Among their achievements, Christiansen and Aguinagalde are both two-time EHF EURO champions - Christiansen in 2008 and 2012, Aguinagalde in 2018 and 2020. Meanwhile Abati was Olympic champion in 2008 and Klein won the 2007 IHF Men's World Championship in 2007, when Germany were hosts.
The legends will assist in the draw procedure that will see the 24 teams qualified drawn into six groups of four for the EHF EURO preliminary round. The qualified teams have been seeded in four pots of six teams based on the results of the EHF EURO 2024 Qualifiers and the EHF EURO 2022 ranking.
- Pot 1: Sweden, Spain, Denmark, France, Norway, Iceland
- Pot 2: Germany, Netherlands, Slovenia, Hungary, Portugal, Austria
- Pot 3: Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, Czech Republic, Serbia, North Macedonia
- Pot 4: Switzerland, Romania, Montenegro, Greece, Georgia, Faroe Islands
Germany have already been seeded in group A which will start the tournament in Düsseldorf (opening match) and Berlin.
Croatia are seeded in group B in Mannheim; Iceland start their campaign in group C in Munich. Norway have been placed in group D in Berlin; EHF EURO 2022 champions Sweden head group E in Mannheim and world champions Denmark group F in Munich. The top two teams in each group will qualify for the main round.
Hamburg and Cologne will be the main round venues, with Cologne’s LANXESS arena hosting the final weekend of the competition.
The full draw procedure is also available for download.
The draw will be broadcast live across Europe and on EHFTV and the Home of Handball YouTube channel (geo-restrictions may apply). For a full list of broadcasters, click here.
You can also follow the draw together with Chris O'Reilly & Martin Vilstrup in the watchalong on Twitch to join the chat and discuss live on the results. Only on the official Home of Handball Twitch channel.