Yugoslavia men's national handball team

Field handball first match

The first international match, played on June 19, 1950 at the stadium in Kranchevicheva Street in Zagreb, against Belgium. Yugoslavia won 18:3 playing with nine players from Zagreb and one each from Sarajevo and Split.Small handball was played publicly for the first time in Yugoslav territories on February 24, 1950, in the Fair hall (today the Technical Museum) on Savska aley in Zagreb. It was the first public handball match played in the hall.

Indoor Handball

In the beginning, small handball was mainly played on open courts, and later more and more in halls. The possibility of playing in the hall and in a smaller space enabled continuous changes in the situation on the field and better contact with the spectators. That's why small handball was quickly accepted, and thus slowly supplanted big handball, which was played less and less.Until 1953, all official handball competitions in Yugoslavia were in large handball, and since then national championships in small handball have also been held. The main limiting factor in the further development of handball was football fields, whose administrations were reluctant to approve the holding of training sessions and matches. Big handball stopped being played officially in 1958. The only remaining handball, there was no longer any need to call it small handball, but simply - handball.

Modern Handball

Yugoslavia played its first international small handball match in 1956 at the Tashmaidan Stadium in Belgrade against Sweden, the current world champions at the time. A draw was reached 6:6, and due to cloud cover the match was declared invalid. Yugoslav handball began to rise in the early 1970s reaching its height until 1990. At the time it was the most-winning handball team in the world, winning three medals at the Olympic Games, four at the World Championships, five at the Mediterranean Games, one at the Goodwill Games, three at the World Handball Cups and two at the Handball Super Leagues.^{[citation needed]} The biggest successes are the gold medals at the 1972^[1] and 1984 Olympic Games,^[2] as well as the gold medal at the 1986 World Championship.

Following the breakup

The team ceased to exist after the split of Yugoslavia in June 1991. Three former Yugoslav republics have since gone on to win medals at major competitions: Croatia sixteen, Serbia four and Slovenia two. In the period from 2003 to 2020, Croatia was considered one of the best teams in international handball, winning the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2003 World Championship, in addition to consistently earning major championship medals and their worst results being 6th place (2015, 2019).

Summer Olympics

More information Year, Round ...

Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1936	didn't have indoor handball team
1972	Final		6	6	0	0	122	89	+33
1976	Fifth place game	5th	6	5	0	1	131	112	+19
1980	Fifth place game	6th	6	4	0	2	155	116	+39
1984	Final		6	5	1	0	141	93	+48
1988	Bronze medal game		6	4	1	1	143	132	+11
1992	Qualified for the 1992 Summer Olympics but banned due to UN sanctions
Total	Qualified: 6/6		30	24	2	4	692	542	+120

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World Championship

More information Year, Round ...

Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1938	didn't have indoor handball team
1954
1958	Main Round	8th	6	2	0	4	101	96	+5
1961	Preliminary Round	9th	2	0	0	2	29	32	-3
1964	Main Round	6th	6	2	2	2	102	96	+6
1967	Quarterfinal	7th	6	4	0	2	136	110	+26
1970	Semifinal		6	3	1	2	119	80	+39
1974	Semifinal		6	5	0	1	134	97	+37
1978	Main Round	5th	6	4	1	1	108	96	+12
1982	Final		7	4	1	2	183	155	+28
1986	Final		7	7	0	0	168	145	+23
1990	Main Round	4th	7	4	0	3	169	156	+13
1993	Qualified but Team Dissolved in 1992	Banned
Total	Qualified: 11/11		59	35	5	19	1249	1063	+186

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World Outdoor Championship

• 1955 IHF World Men's Outdoor Handball Championship - 5th place

Goodwill Games

More information Games, Round ...

Games	Round	Position
1986 Moscow	Didn't Participate
1990 Seattle	Final	2nd of 8
Total	0/1	0 Titles

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Mediterranean Games

More information Games, Round ...

Games	Round	Position
1967 Tunis	Champions	1st of 4
1971 İzmir	Tournament canceled
1975 Algiers	Champions	1st of 5
1979 Split	Champions	1st of 7
1983 Casablanca	Champions	1st of 8
1987 Latakia	Didn't Participate
1991 Athens	Champions	1st of 8
Total	5/5	5 Titles

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Other competitions

EURO Tournaments

World Cup (European Tournament)

The World Cup was a handball tournament for men's national teams that was held from 1971 to 2010 in Sweden, partly in Norway in 1999 and partly in Germany in 2006. The event took place irregularly, most recently in even years, alternating with the Supercup tournament in Germany. The Norwegian oil company Statoil has been the sponsor since 2004, and the cup competition has since been called the Statoil World Cup. The World Cup was considered a mini European Cup because, in addition to hosts Sweden, the best seven teams from the previous World Cup which were all European were invited at times. Due to declining audience interest, the event was discontinued in 2010.

More information EURO - World Cup Swedish Tournament, Round ...

EURO - World Cup Swedish Tournament	Round	Position
EURO World Cup 1971 Stockholm	Champions	of 8
EURO World Cup 1974 Stockholm	Champions	of 8
EURO World Cup 1979 Stockholm	7th place	7th of 8
EURO World Cup 1984 Stockholm	3rd place	of 8
EURO World Cup 1988 Stockholm	5th place	5th of 8
EURO World Cup 1992 Stockholm	Runner up	of 8
Total	2/6	2 Titles

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EURO Supercup

The Supercup was a handball tournament for men's national teams that was held every two years in the Federal Republic of Germany from 1979 to 2015 - since 1983 usually between the end of October and the beginning of November. The first tournament was held in December 1979, the second was played in early February 1981, the 1997 competition was postponed to March 1998. Previous Olympic champions, world champions and European champions were initially invited. Because of this high-caliber group of participants, it was sometimes referred to as the Mini European Cup. Most recently it took place alternating with the Statoil World Cup. The Supercup goes back to a suggestion by the then national coach Vlado Stenzel. It was held for the last time in 2015 due to a lack of spectator interest.

More information EURO - Supercup German Tournament, Round ...

EURO - Supercup German Tournament	Round	Position
EURO Supercup 1979 Dortmund	4th place	4th of 8
EURO Supercup 1981 Dortmund	3rd place	of 8
EURO Supercup 1983 Dortmund	3rd place	of 8
EURO Supercup 1985 Dortmund	5th place	5th of 8
EURO Supercup 1987 Dortmund	5th place	5th of 8
EURO Supercup 1989 Dortmund	4th place	4th of 8
EURO Supercup 1991 Frankfurt	6th place	6th of 6
Total	0/7	0 Titles

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Rivalries

Team Yugoslavia had two major rivalries. The big one with team USSR and the other one with Eastern Germany team. Their clashes for medals at the Olympics Handball, World Championships and Mini EURO tournaments were epic from 1970 onwards. While at the Mediterranean Games handball the rivals that put the most resistance were team Spain and team Algeria although team Yugoslavia always managed to win the matches for gold medal collecting all the trophies.