13 European teams on the global stage

Only 12 days after Sweden became men’s junior world champion in Sarajevo after a thrilling final against Spain, the under-19’s take their place on the world stage in Hungary.

The matches will be played from 9 to 23 August in the cities of Budaörs and Erd in the Budapest region.

The opening match will see hosts Hungary face Venezuela on Friday (9 August) in Erd and all other teams will start their campaign on Saturday.

13 European teams have qualified, including France as the substitute nation, as Oceania’s representative withdrew from participation.

Denmark are the defending champions after raising the trophy at the 2011 world championship in Argentina ahead of Spain and Sweden who took home silver and bronze respectively.

This is the fifth edition of the Men’s Youth World Championship, with all previous winners coming from Europe: Serbia-Montenegro (2005), Denmark (2007, 2011) and Croatia (2009).

24 teams will take part in the event for the first time – and for the first time the world champion will directly qualify for the 2015 edition of the Junior World Championship.

Germany are the reigning U18 European champions after winning the trophy in the final against Sweden in Austria in 2012, with Denmark picking up bronze.

The groups of the preliminary round:

Group A in Budaörs: Denmark, Egypt, Belarus, Japan, Serbia, Chile
Group B in Budaörs: Sweden, Slovenia, Qatar, Tunisia, Korea, Romania
Group C in Erd: Spain, Croatia, Argentina, Brazil, Angola, France
Group D in Erd: Hungary, Germany, Austria, Norway, Venezuela, Gabon

The four best ranked teams of each group qualify for the Last 16, the remaining eight teams compete for the positions 17 to 24 in the President’s Cup.

The first knock-out stage is followed by quarter-finals and semi-finals, the final and bronze medal match will be played on 23 August.

Just like the junior event in Bosnia-Herzegovina, all matches can be followed live and free of charge on a live stream at the official tournament website.

Additionally the official host broadcaster Sport Klub will provide live TV broadcast of all Hungarian matches, the semi-finals and final games, aw well as the opening and closing ceremony.