The 2012 European Women's Handball Championship was held in Serbia from 4 to 16 December. Originally the tournament was scheduled to be held in the Netherlands but on 4 June 2012 the Dutch Handball Federation withdrew from the organization. Subsequently, the European Handball Federation (EHF) launched a new bidding process and eventually selected Serbia as the new host on 18 June 2012.
Montenegro captured their first title by defeating defending champion Norway 34–31 in the final.
Host selection Initially on its meeting on 27 September 2008 the EHF awarded the championship to the Netherlands, defeating Ukraine in the second round of voting while Germany and Serbia withdrew their candidacy during the congress. This could have been the second time for Netherlands to host the tournament, however, on 4 June 2012 the Dutch Handball Federation announced they are unable to organize the European Championship. A day later the EHF re-launched the host selection process; ten nations had shown interest in organizing the competition, including Croatia, Denmark, Iceland, Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia and Sweden. Romania added their interest the day after. On 18 June 2012 the EHF granted the organizational rights to Serbia and also disposed of the fate of the Dutch national team. Since Serbia, the new host already qualified for the European Championship, the place reserved for the host nation was passed to Iceland as the best non-qualified team and the Netherlands were pulled out from the tournament.
Venues Five venues in four cities had been selected to host the matches:Spain and Serbia to stage 2013 World Championships, by International Handball Federation, 2 October 2010
Group stageVršacNiš Millennium CenterCapacity: 4,000 Čair Sports CenterCapacity: 5,000 Group&Knockout stage Knockout stageNovi SadBelgrade Spens Sports CenterCapacity: 11,500 Kombank ArenaCapacity: 23,000
CityArenaCapacityRound Belgrade Kombank Arena 20,000 Group A, Main Round, Semifinals and Finals Novi Sad Spens Arena 8,000 Group C, Main Round Vršac Millennium Centar 4,058 Group D Niš Čair Sports Center 4,000 Group B
Qualification
Qualification matches were played from September 2011 to June 2012. Following the new system introduced for the 2010 Men's Championship, all teams were included in the qualification round, except Netherlands who were hosts before the withdrawal. Teams were divided in 7 groups and the two top ranked teams from each group qualified.
Qualified teams Country Qualified asDate qualification was secured Previous appearances in tournament1 01Defending champion 0019 December 2010 90 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010) 02Winner of group 6 0024 March 2012 60 (1994, 1996, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010) 02Runner-up of group 5 0025 March 2012 30 (1994, 2002, 2004) 02Winner of group 5 0025 March 2012 70 (1994, 1996, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010) 02Winner of group 1 0030 May 2012 90 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010) 02Runner-up of group 1 0030 May 2012 90 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010) 02Winner of group 2 0030 May 2012 80 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2010) 02Runner-up of group 2 0030 May 2012 20 ( 2008, 2010) 02Winner of group 4 0030 May 2012 60 (2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010) 02Runner-up of group 6 002 June 2012 90 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010) 02Runner-up of group 7 002 June 2012 60 (1998, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010) 02Winner of group 7 003 June 2012 90 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010) 02Runner-up of group 4 003 June 2012 40 (1998, 2000, 2006, 2008) 02Winner of group 3 003 June 2012 10 (2010) 02Runner-up of group 3 003 June 2012 90 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010) 02Awarded final place 0018 June 2012 10 (2010)
1 Bold indicates champion for that year.
Squads
Referees 12 referee pairs were selected:
Referees Andrei GouskoSiarhei Repkin Helena CrnojevićEmina Kostecki-Radić Jiří OpavaPavel Válek Marlene Kroløkke LythjeKarina Christiansen Charlotte BonaventuraJulie Bonaventura Péter HorvárthBalázs Márton
Referees Zigmārs StoļarovsRenārs Līcis Joanna BrehmerAgnieszka Skowronek Diana-Carmen FlorescuAnamaria Duţă Branka MarićZorica Mašić Peter BrunovskýVladimír Čanda Andreu MarínIgnacio García
Seeding The draw was scheduled to be held on 6 June 2012 at 14:00 local time in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The draw procedure was announced on 15 May.Draw Procedure It was canceled because of the withdrawal of the Dutch Handball Federation. The draw was rescheduled to 22 June 2012 in Monaco. The pots were new assigned due to the removal of the Netherlands and the addition of Iceland.
Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4
Preliminary round The draw was held on 22 June 2012. The playing schedule was released on 13 July.Match schedule
All times are local (UTC+1).
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Main round Group I
Group II
Knockout stage
Bracket
Semifinals
Fifth place game
Third place game
Final
Final ranking and statistics Qualified for the 2013 World Championship
Rank Team 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
All-Star Team Position Player Goalkeeper Right wing Right back Centre back Left back Left wing Pivot Best defense player Most valuable player
Top goalscorers RankNameTeamGoalsShots% 1 Katarina Bulatović 56 119 47% 2 Anita Görbicz 41 70 59% Milena Knežević 87 47% 4 Jovanka Radičević 40 61 66% 5 Linn Jørum Sulland 39 76 51% 6 Ann Grete Nørgaard 37 51 73% Zsuzsanna Tomori 66 56% 8 Anja Edin 34 61 56% 9 Isabelle Gulldén 33 56 59% Andrea Lekić 57 58% Laura Steinbach 56 59% Source: SportResult.com
Top goalkeepers RankNameTeam%SavesShots 1 Katja Schülke 41% 45 111 2 Katrine Lunde Haraldsen 40% 99 247 3 Talida Tolnai 38% 41 108 4 Linda Pradel 37% 22 59 5 Katarina Tomašević 36% 98 275 6 Cecilia Grubbström 35% 61 174 Éva Kiss 34 97 Barbora Raníková 77 221 Paula Ungureanu 38 109 Marina Vukčević 34 97 Clara Woltering 36 102 Source: SportResult.com
References
External links
EHF Website