2012 European Men's Handball Championship qualification

The draw for the qualification round was held on 31 January 2010 at the EHF headquarters, in Vienna, Austria.^[1] Serbia (host nation), and France (defending champion), were directly qualified. 39 teams (including Serbia) had registered for participation. 37 teams competed for 14 places at the final tournament in 2 distinct Qualification Phases. In each phase, the teams were divided into several pots according to their positions in the EHF National Team Ranking list valid for the EHF EURO 2012 Qualification in Serbia.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Latvia  Israel  Estonia	Italy 2 teams between:  Belgium  Bulgaria  Cyprus	Finland  Turkey 1 team between:  Belgium  Bulgaria  Cyprus	Luxembourg  Georgia  Great Britain

The seedings were completely known after the playing of the final week-end of the 2010 European Men's Handball Championship.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Croatia  Denmark  Poland  Germany  Norway  Sweden  Hungary	Spain  Iceland  Czech Republic  Slovenia  Russia  Slovakia  Macedonia	Austria  Montenegro  Belarus  Ukraine  Romania  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Netherlands	Portugal   Switzerland  Greece  Lithuania  Estonia  Latvia  Israel

• Qualification Phase 1:

Two options were available:

• Tournaments: 11–13 June 2010
• Home and away round robin: 14/15 April 2010, 17/18 April 2010, 9/10 June 2010, 12/13 June 2010, 16/17 June 2010, 19/20 June 2010

If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings.

1. Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question.
2. Superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question.
3. Higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question.
4. If, after applying criteria 1) to 3) to several teams, two or more teams still have an equal ranking, the criteria 1) to 3) will be reapplied to determine the ranking of these teams. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5), 6) and 7) will apply.
5. Superior goal difference from all group matches played.
6. Higher number of goals scored in all group matches played.
7. Drawing of lots.

The participating teams were the 12 lowest ranked according to the EHF National Team Ranking list valid for the EHF EURO 2012 Qualification in Serbia.
They were:  Belgium,  Bulgaria,  Cyprus,  Estonia,  Finland,  Great Britain,  Georgia,  Israel,  Italy,  Latvia,  Luxembourg and  Turkey.
The 12 teams divided into 3 groups, with the 3 winners advancing to the Qualification Phase 2.

• Step 1: 2 teams from  Belgium,  Bulgaria,  Cyprus were drawn to pot 2. The remaining team went to pot 3 (the balls were not opened).
• Step 2: 3 teams of pot 1 to row 1
• Step 3: 3 teams of pot 2 to row 2
• Step 4: 3 teams of pot 3 to row 3
• Step 5: 3 teams of pot 4 to row 4

Venue: Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, London

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Estonia	3	3	0	0	100	72	+28	6	Qualification Phase 2
2	Cyprus	3	1	1	1	81	79	+2	3
3	Great Britain (H)	3	1	0	2	75	91	−16	2
4	Bulgaria	3	0	1	2	79	93	−14	1

10 June 2010 14:30 BST (UTC+01)	Estonia	31 – 18	Bulgaria	Attendance: 200 Referees: Mäkinen, Jonsson (SWE)
	Patrail 7	(16 – 9)	Mihailov 5
	3× 3×	Report	2× 4×

10 June 2010 18:30 BST (UTC+01)	Cyprus	24 – 16	Great Britain	Attendance: 300 Referees: Leyder, Jung (LUX)
	Papakyprianou 9	(7 – 9)	Hawkins, Larsson 4
	3× 5×	Report	3× 7×

11 June 2010 14:30 BST (UTC+01)	Bulgaria	29 – 29	Cyprus	Attendance: 100 Referees: Leyder, Jung (LUX)
	Borisov, Mihailov 6	(14 – 14)	Demosthenous, Efstathiadis, Papakyprianou 5
	3× 5×	Report	3× 5×

11 June 2010 18:30 BST (UTC+01)	Great Britain	26 – 35	Estonia	Attendance: 400 Referees: Mäkinen, Jonsson (SWE)
	Mohr 11	(13 – 18)	Patrail 7
	3× 6× 1×	Report	3× 2×

12 June 2010 12:00 BST (UTC+01)	Estonia	34 – 28	Cyprus	Attendance: 300 Referees: Mäkinen, Jonsson (SWE)
	Patrail 9	(18 – 13)	Papakyprianou 11
	2× 3×	Report	4× 3×

