2025 World Men's Handball Championship qualification
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 21 February 2023 – 12 May 2024 |
| Teams | 83 (from 6 confederations) |
← 2023 2027 → | |
The 2025 World Men's Handball Championship qualification decided who qualified for the 2025 World Men's Handball Championship in Croatia, Denmark and Norway. Qualifying occurred between February 2023 and May 2024. The championship will feature 32 teams for the third time.
- 1 Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host country for that year.
- 2 From both German teams only East Germany was qualified in 1990
Slot allocation
The slot allocation is as follows:
- AHF (Asia): 4 slots
- CAHB (Africa): 5 slots
- EHF (Europe): 17 slots (including the three co-hosts)
- NACHC (North America and the Caribbean): 1 slot
- OCHF (Oceania): 0 slots
- SCAHC (South and Central America): 3 slots
- Wildcards: 2 slots
| Detailed distribution of places (following current IHF rules[1]) | Vacancies | Details | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Organisers[A] | 3 | ||
| Reigning world champion[B] | 1 | ||
| Performance places for the continental confederations | 12 | Based on teams ranked 1–12 in the preceding world championship | |
| Africa | 1 | As Egypt ranked 7th in previous World Championship | |
| Asia | 0 | ||
| Europe | 11 | ||
| North America and the Caribbean | 0 | ||
| South and Central America | 0 | ||
| Oceania | 0 | ||
| Compulsory places for the continental confederations | 15 | 17 compulsory places reduced by 2 due to having three organisers | |
| Africa | 4 | ||
| Asia | 4 | ||
| Europe | 2 | 4 compulsory places reduced by 2 due to having three organisers from Europe | |
| North America and the Caribbean | 1 | ||
| South and Central America | 3 | ||
| Oceania | 0 or 1[C] | Place allocated to Oceania or an additional free wild card | |
| Wild card | 1 or 2[D] | ||
| Total | 32 |
Summary
World Championship
World champion directly qualified for 2025 edition. However, 2025 co-hosts Denmark won the 2023 World Championship, so no one took the spot.
| Rank | Team |
|---|---|
 |  Denmark |
 |  France |
 |  Spain |
| 4 |  Sweden |
| 5 |  Germany |
| 6 |  Norway |
| 7 |  Egypt |
| 8 |  Hungary |
| 9 |  Croatia |
| 10 |  Slovenia |
| 11 |  Serbia |
| 12 |  Iceland |
| 13 |  Portugal |
| 14 |  Netherlands |
| 15 |  Poland |
| 16 |  Bahrain |
| 17 |  Brazil |
| 18 |  Montenegro |
| 19 |  Argentina |
| 20 |  United States |
| 21 |  Belgium |
| 22 |  Qatar |
| 23 |  Cape Verde |
| 24 |  Iran |
| 25 |  Tunisia |
| 26 |  Chile |
| 27 |  North Macedonia |
| 28 |  South Korea |
| 29 |  Saudi Arabia |
| 30 |  Morocco |
| 31 |  Algeria |
| 32 |  Uruguay |
Asia
Sixteen teams competed in the Asian Championship, held at the Sheikh Khalifa Sports City Hall in Isa Town, Bahrain, from 11 to 25 January 2024.[4] The top 4 reached the world championship. Since New Zealand, failed to make the top 5 of the championship, Oceania's spot was made into a second wildcard. Bahrain, Kuwait, Japan and Qatar reached the world championship.[5][6][7][8]
| Rank | Team |
|---|---|
| Qatar |
|  Japan |
| Bahrain |
| 4 |  Kuwait |
| 5 | South Korea |
| 6 | Iran |
| 7 |  United Arab Emirates |
| 8 |  Iraq |
| 9 | Saudi Arabia |
| 10 |  China |
| 11 |  Chinese Taipei |
| 12 |  Oman |
| 13 |  Hong Kong |
| 14 |  Kazakhstan |
| 15 |  New Zealand |
| 16 |  India |
| Qualified for the 2025 World Men's Handball Championship | |
| Oceanian representative |
Africa
Sixteen teams competed in the African Championship, held in Cairo, Egypt, from 17 to 27 January 2024.[9] The top five from the championship qualified. Those teams ended up being Algeria, Cape Verde, Egypt, Guinea and Tunisia.[10][11]
| Rank | Team |
|---|---|
| Egypt |
| Algeria |
| Tunisia |
| 4 | Cape Verde |
| 5 |  Guinea |
| 6 |  DR Congo |
| 7 | Morocco |
| 8 |  Angola |
| 9 |  Nigeria |
| 10 |  Cameroon |
| 11 |  Gabon |
| 12 |  Libya |
| 13 |  Congo |
| 14 |  Rwanda |
| 15 |  Kenya |
| 16 |  Zambia |
| Team qualified for the 2025 World Men's Handball Championship |
Europe
The three highest ranked non-qualified teams secure a ticket to the world championship. Since Denmark (who finished second) already qualified as a co-host, fourth placed Germany took the place.
