Draw set for 2025 Men's World Championship qualification
The road to the 2025 IHF Men's World Championship begins on Wednesday 5 July with the draw for phase 1 of European qualifiers, featuring 10 teams.
The draw will take place at the EHF headquarters in Vienna, Austria, at 11:00 CEST on Wednesday 5 July (live on the Home of Handball YouTube channel).
The 10 teams are seeded according to the current men's national team ranking, and will be drawn into five pairs which will play home and away matches in a knock-out system in the first week of November 2023. The first legs will be played on Wednesday and Thursday 1/2 November, with the second legs on Saturday and Sunday 4/5 November. The first team to be drawn will have the home right in the first leg.
The winners of each pairing will move on to part 1 of Qualification Phase 2, joining Lithuania, Ukraine and Belgium. The draw for phase 2 part 1 will take place after Qualification Phase 1 is completed, with matches set to take place in March 2024.
The final stage of qualification, phase 2 part 2, will feature 18 of the teams participating at the Men's EHF EURO 2024 in Germany. World Championship co-hosts Croatia, Denmark and Norway, and the three best-ranked teams at the EHF EURO, will directly qualify for the World Championship.
Qualification Phase 2 part 2 will take place in May 2024.
2025 IHF Men's World Championship Qualification Europe Phase 1 pots
Pot 1: Israel, Slovakia, Finland, Türkiye, Estonia
Pot 2: Latvia, Italy, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Great Britain
The draw on Wednesday 5 July at 11:00 CEST will also set the pairings for the Men's EHF EURO 2026 promotion round, featuring the four lowest-ranked teams of the Men's EHF EURO 2024 Qualifiers, plus Qualifiers Phase 1 winner Great Britain, and Cyprus, who were the best-ranked European team in the IHF/EHF Emerging Nations Championship held in Bulgaria in April.
The three pairings will play home and away knock-out matches in January 2024, with the winners progressing to the EHF EURO 2026 Qualifiers. The first team to be drawn will have the home right in the first leg.
Men's EHF EURO 2026 promotion round pots
Pot 1: Belgium, Kosovo, Luxembourg
Pot 2: Latvia, Great Britain, Cyprus
