When Qatar were awarded host of the 2017 Men’s World Championship in 2011, they started like a machine to build up a competitive team for the “home tournament”. Many players were added to the Qatar team, a whole administration was built around the team and the Qatar Handball Association (QHA). In April 2013 Qatar made the most important step towards a brilliant future, signing Valero Rivera as their coach, who had just steered Spain to the gold medal at the 2013 World Championship on home ground. With Rivera’s knowledge and experience they started their mission for 2015. On continental level, Qatar became stronger, winning the Asian Championship three times straight (2014, 2016, 2018) and the Asian Games twice. On home ground, they became the first ever Asian men’s team to make it to the semi-final of a World Championship and the first ever non-European team to be finalists. The story ended with silver medals and becoming “Qatar legends of sports”. Though some top stars such as Zarko Markovic or Goran Stojanovic have quit playing for the national team, Qatar caused another major surprise at the 2017 World Championship at France, eliminating European Champions Germany in the eighth-finals. Qatar finished the 2018 Asian Championships at Suwon, Korea, undefeated with a clean record of eight wins in eight matches, including the 33:31 in the final against Bahrain.

Competition records: World Championship match results: 2003: 16, 2005: 21, 2007: 23, 2013: 20, 2015: SILVER, 2017: 8

Olympic Games match results: 2016: 8

Asian Championship match results: 1991: 4, 2002: SILVER, 2004: BRONZE, 2006: BRONZE, 2012: SILVER, 2014: GOLD, 2016: GOLD, 2018: GOLD

Qualification for Denmark/Germany 2019: Asian Champions