The 2025 IHF World Men's Handball Championship, will be the 29th event hosted by the

International Handball Federation The International Handball Federation (IHF) is the administrative and controlling body for handball and beach handball. IHF is responsible for the organisation of handball's major international tournaments, notably the IHF World Men's Handball ...

. It will be held in Croatia, Denmark and Norway in January 2025.

Bidding process

Five nations expressed interest in hosting the tournament. The awarding of the event took place at the IHF Council meeting in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

on 28 February 2020. Croatia, Denmark and Norway were chosen as the hosts. This will be the second time Croatia will host the World Men's Handball Championship, the third for Denmark, and the first for Norway. *// * *

Venues

The tournament is expected to take place in 11 cities:

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, entertai ...

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Poreč Poreč (; it, Parenzo; la, Parens or ; grc, Πάρενθος, Párenthos) is a town and municipality on the western coast of the Istrian peninsula, in Istria County, west Croatia. Its major landmark is the 6th-century Euphrasian Basilica, whi ...

and

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik (), historically known as Ragusa (; see notes on naming), is a city on the Adriatic Sea in the region of Dalmatia, in the southeastern semi-exclave of Croatia. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranea ...

in Croatia,

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and

Herning Herning () is a Danish town in the Central Denmark Region of the Jutland peninsula. It is the main town and the administrative seat of Herning Municipality. Herning has a population of 50,565 (1 January 2022)Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, an ...

Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

Drammen Drammen () is a city and municipality in Viken, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and villages such as Konne ...

and

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

in Norway. The opening and final will take place in Oslo.

Qualification

Qualification system will still depend on number of compulsory and performance places, as for 2023 World Championship. The World Championship hosts will be directly qualified, along with the reigning world champions. Since there are three organisers, all from Europe, the number of compulsory places for Europe is reduced by two: 2 instead of default 4. The number of compulsory places awarded to other continental confederation keeps unchanged and is divided as follows: four places each for Asia and Africa, three places for the South and Central America Zone and one place for the North America and Caribbean Zone. One additional place is available for Oceania, but only when that region's national team ranks fifth or higher at the Asian Championship. If no Oceania team places among the top five at the Asian Championship, the IHF will award an additional wild card. In addition, there will be 12 performance places for the continental confederations, which are based on the teams ranked 1–12 in the preceding World Championship. According to the new qualification system and taking into consideration the results of the 2023 Men's World Championship, 20 out of 32 places are distributed as follows: :

¹All hosting federations are automatically entitled to take part in the World Championship. If there is more than one organiser from the same Continental Confederation, the number of compulsory places of the respective Continental Confederation shall be reduced accordingly. If there is more than one organiser and the organisers are not from the same Continental Confederation, the IHF Council shall decide about the reduction of the compulsory places, considering only the compulsory places of the Continental Confederations involved.

²The reigning World Champion automatically qualifies for the next World Championship and, as a rule, is placed first in the first performance row. In case the reigning World Champion is also hosting the next World Championship, the Continental Confederation of the reigning World Champion obtains one additional performance place.

³The compulsory place for Oceania is subject to fulfilling certain conditions. The Continental Confederation of Oceania does not have a direct compulsory place for a Continental Confederation qualification event. The Continental Confederation of Oceania is invited to participate in the Asian qualification events. The compulsory place is awarded to Oceania if the representative from Oceania is ranked 5th or higher in the Asian qualification. If Oceania fails to rank 5th or does not participate, the IHF Council will award this place as a free wild card.

⁴The wild card shall be awarded by the IHF Council.

1. If countries from Oceania (Australia or New Zealand) participating in the Asian Championships finish within the top 5, they will qualify for the World Championships. If they finish placed sixth or lower, the place would have been transferred to the Wild Card spot. 2. To bear in mind the

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, the IHF Council awarded the United States with wild cards for the 2025 and 2027 World Championships.

Qualified teams

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year. ''Italic'' indicates host country for that year.

External links

Bidding committee websiteIHF website

References

2025 Men

World Men's Handball Championship The IHF Men's Handball World Championship has been organized indoor by the International Handball Federation since 1938. In the twenty-seven tournaments held, eleven nations have won the title. France is the most successful team with six titl ...

International handball competitions hosted by Croatia International handball competitions hosted by Denmark International handball competitions hosted by Norway World Men's {{Handball-competition-stub