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-nine tournaments held, twelve national teams have won the title. France is the most successful team with si ...

was 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 C ...

. It was held in Poland and Sweden from 11 to 29 January 2023.

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 ...

were the two-time defending champions, having won the

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

and

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

editions, and successfully defended their title by defeating

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

34–29 in the final. In doing so, Denmark became the first men's national handball team to win three consecutive world titles.

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

beat the hosts and European champions

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

to win a World Championship bronze medal for the third time, the second in consecutive editions. Mascot Handball World Championshipin 2023

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 had 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 the first time Poland participate as the host country at a

Venues

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

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

Katowice Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...

Płock Płock (pronounced ), officially the Ducal Capital City of Płock, is a city in central Poland, on the Vistula river, in the Masovian Voivodeship. According to the data provided by Central Statistical Office (Poland), GUS on 31 December 2021, the ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

Jönköping Jönköping (, ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, 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 o ...

and

Kristianstad Kristianstad ( , ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Kristianstad Municipality, Scania County, Sweden with 41,198 inhabitants in 2023. Since the 1990s, the city has gone from being a garrison town to a developed commercial city, ...

. The opening game took place in Katowice while the final took 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 qualified directly, 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. Because there is more than one organiser from the same Continental Confederation (Europe), the number of compulsory places of the respective Continental Confederation were reduced accordingly. So only 3 compulsory places for Europe, while Africa and Asia were 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 were available for Oceania, but only when that region's national team ranked fifth or higher at the Asian Championship. Since no Oceania team placed among the top five at the Asian Championship, the IHF awarded an additional wild card. In addition, several performance places were awarded for the continental confederations (12 places), which were 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 were 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 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.

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 known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

was qualified in 1990

Draw

The draw took place on 2 July 2022 at the

Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra The Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra ( (NOSPR)) is one of Poland's radio orchestras and premier musical institutions. It was founded in 1935 in Warsaw and was later re-established in Katowice in 1945. Since 2006 it has been a "National ...

Seeding

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

Groups

Each host country could assign one qualified team to each host city. Therefore Spain played 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 +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 **Brit ...

).''

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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President's 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

Group I

Results between advancing teams from

Group A Group A is a set of motorsport regulations administered by the FIA covering production derived touring cars for competition, usually in touring car racing and rallying. In contrast to the short-lived Group B and Group C, Group A vehicles wer ...

and

Group B Group B was a set of regulations for Grand tourer, grand touring (GT) cars used in sports car racing and rallying introduced in 1982 by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Although permitted to enter a GT class of the World S ...

were carried over. ---- ----

Group II

Results between advancing teams from

Group C Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for Touring car racing, touring cars and ''Group B'' for Grand tourer, GTs. It was designed to replace both Group 5 (motorspor ...

and

Group D Group D may refer to: * FIA Group D - International Formula racing cars: ** Formula Two ** Formula Three ** Formula 3000 * One of six or eight groups of four teams competing at the FIFA World Cup ** 2022 FIFA World Cup Group D ** 2018 FIFA Worl ...

were carried over. ---- ----

Group III

Results between advancing teams from

Group E Group E may refer to: * E-Group: E-Groups are unique architectural complexes found among a number of ancient Maya settlements * Group E (vase painting), a group of Attic vase painters of the black-figure style, active between 560 and 540 BC. * On ...

and

Group F Group F may refer to: * A set of international motor racing regulations used in touring car racing Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition that uses race-prepared touring cars. It has both similarities to and significant dif ...

were carried over. ---- ----

Group IV

Results between advancing teams from

Group G Group G may refer to: * A set of international motor racing regulations used in touring car racing Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition that uses race-prepared touring cars. It has both similarities to and significant dif ...

and Group H were carried over. ---- ----

Final round

Bracket

5–8th place playoffs

Quarterfinals

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

5–8th place semifinals

----

Semifinals

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Seventh place game

Fifth place game

Third place game

Final

Final ranking and awards

Final ranking

Places 1 to 8 and 25 to 32 were decided by play-off or knock-out. Teams finishing third in the main round were 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 were taken into account, then number of goals scored. If teams were still equal, number of points gained in the preliminary round were considered followed by the goal difference and then number of goals scored in the preliminary round.

All-star Team

The All-star Team was announced on 29 January 2023.

Statistics

Top goalscorers

Top goalkeepers

Broadcasters

* Source:

Notes

References

External links

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

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

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-nine tournaments held, twelve national teams have won the title. France is the most successful team with six ...

International handball competitions hosted by Poland International handball competitions hosted by Sweden January 2023 sports events in Poland January 2023 in Sweden January 2023 sports events in Europe Sports competitions in Malmö 21st century in Jönköping County Sports competitions in Gothenburg Sports competitions in Jönköping Sports competitions in Stockholm Sports competitions in Kristianstad 2020s in Stockholm 2020s in Gothenburg 2020s in Malmö