Well, what an exciting year 2022 was! Handball went back to normal after some tense months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Everything went in full flow, with plenty of exciting tournaments delivering some excellent matches that will always be remembered.

As 2022 is slowly ending, a new year is starting, and 2023 promises to be even more exciting, with the IHF Men's World Championship and the IHF Women's World Championship scheduled for January and December, respectively. 

Sure, the January spotlight will be on the 28th edition of the IHF Men's World Championship, which will take place in Poland and Sweden from 11 to 29 January.

It will be the second edition of the IHF Men's World Championship with 32 teams after the successful one at Egypt 2021, and it will also mark the return of the fans in the stands after the previous edition of the world handball flagship competition was played without fans due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nine venues will be hosting the tournament – five in Sweden and four in Poland – with the final weekend taking place in the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm. At the same time, two quarter-finals and one semi-final are due to be hosted in the Ergo Arena in Gdansk.

All sides are preparing for the start of the competition in different friendly tournaments. The throw-off of Poland/Sweden 2023 is scheduled for 11 January at 21:00 CET in the Spodek Arena in Katowice, in a fiery match between co-hosts Poland and France.

There are other competitions in January, though, with the Continental Phase of the men's youth and junior tournaments of the IHF Trophy Africa scheduled to place in Brazzaville, Congo from 16 to 20 January 2023.

Five teams will be playing in the youth competition – Burundi, Congo, Guinea, Nigeria and Zambia – while six teams are entering the junior competition – Congo, Guinea, Madagascar, Nigeria, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.

Two spots are up for grabs in the European Qualification for the 2023 IHF Men's Junior World Championship, which will take place in Germany and Greece from 20 June to 2 July. The qualified teams will be decided in two tournaments played in Chieti, Italy, from 6 to 8 January.

Italy, Croatia, Montenegro and Israel will be playing in the first tournament, while Norway, the Czech Republic and Poland are featuring in the second, with the winners progressing to the final tournament.

The qualification process for the EHF EURO 2026 is also starting in January, with Baku hosting the Qualification Phase 1, a four-team round-robin tournament, where Great Britain, hosts Azerbaijan, Cyprus and Malta will be trying to progress to the next phase.

Photos: IHF/Rwanda Handball Federation