Portugal, Serbia take over Oceania spot at Youth and Junior World Championships

The European Handball Federation has announced that the teams of Portugal and Serbia respectively will take over the spot originally allocated to a team from Oceania at the Men's Youth and Junior World Championships this year.

A team from Oceania will neither participate at the youth final tournament in Russia nor at the junior event in Brazil.

Two more European teams were therefore given the chance to participate. For the Men's Youth World Championship the nomination followed the ranking of the Men's 18 EHF EURO 2014.

11th ranked Belarus was the first substitute nation, but as they refused to participate the nomination went to 13th ranked Serbia, becoming the 14th European team at the event.

For the Men's Junior World Championship 2015 the nomination of the substitutes followed the ranking of the qualification which was played in January.

The first substitute nation was Portugal as the 2nd ranked team of Qualification Group 7. They become the 12th European team to participate in the 24-nation tournament.

The Men's Youth World Championship takes place from 8 to 20 August 2015 in Russia. The Men's Junior World Championship takes place from 20 July to 1 August 2015 in Brazil.