20 teams vie for a spot at 2015 World Championship Play-Offs Europe

The draw for the 2015 World Championship Qualification Europe took place at the EHF Office in Vienna on Thursday (27 June).

Overall 37 European teams have registered for the final tournament in Qatar. 12 of 24 spots are available for European teams at the event, an additional 13th will go to the defending champions from Spain.

Three spots will go to the three best ranked teams at the EHF EURO 2014 in Denmark, the remaining nine will be decided in play-off matches involving 18 European teams.

13 teams (12 participants from the EHF EURO 2014 and Germany as the second best third ranked team from the EHF EURO qualification) are already qualified for the play-offs.

The remaining five teams will be decided in the first qualification phase for the 2015 World Championship as the group winners from the five groups drawn on Thursday will advance to the play-offs.

The first qualification phase will be played over three seperate weeks (one in October 2013, two in January 2014)  in home and away matches among the following 20 national teams: