The 2023 IHF

World Men's Handball Championship The IHF Men's Handball World Championship has been organized indoor by the International Handball Federation since 1938. In the twenty-seven tournaments held, eleven nations have won the title. France is the most successful team with six titl ...

is the 28th such event hosted by the

International Handball Federation The International Handball Federation (IHF) is the administrative and controlling body for handball and beach handball. IHF is responsible for the organisation of handball's major international tournaments, notably the IHF World Men's Handball ...

. It is currently being held in Poland and Sweden from 11 to 29 January 2023.

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

are the two-times defending World Champions, having won the 2019 and 2021 edition.

Bidding process

Eight nations initially expressed interest in hosting the tournament: * * * * * * * * However until the bidding phase expired on 15 April 2015 only three nations entered documents to bid for this event. On 21 April 2015 it was announced that Poland and Sweden have agreed intentions to jointly hosting this tournament: * * and A decision was scheduled for 4 June 2015, but the Congress was moved to 6 November 2015. Poland and Sweden were chosen as the hosts. This is going to be the first time for Poland to participate as the host country at

IHF World Men's Handball Championship The IHF Men's Handball World Championship has been organized indoor by the International Handball Federation since 1938. In the twenty-seven tournaments held, eleven nations have won the title. France men's national handball team, France is t ...

Venues

The tournament will take place in nine cities (four in Poland and five in Sweden):

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

, Gdańsk, Katowice,

Płock Płock (pronounced ) is a city in central Poland, on the Vistula river, in the Masovian Voivodeship. According to the data provided by GUS on 31 December 2021, there were 116,962 inhabitants in the city. Its full ceremonial name, according to th ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal pop ...

, Gothenburg,

Jönköping Jönköping (, ) is a city in southern Sweden with 112,766 inhabitants (2022). Jönköping is situated on the southern shore of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern, in the province of Småland. The city is the seat of Jönköping Municipa ...

and

Kristianstad Kristianstad (, ; older spelling from Danish ''Christianstad'') is a city and the seat of Kristianstad Municipality, Scania County, Sweden with 40,145 inhabitants in 2016. During the last 15 years, it has gone from a garrison town to a devel ...

. The opening game will take place in Katowice while the final will take place in Stockholm.

Marketing

The logo was unveiled on 23 August 2021. The logo was designed to be used on a dark blue background, but it may also stand alone. The logo synthetically presents a flying ball. It was inspired by a comet lighting up the sky. The symbol conveys dynamism and expression. The trails form a hand which, in combination with a ball in the foreground, create a characteristic and friendly graphic form. The logo’s colors refer to the national colors of Poland and Sweden, the organizers of the Men’s World Championship 2023. It carries a clear message about the sports discipline of handball. A skillful and well-balanced color split alludes to the cooperation of the event hosts and sticking together for the success of the Championship. The logo was designed by Polish design agency Studio Signature. The slogan: ''Stick Together'' was unveiled on 15 September 2021. The concept “Stick together” is the framework for all our communication and is the sender in all posts or other expressions coming from the 28th IHF Men’s World Championship Poland/Sweden 2023. We use “Stick together” to talk about the big questions and the broader context, but we also use “Stick together” locally in all marketing in each host city. It symbolizes by each concept: *Stick together for fair play. *Stick together as fans. *Stick together as a team. *Stick together to challenge. *Stick together in the arena. *Stick together to win. It is also as part of both countries sustainability and capable communication concepts.

Qualification

The World Championship hosts will be directly qualified, along with the reigning world champions. Following the current IHF rules , the number of compulsory places awarded to each continental confederation is divided as follows: 4 places each for Africa, Asia and Europe. Due to there is more than one organiser from the same Continental Confederation (Europe), the number of compulsory places of the respective Continental Confederation shall be reduced accordingly. So only 3 compulsory places for Europe, while Africa and Asia are kept with 4 four places allocated. Starting in 2021 Pan America was split into two zones: the North America and Caribbean Zone having 1 place, and the South and Central America Zone having 3 places. One additional place is available for Oceania, but only when that region's national team ranks fifth or higher at the Asian Championship. Since no Oceania team placed among the top five at the Asian Championship, the IHF will award an additional wild card. In addition, there will be several performance places for the continental confederations (12 places), which are based on the teams ranked 1–12 in the preceding World Championship. Taking into consideration the results of the 2021 Men's World Championship, 20 out of 32 places are distributed as follows: *

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 Continental Confederation shall be reduced accordingly. If there is more than one organiser and the organisers are not from the same Continental Confederation, the IHF Council shall decide about the reduction of the compulsory places, considering only the compulsory places of the Continental 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 Continental 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 Continental Confederation qualification event. The Continental 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.

Qualified teams

⁵ Bold indicates champion for that year

⁶ ''Italic'' indicates host country for that year

⁷ From both German teams only

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

was qualified in 1990

Draw

The draw took place on 2 July 2022 at the

Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR), is one of Poland's radio orchestra and premier musical institutions. It was founded in 1935 in Warsaw. In 1945 the orchestra was re-established in Katowice and since 2006 it has become a "Nati ...

in Katowice.

Seeding

Following ranking of previous World Championship, and following IHF rules.

Groups

Each host country can assign one qualified team to each host city. Therefore Spain will play in group A (Krakow), Norway in group F (Krakow), and Denmark in group H (Malmö). Germany in group E (Katowice), Iceland in group D (Kristianstad) and Croatia in group G (Jönköping).

Referees

The referee pairs were selected on 16 November 2022.

Squads

Preliminary round

''All times are local (

UTC+1 UTC+01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time *West Africa Time *Western European Summer Time **B ...

).''

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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Group E

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Group F

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Group G

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Group H

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Presidents Cup

Group I

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Group II

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31st place game

29th place game

27th place game

25th place game

Main round

All points obtained in the preliminary round against teams that advance as well, are carried over.

Group I

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Group II

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Group III

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Group IV

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Final round

Bracket

5–8th place playoffs

Quarterfinals

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5–8th place semifinals

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Semifinals

---- ¹Scenarios for semi-finals: if qualified POL to play in Gdansk, SWE to play in Stockholm. Possible match POL - SWE to be played in Stockholm. If neither POL nor SWE are qualified, SF1 to be played in Gdansk, SF2 to be played in Stockholm.

Seventh place game

Fifth place game

Third place game

Final

Final ranking

Places 1 to 8 and 25 to 32 will be decided by play-off or knock-out. Teams finishing third in the main round will be ranked 9th to 12th, teams finishing fourth in the main round 13th to 16th, teams finishing fifth in the main round 17th to 20th and teams ranked sixth 21st to 24th. In case of a tie in points gained, the goal difference of the main round will be taken into account, then number of goals scored. If teams are still be equal, number of points gained in the preliminary round will be considered followed by the goal difference and then number of goals scored in the preliminary round.

Broadcasters

* Source:

References

External links

Official website

IHF website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Handball, World Championship, Men, 2023 2023 Men

International handball competitions hosted by Poland International handball competitions hosted by Sweden January 2023 sports events in Poland January 2023 sports events in Sweden World Men's Events at Malmö Arena