12 June 2010 15:30 BST (UTC+01)	Bulgaria	32 – 33	Great Britain	Attendance: 600 Referees: Leyder, Jung (LUX)
	Petkov 10	(16 – 14)	Larsson 13
	3× 6× 1×	Report	3× 2× 1×

Venue: Tbilisi Sports Palace, Tbilisi

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Latvia	3	2	0	1	82	79	+3	4	Qualification Phase 2
2	Finland	3	2	0	1	86	80	+6	4
3	Italy	3	2	0	1	97	95	+2	4
4	Georgia (H)	3	0	0	3	67	78	−11	0

11 June 2010 15:30 UTC+04	Latvia	24 – 26	Finland	Attendance: 300 Referees: Sivak, Dvorsky (SVK)
	Jurdz 5	(11 – 11)	Rönnberg, Viljanen 6
	4× 7×	Report	2× 6×

11 June 2010 18:00 UTC+04	Italy	30 – 25	Georgia	Attendance: 400 Referees: Sitsi, Heinla (EST)
	Radovic 7	(10 – 10)	Rusia 8
	3× 3×	Report	4× 4×

12 June 2010 15:00 UTC+04	Finland	34 – 35	Italy	Attendance: 200 Referees: Sivak, Dvorsky (SVK)
	Tamminen 13	(18 – 19)	Skatar 11
	3× 8× 2×	Report	3× 7× 1×

12 June 2010 17:00 UTC+04	Georgia	21 – 22	Latvia	Attendance: 400 Referees: Sitsi, Heinla (EST)
	Datukashvili 8	(11 – 11)	Versakovs 9
	3× 5×	Report	3× 6×

13 June 2010 15:00 UTC+04	Latvia	36 – 32	Italy	Attendance: 100 Referees: Sitsi, Heinla (EST)
	Jurdz 6	(19–16)	Skatar, Tumbarello 7
	3× 8× 1×	Report	3× 8× 2×

13 June 2010 17:00 UTC+04	Finland	26 – 21	Georgia	Attendance: 400 Referees: Sivak, Dvorsky (SVK)
	Rönnberg 8	(12–19)	Mskhvildze 8
	2× 11× 2×	Report	3× 8× 1×

Venue: Centre National Sportif d'Coque, Luxembourg

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Israel	3	3	0	0	100	80	+20	6	Qualification Phase 2
2	Turkey	3	2	0	1	88	86	+2	4
3	Belgium	3	1	0	2	89	96	−7	2
4	Luxembourg (H)	3	0	0	3	75	90	−15	0

11 June 2010 12:30 CEST (UTC+02)	Israel	32 – 24	Turkey	Referees: Pavicevic, Vujisic (MNE)
	Pomeranz 10	(14 – 14)	Döne, Özbahar 5
	3× 4×	Report	3× 5× 1×

11 June 2010 14:30 CEST (UTC+02)	Belgium	29 – 25	Luxembourg	Attendance: 500 Referees: Nikolovski, Kolevski (MKD)
	Verhoeven 9	(15 – 12)	Decker 10
	3× 3×	Report	3× 4×

12 June 2010 19:30 CEST (UTC+02)	Luxembourg	24 – 29	Israel	Attendance: 500 Referees: Nikolovski, Kolevski (MKD)
	Sarac 7	(13 – 14)	Pomeranz 6
	3× 5×	Report	3× 7×

12 June 2010 21:30 CEST (UTC+02)	Turkey	32 – 28	Belgium	Attendance: 100 Referees: Pavicevic, Vujisic (MNE)
	Döne 11	(15–14)	Verhoeven 8
	3× 2×	Report	3× 6×

13 June 2010 18:00 CEST (UTC+02)	Turkey	32 – 26	Luxembourg	Attendance: 200 Referees: Nikolovski, Kolevski (MKD)
	Döne 8	(15–10)	Poeckes 8
	3× 9×	Report	3× 1×

13 June 2010 20:00 CEST (UTC+02)	Israel	39 – 32	Belgium	Attendance: 100 Referees: Pavicevic, Vujisic (MNE)
	Halifi 16	(21–16)	Mathijs, Querimi, Van Wesemael 5
	3× 6×	Report	3× 4×