The long road to the 2025 IHF Women’s World Championship, which will be co-hosted by Germany and the Netherlands, will start on Thursday, 24 October 2024, with the Qualification Phase 1 for the European continent, where 12 teams will enter the fray to continue their quest for a berth at the world handball flagship competition.

Three sides are already qualified for the competition – co-hosts Germany and the Netherlands plus the reigning world champions, France – with several teams already having their places assured for the Qualification Phase 2, which will take place in April 2025.

The teams already making it to the next phase are Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Montenegro, Spain, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Croatia, Czechia, Poland, Serbia, Austria, Switzerland, North Macedonia, Ukraine, Iceland, Slovakia, Portugal, Türkiye and Faroe Islands.

However, three of those sides, already qualified for the EHF EURO 2024, due to take place in December, will also seal their spots for the world handball flagship competition via the continental competition.

For the Qualification Phase 1, 12 sides have been divided into four groups of three teams each. The group winners will be advancing to the Qualification Phase 2, which consists of two-leg play-offs that will decide 11 of Europe’s allocated places at the final tournament in the Netherlands and Germany in November and December next year.

In Group 1, which will take place in Siauliai, Lithuania, the hosts will face Greece and Great Britain, with the British side returning to competition, after they have competed as a wild card which replaced Cameroon in the Olympic Qualification Tournament #1 for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games last March.

Group 2, played in Hasselt, Belgium, will see a competitive battle between the hosts, Kosovo and Bosnia Herzegovina, while Group 3 will be played in Karis, Finland, with the hosts battling Israel and Estonia.

Italy will be hot favourites in Group 4, played in Chieti, where the hosts will face Bulgaria and Luxembourg, with both Bulgaria and Italy having already featured in previous editions in the competition, most recently Italy hosting the IHF Women’s World Championship in 2001.

The matches will be played between 24 and 27 October, with Groups 2 and 3 finishing on 26 October, while the other two groups will conclude on 27 October.

Photo credit: Hellenic Handball Federation