The national team of Cameroon failed to comply with the documentation required for the visa to travel to Hungary in time to take part in the Paris 2024 Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournament #1, in Debrecen, Hungary, despite all efforts made by the Hungarian Handball Federation, the International Handball Federation, the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the German Embassy in Yaoundé, Cameroon over the last weeks.

Therefore, and in accordance with article IV.1.2.3. of the Regulations for IHF Competitions, the IHF aimed to award the place to another African team, but all the teams contacted by the IHF together with the African Handball Confederation (CAHB), could not confirm their participation, due to the lack of time for preparations and travel.

Therefore, in accordance with the article quoted above, “the open place will be awarded as a wild card by the IHF Executive Committee”. On Tuesday, 9 April, the IHF Executive Committee met in an extraordinary meeting to discuss the limited options and decided to award the place mainly under the light of development purposes in order to keep the competition as fair as possible. 

The objective of the decision was to allow all teams a fair chance of having the same number of matches and to try to find the best possible balance and to provide the best chance of progression for all the teams involved. Therefore, the IHF Executive Committee decided to award the place to the team of Great Britain. Great Britain is part of the IHF New Markets Project and is keen to participate, as well as able to arrive on a very short notice in Hungary.

Therefore, Great Britain will replace Cameroon in all matches without any further change of the match schedule, throwing off the competition against Hungary on Thursday, 11 April, at 15:30 CEST, featuring against Japan on 12 April, at 20:30 CEST, with the last match being against Sweden, on 14 April, at 16:45 CEST.