| Rank | Team |
|---|---|
| France |
| Denmark |
| Sweden |
| 4 | Germany |
| 5 | Hungary |
| 6 | Slovenia |
| 7 | Portugal |
| 8 |  Austria |
| 9 | Norway |
| 10 | Iceland |
| 11 | Croatia |
| 12 | Netherlands |
| 13 | Spain |
| 14 | Montenegro |
| 15 |  Czech Republic |
| 16 | Poland |
| 17 | North Macedonia |
| 18 |  Georgia |
| 19 | Serbia |
| 20 |  Faroe Islands |
| 21 |  Switzerland |
| 22 |  Romania |
| 23 |  Greece |
| 24 |  Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| Team qualified for the 2025 World Men's Handball Championship | |
| Team qualified for the 2025 World Men's Handball Championship as co-host |
European qualification
From November 2023 to May 2024, the EHF organised a separate qualification for 11 places.
Bracket
The draw took place on 27 January 2024 in Cologne.[12][13]
| Team 1 | Agg. | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Lithuania  |
49–69 | Hungary |
26–33 | 23–36 |
| Slovenia |
60–60 4–1 (p) |
Switzerland |
26–27 | 34–33 |
| Portugal |
55–45 | Bosnia and Herzegovina |
29–19 | 26–26 |
| Georgia |
56–64 | Austria |
25–27 | 31–37 |
| Iceland |
87–49 |  Estonia |
50–25 | 37–24 |
| Greece |
56–58 | Netherlands |
31–27 | 25–31 |
| Spain |
54–53 | Serbia |
32–28 | 22–25 |
Italy  |
66–58 | Montenegro |
32–26 | 34–32 |
| Romania |
51–59 | Czech Republic |
31–30 | 20–29 |
| Poland |
61–54 |  Slovakia |
28–29 | 33–25 |
| Faroe Islands |
60–61 | North Macedonia |
34–27 | 26–34 |
North America and Caribbean
South and Central America
Wildcards
After no Oceanian team achieved a top 5 finish in the Asian Championship, two wildcards were given out by the IHF. United States was given the first wildcard on 18 October 2018, in order to prepare them for the 2028 Summer Olympics which they are hosting.[2][3] Regarding the second wildcard, 12 nations reportedly applied, with 2 of the applicants unknown.[20]
Bosnia and Herzegovina
China
Faroe Islands
Georgia
Greece
Montenegro[21]
Saudi Arabia
Serbia[22]
Switzerland
Turkey
On 23 May 2024, Switzerland was given the second wildcard by the IHF due to multiple reasons: their sporting merit, their commercial reach, their project and the IHF's TV partner asked the Swiss to be picked.[23][24][25] Prior to their selection, Switzerland's coach, Andy Schmid, stated that after their narrow penalty shootout loss to Slovenia, The Swiss' performance merited a wildcard.[26][27]