2007 World Men's Handball Championship – Qualification

Qualification matches for the 2007 World Men's Handball Championship took place January 3 to June 18, 2006. 2006, mostly as continental championships. According to the IHF rules, each continent had three places (except Oceania, which had one), and the host (Germany) and holders (Spain) were automatically qualified. The other nine places are allocated to the continents according to performance in the 2005 World Men's Handball Championship. Thus:

• Europe had 13 places
• Africa 4 places
• Asia 3 places
• Americas (North and South together) 3 places
• Oceania 1 place

Africa

The 2006 African Men's Handball Championship in Tunisia resulted in four teams qualifying for the tournament. ^[1]

• Angola
• Egypt
• Morocco
• Tunisia

Americas

The Pan-American qualifying events was scheduled to be held in Brazil in April 2006. ^[2] However, due to players' commitments with clubs in Europe, it was agreed to postpone the qualifying until June, and the tournament was eventually held from 6 June to 10 June at Aracaju. ^[3]

Eight teams participated, and Brazil and Argentina went through the group stages unbeaten, as the only teams with positive goal difference. The two top teams in each group qualified for the semi-finals: Greenland joined Brazil from Group A after two 32–30 wins over Chile and Uruguay, while in Group B United States qualified after drawing with Mexico and beating Puerto Rico.

In the semi-finals, Brazil and Argentina both won by more than ten goals, securing their place in Germany, while the third-place play-off saw Greenland prevail by one goal against United States to secure the third spot. ^[4]

• Brazil
• Argentina
• Greenland

Asia

Asia's qualifying events, the 2006 Asian Handball Championship took place in Thailand between 12 February and 21 February 2006. ^[5] Kuwait and South Korea qualified after winning the semi-finals, ^[6] while Qatar beat Iran 21–20 in the third-place play-off to be the final team to qualify ^[7]

• Kuwait
• South Korea
• Qatar

Europe

Eleven places were at stake (Germany and Spain were already qualified), and the top three finishers at the 2006 European Men's Handball Championship in Switzerland in January and February 2006 qualified. As Spain qualified for the semi-final at that tournament, the other three semi-finalists – Croatia, Denmark and France – qualified. The other 11 participants at the European Championship played off with five winners in preliminary qualifying groups, which are shown below.

First round

Final standings (as of 20 January 2006): ^[8]

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Greece	6	4	0	2	164	148	+16	8	Playoffs
2	Bosnia and Herzegovina	6	4	0	2	182	169	+13	8
3	Netherlands	6	2	0	4	159	181	−22	4
4	Italy	6	2	0	4	157	181	−24	4

Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}

Group 2

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Austria	6	5	0	1	205	161	+44	10	Playoffs
2	Finland	6	3	0	3	173	170	+3	6
3	Israel	6	3	0	3	171	173	−2	6
4	Bulgaria	6	1	0	5	153	198	−45	2

Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}

Group 3

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Czech Republic	6	5	0	1	219	149	+70	10	Playoffs
2	Macedonia	6	4	1	1	200	176	+24	9
3	Estonia	6	2	1	3	169	182	−13	5
4	Cyprus	6	0	0	6	133	214	−81	0

Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}

Group 4

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Romania	6	5	1	0	186	143	+43	16	Playoffs
2	Lithuania	6	3	1	2	174	149	+25	10
3	Latvia	6	2	0	4	177	169	+8	6
4	Luxembourg	6	1	0	5	129	205	−76	3

Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}

Group 5

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Sweden	6	6	0	0	223	139	+84	12	Playoffs
2	Belarus	6	4	0	2	189	160	+29	8
3	Turkey	6	2	0	4	140	197	−57	4
4	Belgium	6	0	0	6	155	211	−56	0

Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}

Play-offs

The play-off draw was made in Zürich on 5 February. The matches ^[9] are two-legged affairs, and were played in the second and third weekend of June. Teams in bold below qualified for the World Championship. ^[10]

Team 1	Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Greece	47–51	Poland	27–22	20–29
Portugal	47–55	Ukraine	21–30	26–25
Romania	56–57	Norway	29–30	27–27
Serbia and Montenegro	58–73	Czech Republic	31–37	27–36
Slovenia	67–51	Austria	36–26	31–25
Slovakia	52–65	Hungary	24–33	28–32
Sweden	54–57	Iceland	28–32	26–25
Switzerland	54–85	Russia	26–41	28–44

Oceania

The Oceanian qualifying tournament, took place in Dural, Sydney from 22 May to 24 May 2006, immediately before the Pacific Cup

Australia qualified for the world championships after defeating New Zealand 41–14 and the Cook Islands 63–5. ^[11]

References and notes

1. (in German) Angola qualifiziert sich für die WM in Deutschland Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine from the tournament's official website, retrieved 19 January 2006
2. Qualifying for the 2007 World Championships ^{[ dead link ‍]} from the International Handball Federation, retrieved 19 January 2006
3. 2007 Men's World Championship: Pan-American qualification rescheduled ^{[ dead link ‍]}, from the International Handball Federation, retrieved 5 April 2006
4. WC Qualifying in Pan-America: Brazil ahead of Argentina and Greenland ^{[ dead link ‍]}, from IHF, retrieved 18 June 2006
5. Asian Handball Championship - Group Stage Fixtures - goalzz.com, retrieved 27 February 2006
6. Asian Handball Championship - Semifinals - goalzz.com, retrieved 27 February 2006
7. Asian Handball Championship - Third-place play-off - goalzz.com, retrieved 27 February 2006
8. (in German) Rumänien bereits sicher in den play-offs Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine from the tournament's official website, retrieved 20 January 2006
9. 2007 Men's World Championship play-off matches Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine from euro06.com, retrieved 5 February 2006
10. 2007 - Men's World Championship / Play-off, from the European Handball Federation
11. 2007 Men's World Championship: Australia will represent Oceania ^{[ dead link ‍]}, from IHF, retrieved 24 May 2006