2025 World Men's Handball Championship
The 2025 IHF World Men's Handball Championship, will be the 29th event hosted by the International Handball Federation. It will be held in Croatia, Denmark and Norway in January 2025.[1]
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host countries |  Croatia Denmark Norway |
| Teams | 32 (from 5 confederations) |
| Venue(s) | 11 (in 11 host cities) |
← Previous Next → | |
Bidding process
Five nations expressed interest in hosting the tournament. The awarding of the event took place at the IHF Council meeting in Cairo, Egypt on 28 February 2020.[2][3] Croatia, Denmark and Norway were chosen as the hosts. This will be the second time Croatia will host the World Men's Handball Championship, the third for Denmark, and the first for Norway.
Venues
The tournament is expected to take place in 11 cities Zagreb, Split, Varaždin, Poreč and Dubrovnik in Croatia, Copenhagen and Herning in Denmark and Trondheim, Stavanger, Drammen and Oslo in Norway. The opening and final will take place in Oslo.[4]
| Oslo, Norway | Drammen, Norway | Trondheim, Norway | Stavanger, Norway | Herning, Denmark | Copenhagen, Denmark |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Telenor Arena Capacity: 15,000 | New Drammen Arena Capacity: 12,000 | Trondheim Spektrum Capacity: 8,960 | Stavanger Idrettshall Capacity: 8,000 | Jyske Bank Boxen Capacity: 15,000 | Royal Arena Capacity: 12,500 |
 |  |  |  |  | .jpg.webp) |
| Zagreb, Croatia | Split, Croatia | Varaždin, Croatia | Dubrovnik, Croatia | Poreč, Croatia | |
| Arena Zagreb Capacity: 15,200 | Spaladium Arena Capacity: 11,000 | Varaždin Arena Capacity: 5,200 | New Dubrovnik Arena Capacity: 5,000-5,200 | Žatika Sport Centre Capacity: 3,700 | |
 |  |  | | |
Qualification
The World Championship hosts will be directly qualified, along with the reigning world champions. Following a decision on increasing the number of participating teams, the number of compulsory places awarded to each continental confederation is divided as follows: four places each for Asia and Europe and six places for Africa. Starting in 2021 Pan America was split into two zones: the North America and Caribbean Zone having one compulsory place, and the South and Central America Zone having four compulsory places. One additional place is available for Oceania, but only when that region's national team ranks fifth or higher at the Asian Championship. If no Oceania team places among the top five at the Asian Championship, the IHF will award an additional wild card. In addition, there will be several performance places for the continental confederations, which are based on the teams ranked 1–12 in the preceding World Championship. According to the new qualification system and taking into consideration the results of the 2023 Men's World Championship, 32 places are distributed as follows:
- Host nations: 3
- Reigning world champion: 1
- Africa: 6
- Asia: 4
- Europe: 11
- Pan America: 5
- North America and Caribbean: 1
- South and Central America: 4
- Oceania/additional wild card: 1
- Wild card: 1
| Competition | Dates | Host | Vacancies | Qualified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host nations | 28 February 2020 |  Cairo |
3 | Croatia Denmark Norway |
| 2023 World Championship | 29 January 2023 |  Poland Sweden |
1 | |
| 2024 European Men's Handball Championship | 28 January 2024 |  Germany |
4 | |
| 2024 African Men's Handball Championship | 28 January 2024 |  Algeria |
6 | |
| 2024 Asian Men's Handball Championship | TBD | TBD | 4 | |
| 2024 South and Central American Men's Handball Championship | TBD | TBD | 4 | |
| 2024 Nor.Ca. Men's Handball Championship | TBD | TBD | 1 | |
| European qualification | TBD | Various | 7 | |
| Wild card | 18 October 2018 |  Doha |
1[1]+1[2] |  United States |
^ 1. To bear in mind the 2028 Summer Olympics, the IHF Council awarded the United States with wild cards for the 2025 and 2027 World Championships.[5][6]
^ 2. If countries from Oceania (Australia or New Zealand) participating in the Asian Championships finish within the top 5, they will qualify for the World Championships. If they finish placed sixth or lower, the place would have been transferred to the Wild Card spot.
Qualified teams
| Country | Qualified as | Qualified on | Previous appearances1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Croatia | Co-host | 28 February 2020 | 14 (1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021) |
| Denmark | Co-host | 28 February 2020 | 24 (1938, 1954, 1958, 1961, 1964, 1967, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1993, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021) |
| Norway | Co-host | 28 February 2020 | 16 (1958, 1961, 1964, 1967, 1970, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2017, 2019, 2021) |
| United States | Wild card | 18 October 2018 | 6 (1964, 1970, 1974, 1993, 1995, 2001) |
- 1 Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host country for that year.
External links
References
- "IHF Council awards events up to 2027". ihf.info. 28 February 2020.
- "World Championships 2025 and 2027". ihf.info. 25 September 2019.
- "Norway, Croatia and Denmark chase the handball World Cup in 2025". time24.news. 5 November 2019.
- "Svjetsko prvenstvo u rukometu 2025. igrat će se u Hrvatskoj!". 24sata.hr (in Croatian). 28 February 2020.
- "Strategic plan | USA" (PDF). IHF.
- "Council Meeting No. 3" (PDF). Doha, Qatar: IHF. 18 October 2018. pp. 8–9.