ASOBAL Legacy League celebrates one year: when handball decides to change the rules.

It has been only a year since ASOBAL launched the ASOBAL Legacy League (ALL), the innovative project aimed at integrating sustainability at the heart of professional handball. Twelve months later, what was born as an ambitious idea has solidified into a unique model in Spain and a benchmark in Europe: a competition parallel to the sporting one that assesses the social, environmental, and economic-governance impact, and is forever transforming the way of understanding sport.

A project that turns handball into a legacy

The ASOBAL Legacy League was presented with the signing of the clubs' manifesto on December 11, 2024 as a pioneering initiative: a ranking system based on sustainability criteria that complements the purely sporting classification of the NEXUS ENERGY ASOBAL League. Its goal was as ambitious as it was clear: to demonstrate that professional sport can generate a real and measurable positive impact, and build a shared legacy among clubs, fans, institutions, and sponsors.

The ALL structures its evaluation around three fundamental pillars —social, environmental, and economic-governance sustainability— and is deployed through cross-sectional and vertical criteria that range from transparency in management to the accessibility of venues, through alliances with social entities, innovation, sustainable mobility or community projects. The key is in the measurement: every action counts, every advance adds up, every initiative leaves a mark.

A progressive competition towards 2027

The ALL unfolds progressively, with milestones defined per season: in the initial season, 2024/25, a first ranking of the top eight clubs, classified in alphabetical order, was published based on their performance during the first six months. In the current season, 2025/26, this top eight of the ranking will be consolidated, already ordered from first to eighth, and specific prizes will be awarded according to certain areas. Starting from the 2026/27 season, all ASOBAL clubs will see their efforts reflected in the final definitive classification, reflecting their commitment and sustainable evolution. This progress is accompanied by the ASOBAL HUB program, which provides training in various areas, mentoring and monitoring, and permanent reinforcement to the clubs.

The figures that tell the story: data, impact, and transformed reality

Twelve months later, the ASOBAL Legacy League has gone from being a structural proposal to becoming a tangible transformation vehicle for the league, the clubs, and the Spanish handball community. Although much of the first year has been dedicated to designing processes, metrics, and strategic alliances, as well as strengthening the tools for clubs to develop their projects, the advances are already visible: interest in sustainability on social networks has grown by 178%, and since the 2025/26 season all clubs actively cooperate with foundations and NGOs in their different aspects, incorporating sustainability as part of their identity, through the project included in the ALL structure.

This project, pioneering in Spain, has not only changed internal dynamics, but has awakened and incited clubs to drive a new way of working, generating a narrative in which winning can mean improving society, protecting the environment and strengthening local communities, laying the foundations for a tangible and lasting legacy.

Stories that prove that the legacy is human

The ASOBAL Legacy League was born to demonstrate that sport does not end on the scoreboard: it beats in people, unites stories, and transforms realities. A year later, that legacy already has a face, a name, and emotion. It is seen in every pavilion, it is felt in every gesture and is part of the daily life of those who surround the league. And it all starts with the initiatives that ASOBAL itself has launched to open this path.

The I ASOBAL Inclusive Handball Day, in collaboration with Tubos Villa de Aranda, has been one of the great symbols of this new path. Teams with functional diversity —supported by the clubs of the NEXUS ENERGY ASOBAL League— took to the iconic blue court of the Santiago Maguán to play non-competitive matches. That day, inclusion ceased to be a concept to become an experience that traveled the stands and networks.

That same will to transform is reflected in the environmental dimension. ASOBAL's collaboration with Ecoembes has brought recycling practices to pavilions such as those of Fraikin Granollers and Bathco Torrelavega, turning each match into a small collective gesture for the planet. And on the social side, the 25N campaign, driven together with the CSD, the Ministry of Equality, and the professional leagues, carried a unanimous message against gender violence to all corners of the competition. The league sets the pace, but it is the people who give meaning to the message.

If in the field of ASOBAL the actions mark the way, the clubs have taken a step further, transforming each pavilion, each stand and each gesture into a living space of commitment and participation with the ALL. On the environmental field, the components of the Bathco Torrelavega and ABANCA Ademar Leon planted trees in their territories, leaving a green legacy that will grow much beyond the season. For their part, fans joined the SANICENTRO Guadalajara players in a waste collection action, wearing the colors of the Alcarreño team and demonstrating that handball is also played by taking care of the environment. 

If in the environmental field the clubs leave their mark, in the social field the stories take on a face, name, and emotion. In the mythical O Gatañal: the “Blue Tide” dyed pink for Breast Cancer Day, and the special kits used by the Frigoríficos del Morrazo Cangas were auctioned off, among other actions, raising 6839.95€ for Adicam. Also in the north, the IRUDEK Bidasoa Irún demonstrated that handball is pure emotion and feeling. Thanks to a club project framed in the ALL, a young blind fan was able to live a match like never before, feeling the intensity, the sound, and the energy of the NEXUS ENERGY ASOBAL League from an inclusive experience designed by the Bidasotarra club for him. 

The same philosophy is lived in Atlético Recoletas Valladolid with the 'Social Stand' and the handball programs in penitentiary centers, which bring professional handball to NGOs, people with diversity, at risk of exclusion or in the process of social reintegration, showing that, the ALL turns each court into a space for everyone. The ALL even crosses borders.

In Puente Genil, young migrants train handball for the first time in the school created within the Red Cross Migration Center by the Cajasol Ángel Ximenez P. Genil, a space where sport offers belonging and opportunities through handball to the children who arrive in the Cordovan locality. And from Ciudad Real, the Caserío has achieved something unusual: in four schools in Honduras there are already goals, coaches, and teams that talk about handball with their own accent. In addition, the “Sponsor a Honduran student” program, linked to the project, shows that, sometimes, a sport can help improve the living conditions of the youth of a country before a scoreboard.

National recognition: the Sustainability Action 2025 award

Just half a year after its launch, the ASOBAL Legacy League received one of the most important recognitions in the country: the Sustainability Action 2025 award in the Organizations and Education category, awarded on Sustainability Day 25 celebrated at the Reina Sofía Museum. The award, granted among more than 2,000 initiatives from companies, institutions, and Spanish organizations, positioned ASOBAL alongside references such as Iberdrola, Banco Santander, BBVA, or Action against Hunger.

A first anniversary that marks a turning point

The ASOBAL Legacy League celebrates its first anniversary confirming what it promised from day one: that sport has the capacity to lead structural changes, to raise awareness, and to build the future. Through the sustainable league, clubs have given a boost to the initiatives they had been carrying out, as well as promoted and driven a series of new projects that have managed to link their environment and generate an impact and a legacy in an ecosystem, that of ASOBAL handball, which lives for and for its community and for whoever is part of it.

ASOBAL will continue to bet on the transformation and professionalization of its league and its clubs around sustainability and the legacy that wants to work and leave for future generations of handball in Spain. Professional handball has decided to change the rules of the game. And, a year later, it is clear that this legacy has just begun.