France join fellow debutants Japan and the United States of America in Preliminary Group A at Egypt 2024 looking to find their feet at international level and further develop the sport in their country.

At the beginning of 2024 the team faced foreign opposition for the first time, when they won and lost against Spain in Nevers, France.

“I am really looking forward to living this experience abroad with the team as it will be our first time abroad,” said France captain Matthieu de Cillia to ihf.info about the upcoming campaign in Egypt. “I am also looking forward to playing at an international level. 

“We have never faced anyone in our preliminary group before and ⁠⁠our team is new, but we have achieved a good cohesion amongst us in just one. Our team is based on experienced players with some new additions who were highlighted during last French championship.

“We hope to play a good handball and to show that France is a high-level, Wheelchair Handball team, but our long-term aim is to develop the sport that we love inside and outside of our border. We hope that we can achieve that Wheelchair Handball will become as popular as Wheelchair Basketball.”

The toughest test for France will lie in current four-a-side world championship title-holders, Brazil, but with opportunities to gain points against the other two first-timers, a medal could be a possibility for ‘Les Bleus’, although coach Fabien Convers is clear what the main objective is.

“⁠It's our first international competition so we are looking forward to represent France as the first Wheelchair Handball team of the country and we want to show to the other teams that we belong there and that we have worked for it,” said Convers to ihf.info.

“We don't know very much about the other teams in our preliminary group as we have never played games against any of them, so it's difficult to have a vision about them but we do have our chances against teams that don't play Wheelchair Handball like us, but we have played against Portugal many times before and they are the favourites. 

“⁠Our players are ready to the tournament. We trained a lot together as a team and each player had a preparation schedule prepared by the staff to work on their weakness and on our strategies to be ready.

For Mourad Bounouara, National Technical Director - National Technical Advisor Para-Hand Sports Performance and Social Performance Section – of the French Handball Federation (FFHB), Egypt 2024 allows another opportunity to further the sport in one of the leading countries of the world, indoor, seven-a-side game.

And with the Paralympic Games being held in Paris in August and September, the opportunity for Wheelchair Handball to continue growing in the European country was evident, with those involved with the sport participating in the Olympic Flame journey, Paralympic Flame journey and a variety of taster sessions. This past weekend saw over 200 attendees at a ‘Para Hand’ event at the FFHB headquarters, ‘Maison du Handball’ to celebrate Wheelchair Handball amongst other adaptive versions of Handball. 

“Wheelchair Handball has been developing for two years in France in a competitive format, while in a leisure format it has been offered for over 20 years – at the moment we have around 60 teams and 500 athletes across France,” explained Bounouara to ihf.info.

“Last year, we organised a French Championship and French Cup at national level and recently, during the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, an introduction to the sport was offered at Club France (a centralised venue for supporters of France and its athletes during the Games), with additional events, including the recent Rencontres Nationales HandEnsemble  (Para Hand) event at the ‘Maison du Handball’. 

“Sport in France is governed by the Ministry of Sports (of the French Government) and in July 2022 we obtained the ministerial delegation to promote Wheelchair Handball in a competitive manner,” he added. “The FFHB then appointed a staff to detect players and set up a national team.

“During previous international competitions, there was no national team since the FFHB could not authorise it without this delegation from the Government, so now, fielding a France team at Egypt 2024 represents France on the international level and allows for development at a national level.

“As head of Wheelchair Handball at the FFHB I hope that our team can perform well in Egypt, give a good image of the work we have undertaken for the past two years and that we can learn from a first international competition to continue to grow and catch up with the nations that are ahead of us in terms of their seniority.

“In the future, it is our wish to set up a detection project for the youngest and support them in a training process, while the FFHB works hard to shine the light on the handball world through not only Wheelchair Handball, but Para Hand, Baby Hand, Beach Handball, ‘Hand a 4’ (condensed handball) and Deaf Handball.”

“I really hope that the World championship can allow everyone to know this sport better and maybe to make some people want to join a club,” added Convers. “That it will help develop Wheelchair Handball in France and that there will be more and more teams in France.”

Coach: Fabien Convers

Previous appearances: 2022 (4-a-side): DNQ, 2022 (6-a-side): DNQ

Preliminary Group at Egypt 2024: Group A – Brazil, France, Japan, United States of America