Thanks to IHF wildcard:

18 European teams among the 32 World Championship participants – draw on 22 May in s’Hertogenbosch

The field of participants for the Women’s World Championship 2025 in Germany and the Netherlands is complete as of today, Monday: the International Handball Federation has announced that Croatia has received the second wildcard for the tournament, which will be held in three German and two Dutch cities from 26 November to 14 December. The Croatians had lost their World Championship play-offs against Spain (aggregate score 44:49), but then applied for a wild card – and are now the 32nd World Championship starter.

In its announcement, the IHF cited ‘the great popularity of handball in Croatia’ and Croatia’s important role as an organiser of major handball tournaments, most recently as co-host of the Men’s World Championship in January, as the decisive factors for the award. Other applicants had been Lithuania, North Macedonia and Slovenia. The first IHF wildcard for the 2025 Women’s World Championship had previously been awarded to China.

The group draw in s’Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, next Thursday (22 May, 18:00 CEST) will include 18 teams from Europe, five from Asia, four from Africa, four from South and Central America and one from North America/Caribbean in the pots. The IHF will announce the distribution of the pots shortly.

The German venues are Trier, Stuttgart (two preliminary round groups each) and Dortmund (two main round groups, two quarter-finals), while the Dutch venues are Rotterdam (two preliminary round groups, two main round groups, two quarter-finals and final weekend) and s’Hertogenbosch (two preliminary round groups, Presidents’ Cup).

The following teams are seeded as group heads for the draw:

Group A in Rotterdam: Denmark (2024 European Championship runners-up)
Group B in ‘s-Hertogenbosch: Hungary (2024 European Championship bronze medallists)
Group C in Stuttgart: Germany (hosts)
Group D in Trier: Faroe Islands
Group E in Rotterdam: Netherlands (hosts)
Group F in ‘s-Hertogenbosch: France (2023 World Champions)
Group G in Stuttgart: Sweden
Group H in Trier: Norway (2024 European Champions)

The World Championship debutants from the Faroe Islands will replace Slovenia in Group D in Trier, where they were seeded in case of qualification, but then they fell to Serbia in the World Championship play-offs.

These are the 32 World Championship participants:

Hosts: Germany, Netherlands
World champions: France
Europe: Denmark, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Croatia, Montenegro, Norway, Austria, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Spain, Czech Republic and Hungary
Africa: Angola, Egypt, Senegal, Tunisia
Asia: Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, China, South Korea
South and Central America: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay
North America and Caribbean: Cuba

Text: Björn Pazen
Photo: IMAGO / HANZA MEDIA