The European qualification for the

2021 World Men's Handball Championship The 2021 IHF World Men's Handball Championship was the 27th event hosted by the International Handball Federation and held in Egypt from 13 to 31 January 2021. Starting with this edition, the World Championship was expanded from 24 teams to 32. I ...

, in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, would have been contested by the teams that did not qualify for the

2020 European Men's Handball Championship The 2020 EHF European Men's Handball Championship was the 14th edition of the tournament and the first to feature 24 national teams. It was co-hosted for the first time in three countries – Austria, Norway and Sweden – from 9 to 26 January ...

and the 20 teams that played the tournament but were not pre-qualified or failed to reach a qualifying ranking place. In total, 34 teams were competing for 10 places at the final tournament. The qualification tournament was cancelled on 24 April 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, with the EHF announcing the automatic qualification of the ten best-ranked teams in the EHF EURO 2020 that had not secured qualification.

Format

The whole qualification process was different from previous campaigns.

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

as defending World Champions were already qualified and three best-ranked teams of the

also booked their direct ticket. Other teams participated in this qualification campaign, which was split into several stages. Qualification Phase 1 comprised the 15 teams which haven't qualified for the EHF EURO 2020. They were playing a group phase format in the October 2019 and January 2020, with three groups of four nations and one of three. The four group winners advanced to the next phase. Qualification Phase 2 would have been consisted of two parts. Part 1 would have involved the four group winners from the Phase 1 alongside the four lowest-ranked EHF EURO 2020 teams, which do not take part in the 2020 IHF Men's Olympic Qualification Tournaments. Those eight teams would have played four matches in a two-legged play-off from 15 to 16 and 18 to 19 April 2020. The Part 2, played in June 2020, would have involved four Part 1 winners and the 16 remaining EHF EURO 2020 teams, which haven't qualified already for the final tournament.

Qualification Phase 1

The draw took place at the EHF Office on 23 July 2019.

Group 1

The group was played in a tournament format. ---- ----

Group 2

---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Group 3

The group was played in a tournament format. ---- ----

Group 4

The group was played in a tournament format. ---- ----

Qualification Phase 2

Part 1

The four group winners from the first qualification phase joined the four lowest-ranked teams from the EHF EURO 2020 (not taking part in the 2020 Olympics qualification tournaments) in the first part of the second qualification phase, which would be played over two legs on 15 and 16 April and 18 and 19 April 2020. The draw took place on 30 January 2020 at the EHF headquarters in Vienna, with the EHF EURO 2020 participants (Pot 1) hosting the teams from the first qualification phase (Pot 2) in the second leg. The matches were cancelled on 24 April 2020. ;Seeding pots

Overview

On 25 March, the EHF announced that no matches will be played before June due to the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. ---- ---- ----

Part 2

In the second part of the second qualifying phase, the 16 teams from the EHF EURO 2020 not yet qualified for the final tournament (positions 4 to 20, excluding Denmark) would have joined the four aggregate winners of the first part of the second qualifying phase, which would have been played in home-and-away matches on 5 to 7 June and 9 to 11 June 2020. The ten aggregate winners would have advanced to the

. The draw was held on 9 March 2020. The matches were cancelled on 24 April 2020. ;Seeding pots

Overview

The matches were rescheduled due to the coronavirus pandemic. ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

References

External links

Eurohandball.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:2021 World Men's Handball Championship - European qualification 2018 in handball 2019 in handball World Men's Handball Championship - European Qualification 2020 in handball World Men's Handball Championship qualification