Historic edition of the IHF Men’s Junior World Championship set to start in Germany and Greece

The first edition of the IHF Men’s Junior World Championship with a 32-team line-up is ready to start in Germany and Greece, after a four-year hiatus in the competition caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, between 20 June and 2 July.

After the 2021 edition, which was set to be played in Hungary, was cancelled, the world handball flagship competition for the Under-21 men’s teams will see an unprecedented number of matches played and an unprecedented number of teams set to feature, with 32 teams representing five continents at the start.

The competition will be co-hosted by two countries for the second time in history and for the first time since 1979, when Denmark and Sweden joined forces to organise the competition, and will see five venues used throughout the next 13 days of competition.

Two arenas in Athens – the Ano Liosia Olympic Hall and the Melina Merkouri Indoor Hall – will host matches, as well as three venues in Germany – the GETEC Arena, home of the EHF Champions League winners SC Magdeburg, the Swiss Life Hall in Hanover and the Max-Schmeling-Halle in the capital Berlin.

The knockout phase, including the quarter-finals, semi-finals, the bronze-medal game and the big final, will be hosted by Berlin in the 9,000-seater Max-Schmeling-Halle.

Powerhouses Denmark, Sweden, France and Germany, who won 10 of the 22 editions of the competition, will be at the start, as well as Spain and Egypt, the two countries which won the IHF Men’s Junior World Championship title once.

Two teams will make their debuts – Costa Rica and Cuba, while the United States of America and Greenland will be participating for the second time, with the latter side sealing their first berth for the final tournament since 2009 when they finished on the 18th place.

The 32 teams have been divided into eight groups of four teams each in the preliminary round, with the top two teams in each group progressing to the next phase, the main round.

While hosts Germany look like clear favourites in Group B, playing against Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, Group A looks stacked, with reigning champions France, Poland, Croatia and the United States of America vying for the two main round berths.

Another balanced group is Group E, with Hungary, Denmark, Argentina and Norway fighting for the two qualifying places, while reigning European champions Spain face the Faroe Islands, Angola and Japan in Group D.

Co-hosts Greece face African champions Egypt, debutants Cuba and Saudi Arabia in Athens, aiming to progress to the main round for the first time since 2011, when they also hosted the competition.

A record number of 116 matches are set to be played at the 2021 IHF Men’s Junior World Championship, with high-profile stars at the start of the competition, such as Denmark’s Thomas Sommer Arnoldsen, Faroe Islands’ Hákun West av Teigum and Elias Ellefsen á Skipagøtu, Spain’s Jan Gurri Aregay, France’s Baptiste Clay or Sweden’s Felix Möller.

Photo: Marco Wolf