Eight teams to compete at the 2025 IHF Men’s Emerging Nations Championship

27 Jan. 2025

Eight teams to compete at the 2025 IHF Men’s Emerging Nations Championship

The IHF Men’s Emerging Nations Championship will return in 2025, for its fifth edition, with eight teams set to battle for the big prize in Varna, Bulgaria, between 11 and 16 March.

Bulgaria will host the event for the third time after the 2017 and the 2023 editions, when the Faroe Islands and Cuba were crowned winners respectively.

However, the previous winners of the competition, the Faroe Islands, Georgia and Cuba will not be at the start, but several teams will make their return, including hosts Bulgaria, three-time participants Republic of Moldova or Great Britain, which has been in the mix in all the previous four editions.

The eight sides are representing four continents, with Europe, Africa, the South and Central American Confederation and the North and Caribbean Confederation featuring in the competition.

There are five European sides taking part – hosts Bulgaria, Cyprus, Great Britain, Azerbaijan and the Republic of Moldova – while the United States of America return after taking part for the first time in 2019, when they finished fifth. Nigeria will also make their third consecutive appearance, with Paraguay ready to make their debut in the IHF Men’s Emerging Nations Championship

The eight teams will be separated into two groups of four teams each in the preliminary round. There is no protection for the draw, with the teams in Pot 1 being drawn first, followed by teams in Pot 3 and teams in Pot 4. Bulgaria, as the host nation, will have the prerogative to choose their group, with the other team in Pot 2, Azerbaijan, going in the other group.

The draw will take place on Tuesday, 28 January, at 11:00 CET, in Oslo, on the outskirts of the 2025 IHF Men's World Championship.

This is the fifth edition of the IHF Men’s Emerging Nations Championship after the tournament previously took place in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2023, with the 2021 edition being cancelled due to the Covid-19 situation.

The previous winners were the Faroe Islands at Kosovo 2015 and Bulgaria 2017, and hosts Georgia in 2019, with Latvia, TĂĽrkiye and Cuba winning the silver medals, respectively, in each competition. In 2023, the title was secured by Cuba, which won the final against Cyprus.

2025 IHF Men’s Emerging Nations Championship – pots

  • Pot 1: United States of America, Cyprus
  • Pot 2: Bulgaria, Azerbaijan
  • Pot 3: Nigeria, Great Britain
  • Pot 4: Republic of Moldova, Paraguay
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