During the three closing press conferences at Germany 2017, many facts and figures were presented, here they are in bullet point form.

GENERAL
- Germany: IHF’s biggest member federation with more than 750,000 members

- Tournament started Friday 1 December with Germany vs Cameroon and just two games left

- In total: 84 games, 17 days, 6 venues/host cities

- 4,384 goals scored (updated to include final day matches)

- More than a World Championship – a celebration of handball, with side events and meeting with handball family coming together:

 - Women’s Handball Working Group (further information HERE)

 - IHF Athletes Commission members playing (Mouna Chebbah) and working (Gro Hammerseng-Edin)

- Welcoming new positions after IHF Congress:
 - Narcisa LECUSANU (ROU) - IHF Executive Member / IHF Representative at Germany 2017
 - Anna RAPP (SWE), IHF Treasurer
 - Ramon GALLEGO (ESP), Chairperson – IHF Playing Rules and Referees Commission (PRC)
 - Dietrich SPATE (GER): Chairperson – IHF Commission of Coaching and Methods (CCM)
 - Per BERTELSEN (DEN): Chairperson - IHF Commission of Organising and Competition

MEDIA
 - Total media accreditation is just under 1,000 (980) including:
 - 375 rights-holding media and the host broadcaster
 - 186 photographers
 - written press
 - web tv
 - Non-rights holding TV and Radio

- TV production of finals will feature 16 cameras, including the spider-cam

- Official figures for semi-finals and bronze/final matches will only be provided next week but there are some impressive figures:

- TVP in Poland: for first three POL matches - an audience of 4.4 million viewers 
peak of 1.9m for POL vs NOR (compared to average of 1.1 million in 2015)

- Sport1 in Germany: GER vs SRB, close to 1 million viewers, above average

- DR in Denmark: Public broadcaster for GER vs DEN had an audience of more than 1.5million viewers, 63% market share and the fifth most-watched TV program in Denmark in all of 2017

- TV2 in Norway: SWE vs NOR, for example had more than 1.1 million viewers 63.5% market share

- Other public broadcaster’s wide national audience: RTVS in Slovenia, RTCG in Montenegro, TPA in Angola, CTV in Czech Republic, Teledeporte in Spain

- Big European sports broadcasters: beIN Sports in France and MENA, Eurosport in Sweden, Ziggo Sport in the Netherlands, Telekom Sport in Romania or Sport1 in Hungary complemented the very good coverage

- In France, the final will be on free-to-air TV (TF1) and high numbers are expected after sister-channel TMC had 1.1 million viewers for FRA vs MNE quarter-final 

- Cooperation with the Olympic Channel to show games, highlights and other programming on the multi-platform global media destination. To increase the attractiveness of our sport to a global audience

- IHFtv production, including tactics and top five videos

- A variety of social platforms used by IHF: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube

- Highlights include (1-16 December): Facebook (facebook.com/ihf.info) total impressions of 6,676,827, Twitter impressions of 1.6 million and 145,214 hours of YouTube watched.

OFFICIALS/REFEREEING
- The final two games – the bronze medal match and final –  like Denmark 2015, will be whistled by two female referee pairs.

- First IHF World Championship (men’s or women’s) to feature Electronic Team Time Out buzzer and countdown passive play on the big screen after trial at IHF Super Globe 2017

- 16 referee pairs nominated: 5 female and 11 male (31.25% female)

- Technical delegates: 16 in total nominated, 6 female and 10 male (37.5% female)

- Physical shape of referees has improved with the help of the IHF Fitness Coaches, part of year-round training (at home and at events). Preparation course in Frankfurt was a positive development and will be repeated.

- Average number of two-minute suspensions has been 7.3 per match (614 in 84 matches - this figure updated to include final day matches) at Germany 2017.  Rio 2016 was 8.5 and Denmark 2015 was 8. This means teams have understood our message and are playing more fairly, creating a great spectacle for the audience

ANTI-DOPING
- In total, there were 112 tests (80 in competition, 25 out of competition, 7 for All-Star Team) conducted throughout all six venues of Germany 2017 and they all came back negative, highlighting fair play of our sport, a clean sport.

ATTENDANCE
- Total spectators: 237,263 
- Second highest at Women’s World Championship in 12 years: Denmark 2015: 165,000, Serbia 2013: 95,120, Brazil 2011: 68,050, China 2009: 103,000, France 2007: 397,550 (record), Russia 2005: 61,350

JAPAN 2019
- Dates: Saturday 30 November – Sunday 15 December 2019
- Three host cities in Kumamoto Prefecture: Yamaga City, Kumamoto City, Yatsushiro City
- Participating countries: 24
- Staff: 3,000
- Number of matches: 96 (new format) – 60 Preliminary Round, 20 Main Round, 2 Semi-Finals, 2 – final and bronze, 12 President’s Cup