Kosovo, Latvia, Türkiye, Israel and Georgia are all aiming to make their World Championship debuts, while the other sides lining up for phase 2 have played the global event at least once. Romania and Poland have both celebrated multiple World Championship medals in the past, though Poland’s last was in 2015 and Romania’s was in 1990. Romania were an early force in the Men’s World Championship, winning the title four times in five editions from 1961 to 1974.
There is one more phase to pass after the clashes taking place this week, with phase 3, when the teams ranked seventh to 18th at the Men’s EHF EURO 2026, join the race and the 10 places at the final tournament will be decided. The pairings for phase 3 were decided at the draw on the final weekend of the EHF EURO 2026.
The EURO also saw the determining of four European places at the 2027 World Championship. With the finalists, Denmark and Germany, directly qualified as defending title holders and hosts, respectively, the four spots allocated to be decided at the EURO went to the sides that ranked third to sixth: Croatia, Iceland, Portugal and Sweden.
See the full schedule for the phase 2 qualifiers here.
