11-29
January 2017 – this date should be kept in mind by handball fans all over the
world, as this is the time, when the world’s 24 best teams will face each other
at the 25th edition of the IHF Men’s World Championship.
Today,
the groups for the 2017 Men’s World Championship in France were determined. The
24 teams were drawn into four groups of six, with hosts France having had the
right to choose which group they wanted to join. The draw was conducted by Per
Bertelsen, Caretaker Chairman of the IHF Commission of Organizing and
Competitions, assisted by French comedian Claudia Tagbo, famous French players
Bruno Martini and Nina Kanto, as well as Paralympic athlete Timothée Adolphe.
Hosts
and defending world champions France joined Group A, where they will face
Poland, bronze medallists at Qatar 2015, Russia, Brazil, Japan and Norway, who
were awarded the Wild Card by the IHF Council.
In
Group B, EHF EURO 2016 runners-up Spain will meet Slovenia, Macedonia, Iceland
and the two African teams from Tunisia and Angola.
Reigning
European Champions Germany compete against Croatia, EHF EURO 2016 bronze
medallists, Belarus, Hungary, Chile, runners-up at the 2016 Pan American Men’s
Championship, and Saudi Arabia in Group C.
Group
D will be probably the most challenging group with 2015 runners-up and Asian
Champions Qatar facing the strong handball nations Denmark and Sweden, as well
as Africa’s current number one team Egypt, Bahrain and Argentina, bronze
medallists at the Pan American Men’s Championship. All of these teams, except
for Bahrain, will meet already in August at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. However,
Bahrain showed at the Olympic Qualification Tournaments already that they are
more than capable to keep up with the ‘big’ nations.
In
the opening match of the 2017 Men’s World Championship France will play against
Brazil.
Results
Group
A
FRA,
POL, RUS, BRA, JPN, NOR
Group
B
ESP,
SLO, MKD, ISL, TUN, ANG
Group
C
GER,
CRO, BLR, HUN, CHI, KSA
Group
D
QAT,
DEN, SWE, EGY, BRN, ARG
Follow
the 2017 Men’s World Championship via the official IHF channels at IHF.info, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and Google+ and the official France 2017 website.
Photo credit: Allaman/DPPI