2027 World Men's Handball Championship

2027 World Men's Handball Championship

Handball-Weltmeisterschaft der Männer 2027 (in German)
Tournament details
Host country	Germany
Venue(s)	6
Dates	13–31 January
Teams	32 (from 5 confederations)
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The 2027 IHF World Men's Handball Championship , will be the 30th event hosted by the International Handball Federation. It was held in Germany from 13 to 31 January 2027. Denmark is the four time defending champion. ^[1]

Bidding process

Five nations expressed interest in hosting the tournament. The awarding of the events took place at the next IHF Council meeting in Cairo, Egypt, on 28 February 2020. ^{[2] [3]} Germany was chosen as the host. This will be the sixth time Germany will host this tournament.

•   Croatia/  Denmark/  Norway
•   Hungary
•   Germany

Qualification

Main article: 2027 IHF World Men's Handball Championship qualification

Qualification system will still depend on number of compulsory and performance places, as for 2025 World Championship. The World Championship hosts will be directly qualified, along with the reigning world champions. The number of compulsory places awarded to other continental confederation keeps unchanged and is divided as follows: four places each for Europe, Asia and Africa, three places for the South and Central America zone and one place for the North America and Caribbean zone. ^[4] One additional place is available for Oceania, but only when that region's national team ranks fifth or higher at the Asian Championship. If no Oceania team places among the top five at the Asian Championship, the IHF will award an additional wild card. In addition, there will be 12 performance places for the continental confederations, which are based on the teams ranked 1–12 in the preceding World Championship. According to the new qualification system and taking into consideration the results of the 2025 Men's World Championship, 20 out of 32 places are distributed as follows:

Distribution of places (following current IHF rules [4] )	Vacancies	Details	Comments
Organisers 1	1
Reigning world champion 2	1
Performance places for the continental confederations	12		Based on teams ranked 1-12 in the preceding world championship
Africa		1
Asia		0
Europe		10
North America and the Caribbean		0
South and Central America		1
Oceania		0
Compulsory places for the continental confederations	17
Africa		4
Asia		4
Europe		4 1
North America and the Caribbean		1
South and Central America		3
Oceania		1 3	Place allocated to Oceania or an additional free wild card
Wild card 4	1
Total	32

¹All hosting federations are automatically entitled to take part in the World Championship. If there is more than one organiser from the same continental confederation, the number of compulsory places of the respective confederation shall be reduced accordingly. If there is more than one organiser and the organisers are not from the same confederation, the IHF Council shall decide about the reduction of the compulsory places, considering only the compulsory places of the confederations involved.

²The reigning world champion automatically qualifies for the next World Championship and, as a rule, is placed first in the first performance row. In case the reigning world champion is also hosting the next World Championship, the confederation of the reigning world champion obtains one additional performance place.

³The compulsory place for Oceania is subject to fulfilling certain conditions. The continental confederation of Oceania does not have a direct compulsory place for a confederational qualification event. The confederation of Oceania is invited to participate in the Asian qualification events. The compulsory place is awarded to Oceania if the representative from Oceania is ranked 5th or higher in the Asian qualification. If Oceania fails to rank 5th or does not participate, the IHF Council will award this place as a free wild card.

⁴The wild card shall be awarded by the IHF Council.

Competition	Dates	Host	Vacancies	Qualified
Host nations	28 February 2020	Cairo	1	Germany
2025 World Championship	14 January – 2 February 2025	Croatia   Denmark   Norway	1	Denmark
2026 European Men's Handball Championship	15 January – 1 February 2026	Denmark   Norway   Sweden	3
2026 African Men's Handball Championship	21–31 January 2026	Rwanda	5
2026 Asian Men's Handball Championship	15–26 January 2026	Kuwait	4
2026 South and Central American Men's Handball Championship	19–25 January 2026	Chile	4
2026 Nor.Ca. Men's Handball Championship	TBD	TBD	1
European qualification	29 October 2025 – 2026	Various	11
Oceania	TBD	TBD	1 [1]
Wild card	18 October 2018	Doha	1 [2]

^ 1. If countries from Oceania (Australia or New Zealand) participating in the Asian Championships finish within the top 5, they will qualify for the World Championships. If they finish placed sixth or lower, the place would have been transferred to the wild card spot.

^ 2. To bear in mind the 2028 Summer Olympics, the IHF Council will award the United States wild cards for the 2025 and 2027 World Championships. If they reach a certain performance level. ^{[5] [6]}

Qualified teams

Country	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances 1
Germany	Host	28 February 2020	28 ( 1938 , 1954, 1958 , 1961 , 1964, 1967, 1970, 1974 , 1978 , 1982 , 1986, 1990 2 , 1993, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 , 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 , 2021, 2023, 2025)
Denmark	World champion	2 February 2025	26 (1938, 1954, 1958, 1961, 1964, 1967, 1970, 1974, 1978 , 1982, 1986, 1993, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 , 2021 , 2023 , 2025 )

¹Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host country for that year.

² From both German teams only East Germany was qualified in 1990

Venues

At the presentation during the IHF Council Meeting in Cairo, Egypt on 27 and 28 February 2020 the bid delegation presented eight venues. ^[7] Six venues were ultimately announced in October 2024, with the opening match to be played in Munich and the final in Cologne. ^[8]

Cologne	Munich	Kiel
Lanxess Arena	SAP Garden	Wunderino Arena
Capacity: 19,250	Capacity: 11,000	Capacity: 10,250
Hanover	Magdeburg	Stuttgart
ZAG-Arena	GETEC Arena	Porsche-Arena
Capacity: 10,000	Capacity: 6,500	Capacity: 6,200

References

1. "IHF Council awards events up to 2027". ihf.info. 28 February 2020.
2. "World Championships 2025 and 2027". ihf.info. 25 September 2019.
3. "German Handball Federation will host World Cup again in 2027". time24.news. 4 January 2020. Archived from the original on 31 January 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
4. "V. Regulations for IHF Competitions (Indoor Handball)" (PDF). International Handball Federation. 9 December 2020. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
5. "Strategic plan | USA" (PDF). IHF.
6. "Council Meeting No. 3" (PDF). Doha, Qatar: IHF. 18 October 2018. pp. 8–9.
7. "Council Meeting No. 6" (PDF). Cairo, Egypt: IHF. 28 February 2020. p. 31. Retrieved 26 May 2024.
8. "Six venues announced for the 2027 IHF Men's World Championship" (Press release). International Handball Federation. 28 October 2024. Retrieved 28 October 2024.

External links

• IHF website