With teams making their final Olympic Games preparations, Germany will host Egypt and Brazil in Nuremberg for a three-nation tournament, staged from 9 to 11 July.

Since the competition takes place right before International Handball Week and the 75th anniversary of the International Handball Federation (IHF), the IHF has partnered up with the German Handball Federation to bring fans a very special IHF anniversary edition of its ‘Be A Manager’ game.

Fans will have the unique chance to build a dream squad from the three teams participating in the pre-Olympic tournament played in the ARENA NÜRNBERGER Versicherung, and play against other fans for the chance to win a cash prize.

Participants who place first or second at the end of the competition will each win CHF 5,000 and a certificate.

How to play

You must select a team of 14 players (two for each position on the court) within the 100 coin budget, select your seven-player starting line-up (players on the bench can be substituted during the tournament as many times as you want but not during a match) and enjoy raking up points for their real-court performance.

You can select up to five players from one team.

Scoring and ranking

Player scores a goal: 3 points
Goalkeeper scores a goal: 4 points
Player assists a goal: 2 points
Goalkeeper saves a penalty shot: 2 points
Player receives a two-minute suspension: -3 points
Player receives a yellow card: -1 points
Player commits a penalty: -2 points
Player receives a red card: -5 points

Points gained by your team during the tournament will be added up. The user score is calculated based on the points gained by your team. The seven starting players get full points, while the players on your bench gain half the points, regardless whether it is a positive or negative point.

In case two users are tied in the ranking system, the advantage will be given to the user who set up the dream team first.

By the end of the competition, the winner will be determined by the total score achieved and is shown in the ranking system.

The game is open to all apart from anyone involved in the participating teams’ delegations as well as IHF employees and individuals related to the IHF. 

Three-nation tournament preview

The first game pits hosts Germany against Brazil (Friday, 9 July, 20:15 CEST), a match that features two teams who will also face off in the group phase at Tokyo 2020.

Germany and Brazil also met in January in the main round of the IHF Men’s World Championship, with the European side taking a convincing 31:24 win.

The second game of the tournament sees African champions Egypt face Brazil (Saturday, 10 July, 14:45 CEST), as the Egyptian side, who had a superb outing in the IHF Men’s World Championship they hosted, are looking to build up their form ahead of Tokyo.

Lastly, hosts Germany will face Egypt (Sunday, 11 July, 15:05 CEST), in the toughest test before they start their Olympic tournament, where they will look to improve on the bronze medal secured at Rio 2016.

Germany’s coach Alfred Gislason has called up 17 players for the Tokyo 2020 tournament, with 10 players from the team who won the bronze medal at Rio 2016, including captain Uwe Gensheimer, making their comeback in the side.

Egypt called up 20 players for a closed camp in Spain, as the team will be trimmed according to the rules before travelling to Tokyo. Stars like backs Ahmed El Ahmar, Ali Zein and Mohamed Sanad were all included in the squad by coach Roberto Garcia Parrondo.

Brazil have been in a training camp in Portugal, where they won a friendly game against Portugal on 1 July (34:28). With stars like Thiagus Petrus and Rogero Moraes in the squad, Brazil look to improve on their quarter-final berth at the Olympic Games on home ground five years ago.

All matches will be broadcast by German TV station SPORT1 and streamed on their website online (with geo-blocking restrictions in place for the online stream). 

For more information on the matches, visit the tournament mini-site on ihf.info.