Welcome to our website about the World Handball Championship. The competition is being played every other year for both Men’s and Women’s national teams. In 2-19 december 2021, the best female players will compete about the title in Spain. Om our website you will find everything you need to know about the championship.

The Women’s World Handball Championship 2021 is scheduled to take place from the 2 to the 19 of December. It will be the 25th event presided over by the International Handball Federation. The bids to host the event were submitted by Spain and Hungary back in 2017. However, Spain was awarded the right to host via a secret ballot done by the International Handball Federation Council members. The event will take place in six different venues, located in Barcelona, Tarragona, Granolas, Lleida, Badalona, and Castellon de la Plana.

Championship Format

The 32 teams featuring in the 2021 Women’s World Cup Handball Championship will be divided into eight different groups of four teams. Each team will play against all other teams in their respective groups during the first round of the championship.

The three top teams from each of the groups will advance to the next round. In the second round, all the teams will be in four groups, each group consisting of six teams. Then, each team plays against the rest of the teams in the respective groups. That is except for teams that played against each other in the first round. For the exceptions, the teams will take the points they received from the first-round match.

Only two teams from each group in the World Cup Handball tournament can advance to the next stage of the championship, the playoffs. The playoffs consist of the quarterfinals, semifinals, and the final.

Qualification

The Women’s Handball World Championship 2021 will feature 32 teams. That will include Spain, the hosts, and the Netherlands, the reigning world champions. Besides the two slots, there will be 12 performance places for continental confederations based allotted to the teams ranked 1-12 in the previous world championship. The International Handball Federation also shares 17 compulsory slots among respective continental associations as follows:

  • Africa – 4 slots
  • Asia – 4 slots
  • Europe – 4 slots
  • North America & Caribbean – 1 slot
  • South and Central America – 3 slots
  • Oceania – 1 slot

From the number, there is an extra slot that remains. This slot, the wild card, is to be awarded by the IHF Council to a team of its choice. It is also worth noting the IHF reserves the right to amend the distribution of compulsory places for standardisation reasons.

History of the Handball Championships

The International Handball Federation has been organising the Women’s World Handball Championship since 1957. In all the events, only European teams have emerged as winners except for 1995, won by South Korea, and the 2013 tournament that Brazil won. Russia holds the highest number of wins, which is four. Only nine teams participated in the inaugural Women’s Handball World Cup. The number continued to grow over the years, with the 2021 event expected to feature 32 teams.

On the other hand, the World Men’s Handball World Cup was first held in 1938. Since then, handball fans have been treated to twenty-seven international championships. Throughout the history of this tournament, European nations had won all medals, besides 2015 when Qatar Pulled a Surprise winning the Men’s Handball World Cup.

Performance History

Norway has the highest number of medals in the Women’s Handball World Championship; three gold medals, four silver medals, and three bronze medals. However, Russia is ranked as the top-performing team with four gold medals and one bronze medal.

Having seen Sweden lose to Denmark in the 2021 Men’s Handball World cup, the previous 26 tournaments have been won by eleven nations, with France having the most gold medals. Sweden and Romania come in second with four gold medals each. However, if the medal tally is anything to go by, Sweden stands out as the most consistent men’s team.