Rokometni klub Maribor Branik (English: Maribor Branik Handball Club), commonly referred to as RK Maribor Branik or simply Branik, is a handball club from Maribor, Slovenia. As of the 2023–24 season, the club competes in the Second National League (2. DRL), the third tier of Slovenian handball. They play their home games at Tabor Hall, a 3,261 capacity multi-purpose sports venue in Maribor. Between 2004 and 2010, the team was known as RK Klima Petek Maribor due to sponsorship reasons.^[1] Their biggest success is reaching the final of the Slovenian Handball Cup twice and reaching the quarter-finals of the EHF Cup in the 2012–13 season.^[1]

Quick Facts Full name, Nickname(s) ...

RK Maribor Branik
Full name	Rokometni klub Maribor Branik
Nickname(s)	Vijoličasti (The Purples)
Founded	2003; 21 years ago (2003) (as MRD Maribor Branik)[1]
Arena	Tabor Hall
Capacity	3,261
President	Mihael Pisanec[2]
Head coach	Kristijan Ladič
League	Second National League
2022–23	Slovenian First League, 13th of 14 (relegated)
Club colours
Home Away
Website Official site

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Maribor Branik play their home matches at a 3,261 capacity Tabor Hall in the Tabor District of Maribor.^[11] The reserve venue of the club is Lukna Sports Hall, a 2,100^[12] capacity all-seater indoor hall, also located in Maribor.^[13]

Kristijan Petek, the former president of the club, was the first to organize a fan group which would support the team at home matches.^[14] As he was also the owner of the air conditioning company Klima Petek, which was the main sponsor of the club, the fan group was composed of employees of the company.^[14] In 2010, when Andrej Bauman has been appointed a new director of Maribor Branik, the club gained a new group of fans, named Maribor Supporters, which supposedly consisted of the younger members of Viole Maribor, the supporters of football club NK Maribor.^[14]

In February 2012, Maribor Supporters chanted a song about the Srebrenica massacre against the Bosnian team Gradačac during the 2011–12 EHF Challenge Cup match.^[14] The match was temporarily suspended, and the incident received wide coverage in the Slovenian and Bosnian media.^[15][16][17] The group was banned by Maribor Branik from attending any home matches, and a police investigation was ordered.^[14][15]

Maribor Branik do not have any major rivals; however, matches between Maribor Branik and RK Celje are dubbed as the Styrian derby (Slovene: Štajerski derbi),^[18][19] named after Styria, with Maribor and Celje being the two largest cities in the region. Matches between Maribor Branik and RK Jeruzalem Ormož are also called Styrian derby or Neighbourhood derby (Slovene: Sosedski derbi).^{[20][21][22][23]}

During the club's first years, the kit colours were blue,^[24] white and black, with the last two also being the traditional colours of the Branik Sports Association.^[25] Before the start of the 2011–12 season, Maribor Branik changed its main colour to purple due to the popularity of NK Maribor, the most successful football club in Slovenia, which plays in purple jerseys.^[26] A decade later, ahead of the 2021–22 season, the club reverted to white kits for home games and black kits for away games.^[13][27] The club crest is in the form of a shield with an abstract portrayal of a handball player. In 2012, the colours of the crest were changed from black and white to purple and white.

The table includes matches from the official European Handball Federation competitions only.^[29] All results (home and away) list Branik's goal tally first.

More information Season, Competition ...

Season	Competition	Round	Opponent	Home	Away	Aggregate
2010–11	EHF Cup Winners' Cup	R3	Karviná	28–22	33–28	61–50
		L16	Kolubara	32–27	40–26	72–53
		QF	Amaya Sport San Antonio	28–34	27–35	55–69
2011–12	EHF Challenge Cup	R3	Radnički Kragujevac	26–22	23–27	49–49 (a)
		L16	Gradačac	30–22	26–31	56–53
		QF	Maccabi Tel Aviv	29–28	29–31	58–59
2012–13	EHF Cup	R1	Dudelange	39–24	27–28	66–52
		R2	Kópavogs	35–25	42–25	77–50[lower-alpha 1]
		R3	Siscia	35–22	29–30	64–52
		G	Tvis Holstebro	31–27	26–26	Second place (Group C)
		G	Elverum	34–29	27–30
		G	Wisła Płock	26–23	26–30
		QF	Göppingen	26–26	30–31	56–57
2013–14	EHF Cup	QR2	Bregenz	37–23	25–26	62–49
		QR3	Tatran Prešov	30–28	26–34	56–62
2014–15	EHF Cup	QR2	Kristianstad	26–25	24–36	50–61
2015–16	EHF Cup	QR3	Dinamo București	27–26	25–31	52–57
2019–20	EHF Challenge Cup	R2	H71	31–24	24–25	55–49[lower-alpha 2]
		R3	Madeira Andebol SAD	20–23	23–31	43–54[lower-alpha 3]

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League

• Slovenian Championship

Third place: 2013–14, 2014–15

• Slovenian Second Division

Runners-up: 2008–09

• Slovenian Third Division

Runners-up: 2005–06

Cup

• Slovenian Cup

Runners-up: 2009–10, 2016–17

Semi-finalist: 2008–09, 2011–12

• Slovenian Supercup

Runners-up: 2010, 2017

The following Maribor Branik players have made at least one appearance for their senior national team.

Notes