The fourth edition of the IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship will bring together a record 12 teams in Granollers, Spain, from 16 to 20 September, with all six IHF continental confederations represented for the first time.

With Egypt defending their title, Spain making their home debut and Australia, Libya and Lithuania entering the competition for the first time, the 2026 edition offers a wider field and a growing variety of stories around four-a-side wheelchair handball.

Here are six things to know ahead of the competition.

A record field from all six continents

The tournament has grown from six teams at the inaugural edition in 2022 to eight in 2024 and now 12 in Granollers. It is a testament of how the sport has grown and popular it has become all over the world, with its relentless pace combined with determination and skill providing a perfect platform.

For the first time, teams from all six IHF continental confederations will compete at the same World Championship. Australia become the first Oceania team to appear at the event, while Lithuania and Libya will also make their World Championship debuts.

The 12-team field is completed by defending champions Egypt, 2024 runners-up USA, Brazil, Chile, Portugal, Japan, India, France and hosts Spain.

It is also a particularly important edition for Spain, who will compete at home at the World Championship for the first time. Their campaign will start in Group A and will see them face debutants Libya and European rivals France.

 

Four debutants, four new stories

Australia will make history in Granollers as the first Oceania nation to compete at the IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship. For head coach Eoin Murray, the opportunity represents a major step for the Australian programme. The team has never previously competed at an official continental or global wheelchair handball event, but arrived at the opportunity determined to make the project a success.

Lithuania, which finished third at the EHF Wheelchair EURO 2025, which they hosted, and Libya will also make their debuts, further widening the geographical reach of the competition.

The fourth debutant at this level is Spain, which also took part 2022 World and European Wheelchair Handball Championship, where they finished fifth. Granollers will welcome the tournament to Spanish soil, with the hosts competing in the IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship on home ground for the first time in the competition's history. Spain have been consistent performers on the European wheelchair handball circuit in recent years, and a home crowd adds an extra layer of anticipation to their campaign, just like Egypt did in 2022 (runners-up) and in 2014, when they were crowned champions.

This expansion reflects different pathways into wheelchair handball, with national programmes developing from different sporting backgrounds and at different speeds.

 

More teams, a new system

The 12 teams have been drawn into four groups of three, with the top two in each group advancing to the quarter-finals. That structure guarantees every team a minimum of five matches across the week for every team. There are more games, more storylines, and more chances for the emerging nations to test themselves against the sport's established powers, eventually helping level the playing field. Surprises always happened at the IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship and this will be no exception in Granollers.

Host nation Spain will have the added motivation of playing on home soil, but Group A could develop into an intriguing battle with France, while Libya make their World Championship debut. Spain and France bring the benefit of experience at international level, whereas Libya enter the competition with nothing to lose and a chance to make an immediate impact.

Group B is perhaps the most difficult group to predict. The USA are returning as the 2024 runners-up, while Japan have a long-standing tradition in wheelchair handball and are one of the most experienced programmes in the field. Australia, meanwhile, make their World Championship debut.

There is plenty of history in Group C. Brazil and Portugal both have a strong tradition in wheelchair handball and considerable experience in the discipline, while India return for their third appearance at the four-a-side World Championship. Brazil are particularly important to the history of the competition: they won the inaugural 2022 edition and finished third in 2024. India, meanwhile, have been present at every four-a-side edition to date.

The clearest favourite in Group D is reigning champion Egypt. The hosts of the previous edition defeated the USA in the 2024 final and finished runners-up to Brazil at the inaugural edition in 2022.

One detail worth highlighting is that Brazil, Chile, Egypt and India are the only four teams in the 2026 field that have competed at both previous editions of the IHF Four-a-Side Wheelchair Handball World Championship, in 2022 and 2024. Brazil won the inaugural title, Egypt followed by taking the crown in 2024, while Chile and India bring experience of both tournaments into Granollers.

