2031 World Men's Handball Championship Explained

Tourney Name:World Men's Handball Championship
Year:2031
Country:Denmark
Country2:Iceland
Country3:Norway
Dates:January 2031
Num Teams:32
Confederations:5
Previous:2029 World Men's Handball Championship
Next:2033 World Men's Handball Championship

The 2031 IHF World Men's Handball Championship, will be the 32nd event hosted by the International Handball Federation. It will take place in Denmark, Iceland and Norway in January 2031.[1]

Bidding process

In April 2023, the IHF stated that they were looking for bids.[2] In the end, three bids expressed interest in hosting the tournament.

The bids were confirmed on 1 March 2024:[9] [10]

Denmark, Iceland and Norway were awarded the hosting rights on 16 April 2024 in Créteil, France.[11] [12] [13] [14]

Venues

The proposed venues are:[15]

Denmark will be the main host with 4 preliminary round groups, the President's Cup, 2 main round groups and the knockout stage, while Iceland and Norway will host 2 preliminary round groups and 1 main round group.[12]

Qualification

Qualification system will still depend on number of compulsory and performance places, as for 2029 World Championship. The World Championship hosts will be directly qualified, along with the reigning world champions.The number of compulsory places awarded to other continental confederation keeps unchanged and is divided as follows: four places each for Europe, Asia and Africa, three places for the South and Central America zone and one place for the North America and Caribbean zone.[16] 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 2029 Men's World Championship, 20 out of 32 places are distributed as follows:

Distribution of places (following current IHF rules)VacanciesDetailsComments
Organisers 11
Reigning world champion 21
Performance places for the continental confederations12Based on teams ranked 1-12 in the preceding world championship
Africa?
Asia?
Europe?
North America and the Caribbean?
South and Central America?
Oceania?
Compulsory places for the continental confederations17
Africa4
Asia4
Europe4 1
North America and the Caribbean1
South and Central America3
Oceania1 3Place allocated to Oceania or an additional free wild card
Wild card 41
Total32

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 confederation shall be reduced accordingly. If there is more than one organiser and the organisers are not from the same confederation, the IHF Council shall decide about the reduction of the compulsory places, considering only the compulsory places of the 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 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 confederational qualification event. The 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.

CompetitionDatesHostVacanciesQualified
Host nations16 April 2024 Créteil3

2029 World ChampionshipTBD France
Germany
1
2030 European Men's Handball Championship10 –
27 January 2030
TBD2
2030 African Men's Handball ChampionshipTBDTBD4(+?)
2030 Asian Men's Handball ChampionshipTBDTBD4(+?)
2030 South and Central American Men's Handball ChampionshipTBDTBD3(+?)
2030 Nor.Ca. Men's Handball ChampionshipTBDTBD1(+?)
European qualificationTBDVarious?
OceaniaTBDTBD1
Wild cardTBDTBD1 or 2

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.

Qualified teams

Country Qualified as Qualified on Previous appearances1
Co-host 26 (1938, 1954, 1958, 1961, 1964, 1967, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1993, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2025)
23 (1958, 1961, 1964, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1986, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2025)
18 (1958, 1961, 1964, 1967, 1970, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2025)

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

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: IHF Council Awards 2029 and 2031 Editions of the IHF World Championship. IHF. 16 April 2024.
  2. Web site: Invitation to tender for the Senior World Championship 2029 and 2031. IHF. 25 April 2023.
  3. Web site: Fer hluti HM karla 2029 eða 2031 fram hér á landi?. 5 July 2023. Handbolti.is. is.
  4. Web site: German Handball Association Confirms Interest in Hosting Further Major Handball Tournaments. Handball World. 5 November 2023.
  5. Web site: Saudi-Arabien bewirbt sich um Handball-WM. Deutschlandfunk. 10 October 2023.
  6. Web site: Saudi-Arabia får VM-nei. Daniel. Austerheim. 1 March 2024. Nettavisen.
  7. Web site: Saudi-Arabia nære å sikre seg håndball-VM. 22 January 2024. TV 2.
  8. Web site: Vedtak «tvinger» Lio til å gjøre som Klaveness. 23 January 2024. TV 2.
  9. Web site: 2029 and 2031 IHF World Championship organising rights to be awarded on 16 April. IHF. 1 March 2024.
  10. Web site: La France candidate avec l'Allemagne pour l'organisation des Mondiaux IHF masculins 2029 et 2031. Manon. Douziech. 16 February 2024. FFHandball. French Handball Federation.
  11. Web site: IHF Council awards 2029 and 2031 editions of the IHF World Championship. IHF. 16 April 2024.
  12. Web site: Danmark bliver værter for VM i herrehåndbold 2031. DanskHåndbold. 16 April 2024.
  13. Web site: HM 2031 haldið á Íslandi, Noregi og Danmörku. 16 April 2024. Icelandic Handball Association.
  14. Web site: Norge medarrangør av VM 2031 for menn. Norges Håndballforbund. 16 April 2024.
  15. https://www.ihf.info/sites/default/files/2024-05/6_council_minutes_FRA_2024_E.pdf
  16. Web site: V. Regulations for IHF Competitions (Indoor Handball). International Handball Federation. 9 December 2020. 1 January 2022.