Less than two months separate us from the start of the 2025 IHF Women’s World Championship, with the 32 participating teams already known.
The draw took place on Thursday, 22 May, in the historic halls of the Noordbrabants Museum in 's-Hertogenbosch, one of the five hosts cities of the competition, providing some exciting groups.

While Group A is already positioning to be a very tough one – maybe the toughest in the competition – Group B have two certain favourites: European sides Hungary and Switzerland, with African team Senegal and Asian representative, Islamic Republic of Iran, being the two underdogs.

Hungary have missed only two editions of the competition, in 1990 and 2011, and have secured nine medals in their history, with a title in 1965, four silver medals and four bronze medals, with the most recent coming in 2005, when they finished on the third place of the podium.

Since then, Hungary have made the top-10 five times, but they have never climbed higher than the eighth place and will be certainly aiming to improve on that record, especially as they will host the next edition of the world handball flagship competition in 2027.

And they are on the up, having finished third at the last EHF EURO, in 2024, while also having a team which grew together, with plenty of young guns in the squad, including the 2024 IHF Young Female Player of the Year, Petra Simon.

Hungary also have an immaculate head-to-head record against two of their opponents in this preliminary round, beating Senegal twice at the IHF Women’s World Championship, each time with the same score, 30:20, in 2019 and 2023.

They also won three times against Switzerland, first at the EHF EURO 2022, 33:28, and then at the EHF Euro Cup 2024, 38:26 and 35:27, proving their mettle against the emerging side from the European continent.

Coach Vlagymir Golovin knows his team fully well, as he coached plenty of these players in the younger age category teams and has been in this position since 2021, overseeing the development.

Switzerland are one of the debutants at this edition of the IHF Women’s World Championship, therefore they have not met Senegal or the Islamic Republic of Iran at the highest level in senior competitions so far.

But the European side can be considered one of the dark horses of this competition, as a good preliminary round performance would likely see them through to the main round, where anything is possible given the correct scenario.

Switzerland have been on the up over the last years, as their young players, who shone at the IHF Women’s Junior World Championship and at the IHF Women’s Youth World Championship over the last years have made the switch to the senior team.

At their debut in a major international competition, at the EHF EURO 2022, they finished 14th, but failed to win any match, but two years later, in 2024, when they co-hosted the European Championship in Basel, they ended up 12th, with two wins.

With players like right wing Mia Emmenegger and line player Tabea Schmid, who have been already shining in Denmark, as well as with some other experienced players who featured in Germany, Switzerland look as the team most likely to take some points into the main round.

And then the battle between Senegal and the Islamic Republic of Iran might decide the third qualified team for the main round, a place which Senegal aim to secure for the second edition in a row.

The African side takes part at the IHF Women’s World Championship for the third time in history, after finishing 18th in both the previous appearances, in 2019 and 2023. They qualified for Germany/Netherlands 2025 after finishing as runners-up at the 2024 CAHB African Women’s Handball Championship, falling behind only against Angola in the final.

The Islamic Republic of Iran are also at their third consecutive appearance in the competition, but have never faced any of their current opponents in this group.

So far, on the court, they have only beaten one team, Greenland, in the Placement Match 31/32, at the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship, as they ended up on the 31st place, the same outcome as in the 2021 edition, when Iran took advantage of the People’s Republic of China withdrawal.

You can buy tickets for the 2025 IHF Women's World Championship here for the matches taking place in the Netherlands and here for the matches taking place in Germany.