2013 Men's World Championship Qualification Europe

The results at EHF EURO 2012 in Serbia mean that the final matches are known for the 2013 Men's World Championship in Spain (11 to 27 January 2013) – Qualification Europe: Play-Off Matches.

Five European teams have already qualified for the final tournament; France (defending champions), Spain (hosts), and Croatia, Denmark and Serbia (as the remaining three best ranked teams from EHF EURO 2012 – as Spain are hosts).

The remaining European places (9) for the final 2013 World Championship tournament in Spain will be decided in these play-off matches.

The European teams qualified for the play-offs are; Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, FYR Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Sweden.

Qualified for play-offs (18 teams)

1. Qualified from the EHF EURO 2012 SRB:
11 teams from the 16 participating teams will qualify for the play-off matches

2. Qualified through seven qualification groups:
Seven winners of the qualification groups which qualified for the play-off matches

Procedure for the draw of the play-off matches

Please note that there will be a live ticker of the draw as it takes place on www.eurohandball.com.

Date: 29 January 2012
Time: 13:00 hrs. (local time)
Venue:  Beogradska Arena, Belgrade, Serbia

Total entries: 37 teams
Total teams at final tournament: 24 teams
Places Europe at final tournament: 14 teams

Draw pots

7 Teams in pot 1:
GER, HUN, ISL, MKD, POL, SLO, SWE
(Seven best ranked teams of the EHF EURO 2012 SRB who are not qualified directly for the final tournament in ESP)

4 Teams in pot 2:
CZE, NOR, RUS, SVK (teams ranked 13 to 16 in SRB)

7 Teams in pot 3:
AUT, BIH, BLR, LTU, MNE, NED, POR
(7 winners of the qualification groups)

Draw Procedure

Step 1:
2 balls of pot 2 are drawn to pot 1 and two balls of pot 2 are drawn to Pot 3 (the balls will not be opened).

Step 2:
One team of pot 1 is drawn against one team of pot 3 (9 times).

For each pairing the home and away right will be drawn.

Playing dates for the play-off matches

First leg: 9/10 June 2012
Second leg: 16/17 June 2012

The winners of the play-off matches will qualify for the 2013 Men’s World Championship in Spain (IHF event) from 13 to 27 January 2013.