Qatar handball team have been placed in tough Group C of the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship facing reigning Olympic champions France, Austria and Kuwait in the first stage.
Croatia, Denmark and Norway will co-host the 29th edition of the world handball flagship competition which will take place from 14 January to 2 February 2025. Qatar’s matches will take place in Porec, Croatia.
The Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall in Zagreb, Croatia, was the venue for the glitzy draw of the tournament on Wednesday night, when the 32 participating teams learnt their fate for the preliminary round of the 29th edition of the world handball flagship competition.
The 32 sides, which were divided into four pots of eight teams each, were drawn starting from Pot 4 to Pot 1, with eight groups set for the preliminary round of the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, as the top three teams in each group progress to the main round.
Co-hosts Croatia had their coach, Dagur Sigurdsson draw their opponent from Pot 1, while goalkeeper Dominik Kuzmanovic assigned the teams in the draw from Pot 4 and the co-hosts will face Egypt, Argentina and Bahrain in the preliminary round in Group H, in Zagreb.
“I am not sure about luck, both Egypt and France were tough opponents from the first pot. We played Argentina a few weeks ago, I know Bahrain from my previous job as the Japan national team head coach, therefore I think it will be a tough group,” said Croatia’s coach, Dagur Sigurdsson.
Eight teams had been previously been assigned according to the 1.3.2 article of the Regulations for IHF Competitions, in the case of more than one (1) host nation, the organiser shall assign one (1) team per group, which had previously been assigned to a city, including the teams of the host nations.
Reigning champions and co-hosts Denmark, who were represented on stage by Morten Stig Christiansen, a former international, will be playing in Group B, in Herning, alongside Italy, Algeria and Tunisia, while the other co-hosts, Norway are headlining Group E, in Baerum, Oslo, where they face Portugal, Brazil and the United States of America. Left wing Alexander Blonz also helped in the draw, selecting the teams from Pot 3.
Undoubtedly, the group which will be the most balanced is Group A, where four European teams will face off for a place in the main round, as Germany, Czechia, Poland and wild card Switzerland are due to face off in a battle for the ages.
Another tough group will be the one in Baerum, Oslo, where Sweden meet Spain, Japan and Chile, in a battle of different styles. Another tough group looks to be D, in Varazdin, with three European teams – Hungary, the Netherlands and North Macedonia – are facing debutants Guinea, the only team which will make their debut at the IHF Men’s World Championship in this edition.
