The 22 teams involved include teams ranked one to 17 at the Men’s EHF EURO 2024, apart from Croatia, Denmark, Norway, France, Germany and Sweden, who have qualified directly to the 2025 World Championship.
The draw was conducted by EHF Secretary General Martin Hausleitner, EHF Competitions Commission Chairman Božidar Đurković and IHF representative František Táborský. Of the 18 teams in the draw which have competed at the EHF EURO 2024, 14 will face each other in the play-offs, with EHF EURO 2018 and 2020 champions Spain playing against Serbia as a highlight.
Other clashes to which handball fans will be looking forward to include Romania vs Czechia, Slovenia vs Switzerland and the Faroe Islands vs North Macedonia.
The winners of the confrontations delivering the names of the last four teams to play the 2025 World Championship qualification will be only be known on 17 March 2024, after the conclusion of phase 1 of the play-offs.
2025 IHF Men’s World Championship Qualification Europe play-offs, phase 2:
Winner of Finland/Lithuania vs Hungary
Winner of Belgium/Italy vs Montenegro
Greece vs Netherlands
Romania vs Czechia
Spain vs Serbia
Faroe Islands vs North Macedonia
Slovenia vs Switzerland
Portugal vs Bosnia and Herzegovina
Iceland vs winner of Estonia/Ukraine
Poland vs winner of Slovakia/Israel
Georgia vs Austria
The Qualification Europe play-offs matches will be played from 8 to 12 May 2024. All 11 winners will qualify for the 2025 World Championship, joining Croatia, Denmark, Norway, France, Germany and Sweden for the event played in Norway, Denmark and Croatia.
