IHF Emerging Nations Championship
Men's Handball Tournament
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The IHF Emerging Nations Championship is a men's handball tournament organized by the International Handball Federation since 2015, directed to play with emerging teams. Its first edition was held in Kosovo from June 20 to 26.[1][2]
Current season, competition or edition: 2025 IHF Emerging Nations Championship | |
| Sport | Handball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2015 |
| No. of teams | 16 |
| Most recent champion |  Great Britain (1st title) |
| Most titles |  Faroe Islands (2 titles) |
Countries that currently participate are those in the “Four-year plan” of the European Handball Federation and the best ranked countries from other continents that did not qualify for the World Men's Handball Championship.
Of the teams that competed in the Emerging Nations Championship, three would later go on to play in the European Men's Handball Championship: Faroe Islands, Georgia, and Latvia. Two went on to play in the World Men's Handball Championship: Uruguay and United States (the latter on a wildcard).
Tournaments
| Year | Host country | Gold medal game | Bronze medal game | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | Score | Silver | Bronze | Score | Fourth place | ||||
| 2015 |  Kosovo |
Faroe Islands |
27–24 |  Latvia |
Kosovo |
28–16 |  Uruguay | ||
| 2017 |  Bulgaria |
Faroe Islands |
26–25 |  Turkey |
Kosovo |
32–25 |  Cyprus | ||
| 2019 |  Georgia[3] |
Georgia |
31–21 |  Cuba |
Bulgaria |
47–31 | Great Britain | ||
| 2021 | Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic[4] | Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic[4] | |||||||
| 2023 | Bulgaria[5] |
Cuba |
28–18 | Cyprus |
Bulgaria |
47–18 |  India | ||
| 2025 | Bulgaria[6] |
Great Britain |
29–25 | Bulgaria |
 United States |
31–28 |  Nigeria | ||
Medal count
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Faroe Islands | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 2 | Cuba | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 3 | Georgia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Great Britain | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 5 | Bulgaria | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 6 | Cyprus | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Latvia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Turkey | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 9 | Kosovo | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 10 | United States | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (10 entries) | 5 | 5 | 5 | 15 | |
Participation details
| Team | 2015 |
2017 |
2019 |
2023 |
2025 |
Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Albania | 14th | 15th | 2 | |||
 Andorra | 15th | 14th | 8th | 3 | ||
 Armenia | 16th | 16th | 2 | |||
 Australia | 12th | 6th | 2 | |||
 Azerbaijan | 10th | 10th | 12th | 8th | 4 | |
| Bulgaria | 11th | 5th | 3rd | 3rd | 2nd | 5 |
 Cameroon | 7th | 1 | ||||
 China | 10th | 6th | 6th | 3 | ||
 Colombia | 8th | 1 | ||||
| Cuba | 2nd | 1st | 2 | |||
| Cyprus | 4th | 2nd | 6th | 3 | ||
 Estonia | 5th | 1 | ||||
| Faroe Islands | 1st | 1st | 2 | |||
| Georgia | 8th | 1st | 2 | |||
| Great Britain | 9th | 11th | 4th | 5th | 1st | 5 |
 Guatemala | 10th | 1 | ||||
| India | 9th | 4th | 2 | |||
 Ireland | 13th | 12th | 11th | 3 | ||
| Kosovo | 3rd | 3rd | 2 | |||
| Latvia | 2nd | 1 | ||||
 Luxembourg | 7th | 1 | ||||
 Malta | 8th | 13th | 12th | 11th | 4 | |
 Moldova | 6th | 9th | 9th | 7th | 4 | |
| Nigeria | 7th | 7th | 4th | 3 | ||
 Paraguay | 5th | 1 | ||||
| Turkey | 2nd | 1 | ||||
| United States | 5th | 3rd | 2 | |||
| Uruguay | 4th | 1 | ||||
| Total | 16 | 16 | 12 | 12 | 8 |