 

Classification puts the focus on sporting performance

At the heart of wheelchair handball is a classification system that ensures athletes with different physical impairments can compete on equal terms. Every player is assessed by a panel of certified classifiers, who evaluate functional capacity - not skill - across tasks fundamental to the sport: pushing, pivoting, shooting, dribbling, passing and catching. Based on that assessment, each player is placed into one of four sport classes, colour-coded from green (Class 1) to red (Class 4), with Class 4 representing the highest functional capacity and Class 1 the most significant impairment.

Players are assigned points according to their classification, with teams subject to a maximum number of points on court. In four-a-side wheelchair handball, that maximum is 11 points.

A colour code will be used to identify the class of each player. A sticker with the code and the player’s number will be placed on the back rest of the wheelchair after classification. Class 1 is green, class 2 is yellow, class 3 is blue and class 4 has a red sticker.

 

How the scoring works: not all goals are equal

One of the quirks that makes wheelchair handball so entertaining to watch is that not every goal is worth the same. Most goals earn a team a single point, but the rulebook rewards flair and pressure moments with double value, and understanding that system explains a lot of the drama that unfolds in a tight match.

A standard goal - the ball fully crossing the line without a prior violation by the attacking side - is worth one point. That also applies to an own goal, which is credited to the opposing team.

Two points, however, are awarded in three specific situations:

• The "spectacular goal": a shooter scores immediately after completing a full 360° turn of their wheelchair, spun with one hand and without touching the wheel again once the rotation is underway. The shot has to come the instant the turn is finished - no pausing to line it up - which is exactly why it's treated as the sport's signature highlight-reel moment.
• A goalkeeper's goal: if the goalkeeper scores from inside their own goal area, it counts double.
• A 7-metre throw: the equivalent of a penalty, converted from the 7-metre line, is also worth two points.

That double-value system carries over into the shoot-out too, where a converted spectacular goal is still worth two points while a regular shoot-out conversion is worth one, meaning a single moment of skill under pressure can be worth as much as two ordinary goals combined.

Matches are played over two 10-minute sets, each scored independently. If a set ends level, it's settled by golden goal: after a coin toss, play restarts with a goalkeeper throw and continues until either side scores. If neither team has broken the deadlock after five minutes, it goes to a shoot-out, with five nominated players per team alternating attempts until a winner emerges.

Win both sets and a team takes the match 2-0. Split the sets, and a five-minute tiebreaker set follows, with a shoot-out on standby again if that, too, ends level, sealing a 2-1 result. It's this structure that produced the sport's most talked-about final: the 2022 shoot-out in which Brazil denied hosts Egypt on home soil, a result Egypt avenged two years later in Cairo.

The upshot for anyone watching in Granollers: keep an eye on the rhythm of the game: A team two points down can be level in an instant with one well-timed spin shot or a converted 7-metre throw, which is exactly why wheelchair handball matches so rarely feel decided until the final buzzer.

 

A handball-connected city

The fourth IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship will be played in a venue that has witnessed some of the most important moments in the history of handball in Spain. The two arenas of the Palau d'Esports de Granollers will provide the stage for the 2026 competition, continuing a relationship between the city and the sport that stretches back for decades. Handball arrived in Granollers in 1944, while the city's club, BM Granollers, was founded two years later. The sport quickly became part of the identity of the city, which was also the first Spanish city to introduce seven-a-side handball. In 1949, Granollers hosted the first Spanish national handball championship, laying the foundations for a tradition that would eventually extend far beyond the country's borders.

The city entered another chapter of its international history with the construction of the Palau d'Esports for the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games. The arena hosted Olympic handball, placing Granollers at the centre of one of the most important sporting events ever staged in Spain. Three decades later, the venue was once again part of a major international tournament when Granollers hosted matches at the 2013 IHF Men's World Championship.

Its most recent major IHF connection came at the 2021 IHF Women's World Championship, when Granollers hosted 38 matches, including the semi-finals, bronze-medal match and final. Norway claimed the title by defeating France in the final at the Palau d'Esports. Two years later, the Palau also hosted one of the Olympic Qualification Tournaments for Paris 2024, where Spain and Slovenia qualified for the men's tournament.

The fourth edition of the IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship will therefore arrive in a city where handball is part of the city's sporting identity.