The tournament, which will conclude on February 2, will be jointly hosted by Croatia, Denmark and Norway. Ahmed al-Shaabi, President of the Qatar Handball Federation (QHF), on Monday watched the players undergo strenuous training under new coach Veselin Vujovic.
Khalifa al-Jassim, Director of the Qatar National Teams, on Monday said Qatar - who are short on experience - seem “well prepared” but won’t be taking any of their opponents lightly.
“The Qatari team’s matches will not be easy in this edition of the World Championship, but at the same time I will say that we have great confidence in our players who can do good,” al-Jassim said. “The draw placed us in Group Three along France who are the world champions, Austrian, who are one of the stronger European teams, and Kuwaiti, which has returned strongly to the scene recently,” he added.
Al-Jassim said: “Our team played five friendly matches as part of its preparations for the World Championships. Qatar played against Slovenia and Algeria during their training session held in the Slovenia camp.”
“We know the difficulty of our game against France but we are confident we will do well,” the QHF official said. “We will focus on one match at a time. We prepared the players reasonably well and we know they are confident,” he said.
When asked about the formation of the side for today’s opening clash against France, al-Jassim said: “The final playing combination will be directly picked by Veselin Vujovic, our coach, as he is responsible for these choices.”
The Qatari official said influential players Zarko Markovic and Frankis Carol are fit and available for selection.
Last August, experienced Montenegrin coach Vujovic was announced as the man to lead the Qatar through the global event, taking over from Goran Djokic, who sealed qualification for 2025 after guiding the side to continental glory in Bahrain last January. Vujovic is no stranger to world championship metal, taking bronze while in charge of Slovenia at the 2017 IHF Men’s World Championship – completing the full set of competition medals if you consider his gold (1986) and silver (1982) won as a player with the former Yugoslavia.
That Asian championship was Qatar’s last major, competitive event after they failed in their Paris 2024 Olympic Games qualification quest on home soil a few months earlier, with the departing Spanish coach Valero Rivera, who had been in the position for a decade and who had led the Asian nation to silver at the 2015 IHF Men’s World Championship held in Qatar.
And while it is unlikely that Vujovic will be able to repeat a podium place that Rivera gained in his very first global event with the Asian side – silver in 2015 – the new incumbent will surely be able to achieve better than the 22nd spot Qatar ended with at the last world championship in 2023 – their second worst-ever ranking in nine appearances and worst in the new format of 32 teams.
“The circumstances are different and Qatar are not at the same level as before, but as a coach I know very well the difficulty of the task at this stage,” Vujovic had said in Ausgust after being announced as Qatar’s coach. “But I accepted it, and therefore I will live up to the expectations of the officials in the Qatari Handball Association who gave me this opportunity in order to win the challenge and bring Qatari handball to the best position in Asia and the world.”
Qatar are participating in the World Cup for the 10th time after Portugal 2003, Tunisia 2005, Germany 2007, Spain 2013, Qatar 2015, France 2017, Germany and Denmark 2019, Egypt 2021, Poland and Sweden 2023.
Qatar qualified for the World Cup after topping Group 1 in the main round of the 21st Asian Men’s Championship held in Bahrain last January, and the Qatari team won the title for the sixth time in a row after defeating Japan in the final (30-24).
At the World Championship two years ago, Qatar finished 22nd spot. At Poland/Sweden 2023 Qatar won just once, against Algeria (29:24) in the preliminary group stage, losing their two other first stage games against Germany (27:31) and Serbia (24:34) before going on to lose all three main round games, against Netherlands (30:32), Norway (17:30) and Argentina (22:26).
Just 10 players from the 2023 World Championship disappointment made it through to the continental final squad last year. It won’t be wrong to say that Qatar are starting a new era under coach Vujovic.
FACTBOX
Key players: Frankis Marzo (left back), Youssef Ben Ali (line player)
Qualification for Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025: 2024 Asian Men’s Championship – 1st place
History in tournament: 2003: 16th, 2005: 21st, 2007: 23rd, 2013: 20th, 2015: 2nd, 2017: 8th, 2019: 13th, 2021: 8th, 2023: 22nd
Group C: Austria, France, Kuwait, Qatar
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