the worst of them meets, best of three again, the winner of the tie between second and third in the second tier.

On court these games are rarely comfortable: of the 180 played last season, 49% were decided by five goals or fewer and 22% by two or fewer. But one in four ended with a gap of ten or more, and the median combined score settled at 59 goals.

Champion 2025/26