All the pressure is on host nation Qatar at the 2024 Men’s IHF Beach Handball Global Tour: Finals this week in Doha.

The home side will not only face Brazil, Germany and world championship title-holders Croatia on home sand, but will be defending the title too after winning the debut edition last year, also held in Doha.

That title was won in front of well over 1,300 passionate home fans with Khalifa Al Jassim, Chair of Beach Handball and Assistant Secretary General of the Qatar Handball Association, well-aware of not only the benefits the host nation supporters bring, but also the added responsibility for his team.

“It is not easy task [to play at home]. We cannot always say that playing at home in front of our spectators will be a positive point for the team as even though you may feel at home, you will be under pressure,” he said.

“We are talking about playing the best teams in Beach Handball: we played Brazil in the final of the tour last year, Croatia are IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championship champions and Germany are one of the best teams in the world, finishing fourth at the last world championship.”

And for Al Jassim, the event represents more than the games on the sand.

“As champions and hosts it is important to win it again and defending the title will push us to do more and more, as everyone will focus on us. Of course, we feel happiness qualifying, but the important impact of qualification give us more motivation to play and proves that Qatar deserves support.

“Since 2010 the Qatar Handball Association has hosted many events and we consider hosting the IHF Beach Handball Global Tour: Finals a special event,” explained Al Jassim. “Last year we organised a small Beach Handball tournament for clubs and players without teams as we noticed that many players enjoyed and liked it.”

Qatar coach Khaled Aly has been overseeing a change in generation of his men’s side, with key, long-term players like Mohamed Zaky retiring and a relatively small pool of players available to replace those he has relied on for years.

“It is normal,” explained Al Jassim about the squad changes Qatar will make for the finals event, compared to their team at the 2024 IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championship last June where they finished 10th, their joint-worse ranking in the seven editions they have appeared in.

“We do not have a lot of Beach Handball players, so when any player retires, we make sure that the new player coming will be the same or better in the position.”

Whichever team Aly selects will face a tough test in Doha, with 2024 world champions Croatia the biggest obstacle in their way to take the title for a second, successive year.

“Whomever and wherever we play we want one thing: to win. Winning the title would be a really great end of a great year for Croatian Beach Handball,” said Croatia captain Ivan Juric to ihf.info about Croatia’s goal in Doha.

“We were very happy when we found out that we qualified for the finals. It will be a great way to prolong the Beach Handball season and to check the level of other teams in this off-season period. I will enjoy playing against top teams and players for the last time this year – the competition is fierce, but I want a medal, and I hope for gold. We have a good team and with a little bit of luck we can win.”

For Juric personally, 2024 has been an “amazing” year. His Croatia side defended their world championship title, taking the title in China, while his Croatian club side won the championship. As a guest player he also played in both the Portuguese and Spanish championships before winning an EHF Champions Cup with GRD Leça just last month.

A familiar Croatia side features household names in the sport, but coach Mladen Paradzik ensures that the conveyor belt continues with Ivan Rukljac, a specialist from RK Bundek-Novi Zagreb, set to make his international debut.

And all four teams know each other well having played numerous times this year.

Qatar met Germany at stage 1 of the tour in Brazil in May with Germany winning both of their games against the Asian side, taking a 2-0 (17:16, 24:18) preliminary group and 2-1 (16:17, 22:12, SO 7:4) semi-final victory, while stage 2 in Spain saw Germany beat Portugal 2-1 (22:24, 20:19, SO 9:6) in the preliminary round. 

All four teams played each other at the 2024 IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championship in China in June. Croatia beat Portugal 2-0 in the preliminary round, before seeing off Qatar and Germany by the same score in the main round. Croatia then defeated Portugal 2-0 again (27:24, 22:14) in the semi-final. Germany also played Portugal twice, defeating them 2-0 in the main round, but losing to them 0-2 (24:25, 18:20) in the bronze medal match. Portugal beat Qatar 2-1 in the man round, with Brazil handing the European side a 2-1 (17:15, 14:19, SO 10:8) quarter-final loss.

“All of the teams are old acquaintances, we have played many games against them,” explained Juric. “We haven’t met Brazil since 2019, with our last two meetings the 2018 world championship final and 2019 World Beach Games quarter-final. We lost both of them, so they are not the best memories to recall. I personally don’t want to lose against them three times in a row and I’m sure the rest of my team thinks the same – but they (Brazil) will surely be looking to bring home a medal.

“Qatar are hosts and title-holders so they are favourites in my opinion. I don’t know how Germany will look like since the finals are held in the middle of the indoor season, but the fact its being held during national teams’ week will surely help them assembling a team. It will be very interesting to see what our slightly modified team can do against three top teams.”

For further information and the competition schedule, click HERE.

About the IHF Beach Handball Global Tour
The IHF Beach Handball Global Tour was launched at the 2022 IHF Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships in Greece and debuted in Gdansk, Poland with Croatia winning the men’s tournament and Spain taking the top spot in the women’s tournament.

The 2023 IHF Beach Handball Global Tour visited Brazil, Tunisia and Poland before the Finals Stage was held in Doha, Qatar in November, with Qatar’s men and Brazil’s women taking the overall titles.

The 2024 IHF Beach Handball Global Tour commenced in May with Stage 1 in Maricá, Brazil. The host nation won both the men’s and women’s competitions. Stage 2 took place in Cádiz, Spain, with the host nation winning the women’s tournament and the men’s tournament won by Germany.