“I love to watch draw events, and now I am even part of one. It is always thrilling, which teams face each other and which constellations happen. So I am really excited for Thursday like I am excited to play a major tournament on home ground at the end of 2024,” says the 29-year-old centre back of the Swiss national team and German club SG BBM Bietigheim.
Kündig will represent the three co-hosts of the event - Austria, Switzerland and Hungary. Those three teams have qualified automatically alongside 2022 EHF EURO champions Norway. 20 of those 31 teams from the qualifiers will make their way to the preliminary round cities Innsbruck, Basel and Debrecen, which each host two groups. Later on, Vienna and Debrecen host the main round groups, and the Austrian capital is also the venue for the final weekend.
St. Jakobshalle in Basel just had its debut as host for a women’s national team match - where 3124 fans broke the spectator record for Swiss women’s handball in the World Championship play-off against the Czech Republic (31:32). “It was simply amazing to see so many fans in the arena, this support was outstanding, though we lost. But this atmosphere was wonderful and a great appetiser for the EHF EURO 2024, when we will play our matches at Basel”, says Kündig.
Despite the elimination by the Czechs, Switzerland hope to receive a wildcard from the IHF for the upcoming World Championship 2023 in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. “We applied for it, now we have to wait until June,” says Kündig, who scored three goals in the record-breaking match.
In general, the interest in women’s handball is growing more and more in Switzerland - boosted by the success of the national team, mainly thanks to the qualification for EHF EURO 2022. “Nobody could guess that we make it already two years before our home event, and being on this stage gave us a lot of experience and put women’s handball in the focus in Switzerland. It was a perfect dress rehearsal for 2024. We have a very young team and experiences like playing an EHF EURO are priceless for the development.”
Mainly since the implementation of the Women’s Youth Academy, headed by national team coach Martin Albertsen, the only way is up for Switzerland. Many talents from this academy are now already part of the women’s national team, despite their age of 17, 18 or 19 years. “This academy forms the future of women’s handball in Switzerland. The youngest talents still need some time. But I really hope that they will first have an impact on the Swiss league, then grab their chances to play abroad and then strengthen the national team with their experience”, says Kündig.
In previous years, Switzerland underlined their ambitions with close results against top nations such as Hungary, Croatia and Czech Republic - hosting the EHF EURO 2024 shall boost the development. As they are already qualified for the final tournament, Switzerland will face the co-hosts Austria and Hungary and defending champions Norway in the EHF EURO Cup. “Those matches are perfect for us. We can test many tactics and players, we face strong opponents, we can promote the EHF EURO - and we are not under the pressure of a qualification. The EHF EURO Cup is a great chance and stage for us to gain experience”, says Kündig. The EHF EURO cup matches will be played parallel to the six rounds of the qualification from October 2023.
Four years after Switzerland will co-host the Women’s EHF EURO 2024, the Swiss Federation will be co-host of the Men’s EHF EURO 2028 alongside Spain and Portugal. Kündig: “We have to activate the whole Swiss handball community for both events. And we saw that many of our men’s national team players including legendary Andy Schmid were present at our record match in Basel. We must use all focus we could get to promote handball, we must stand together for a successful and shining handball future in Switzerland.”
Those are the pots for the Women’s EHF EURO 2024 draw event on Thursday in Zurich:
POT 1: FRA, DEN, GER, NED, SWE, ESP, MNE, CRO
POT 2: ROU, SLO, SRB, POL, CZE, MKD, SVK, ISL
POT 3: POR, UKR, TUR, ITA, FAR, LTU, GRE, KOS
POT 4: ISR, FIN, LUX, BIH, LAT, AZE, BUL
The first and second-ranked teams as well as the four best third-ranked teams from the eight groups will qualify for the Women’s EHF EURO 2024. After the conclusion of the group matches, an overall ranking of those teams ranked third in each Qualifiers group will be established.
This ranking includes only the results of the four matches of third ranked teams against the two teams ranked first and second in the group. The results of the two matches against the teams ranked fourth in the group will not be considered. The four best teams from this ranking will also qualify for the final tournament of the Women’s EHF EURO 2024.
