The places 9–16 at the Women’s World Championship in Brazil might be decisive for the qualification for the Olympic Qualification Tournaments, played from 25 to 27 May 2012. As there will be no placement matches for the losers of the eight-finals in Brazil, the IHF has taken this decision concerning the determination of those places:

The losers of the eight-finals are classified 9th-16th according to the following criteria:

a) number of points gained against the teams ranked 1st-4th in the preliminary rounds in their group;

b) if two or more teams have gained the same number of points the goal difference in the games mentioned under a) is decisive for the classification;

c) if two or more teams have gained the same number of points as well as the same goal difference in the games mentioned under a) a decision on the classification is made based on the greater number of plus goals in these games;

d) if two or more teams have gained the same number of points, the same goal difference and the same number of plus goals in the games mentioned under a) the classification of these teams is decided on the final ranking of the best teams, i.e. a team which played in the preliminary round group of the later World Champion will be ranked ahead of a team which played in the PR group of the runner-up. If the World Champion and the runner-up were in the same PR group, the team which achieved the better result against the World Champion will be better ranked.

The places 9, 10 and maybe 11 are decisive in those cases where three or more teams are among the quarter-finalists which have already qualified for the 2012 London Olympic Games or the Qualification Tournaments. Six places for the Olympic Qualification Tournaments will be allocated in Brazil, the World Champion qualifies directly for London – with the following exceptions: If Norway (European Champion) becomes World Champion, EURO runners-up Sweden is directly qualified for London; if Brazil (Winner of the Pan American Olympic Qualification) becomes World Champion, Argentina will book their direct ticket to London and if Korea (Winner of the Asian Olympic Qualification) becomes World Champion, Japan is directly qualified for London. If Norway and/or Brazil and/or Korea are among the quarter-finalists, the teams placed below (until the number of six) get the ticket for the Olympic Qualification Tournaments. In addition the two European teams to qualify from the EHF EURO 2010 in Norway/Denmark for the Olympic Qualification Tournaments will be decided due to the final ranking of the World Championship.