The 2025 IHF World Men's Handball Championship was the 29th such event hosted by the International Handball Federation. It was held in Croatia, Denmark and Norway from 14 January to 2 February 2025. This edition marked the first time the world championship was held in three countries.
Co-host Denmark were the triple defending champions, having won the 2019, 2021 and 2023 editions, and successfully defended their title by defeating co-host Croatia 32–26 in the final. In doing so, Denmark became the first men's national handball team to win four consecutive world titles. France beat Portugal to win the bronze medals, while third co-host Norway finished 10th.
Denmark beat the record for the highest average win margin after 7 matches at a World Championship played with +13.4 goals. They also extended their record of most World Championship matches in a row without defeat to 31.
Bidding process On 11 October 2018, five nations expressed interest in hosting the tournament.
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The deadline elapsed on 25 September 2019. Switzerland became a solo bid, while Croatia took their place in the triple bid. Serbia withdrew their bid, while Hungary filed both an application and deferment for a later tournament. These were the applicants:
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Shortly before the vote, Hungary and Switzerland both withdrew, leaving the bid of Croatia, Denmark and Norway unopposed. Croatia, Denmark and Norway were chosen as the hosts on 28 February 2020 at the IHF Council meeting in Cairo, Egypt. This edition marks the first time Norway hosts the World Men's Handball Championship, the second for Croatia, and the third for Denmark.
Venues The bid contained 11 cities: Zagreb, Split, Varaždin, Poreč and Dubrovnik in Croatia; Copenhagen and Herning in Denmark; and Trondheim, Stavanger, Drammen and Bærum in Norway; with the opening match and final taking place in Bærum.
On 25 January 2024, Denmark announced that the Jyske Bank Boxen would be their only venue for the competition. Then, two days later, Norway announced the Telenor Arena would be their only venue for the tournament, after negotiations with Trondheim fell through due to financial reasons.
On 8 April 2024, the IHF announced the venues, with Bærum, Herning, Zagreb, Varaždin and Poreč. being confirmed as hosts cities. The opening game will be in Herning and the final will be in Bærum. During the preparations for the tournament, the Telenor Arena was renamed the Unity Arena for the tournament. City/town Country Venue Capacity Image Bærum Norway Unity Arena 15,000 Herning Denmark Jyske Bank Boxen 12,500 ZagrebCroatia Arena Zagreb 15,200 Varaždin Varaždin Arena 5,200 Poreč Žatika Sport Centre 3,700
Rejected venues Split Dubrovnik Spaladium Arena New Dubrovnik Arena Capacity: 11,000 Capacity: 4,000 Copenhagen Drammen Royal Arena New Drammen Arena Capacity: 13,000 Capacity: 12,000 Trondheim Stavanger Trondheim Spektrum Stavanger Idrettshall Capacity: 8,960 Capacity: 4,100
Qualification
The World Championship hosts were directly qualified, along with the reigning world champions. Since there were three organisers, all from Europe, the number of compulsory places for Europe was reduced by two: 2 instead of default 4. The number of compulsory places awarded to other continental confederation remained unchanged. In regards to the 12 performance spots, and based on the results of the 2023 Men's World Championship, Europe received 11 more spots, while Africa took 1.
The slot allocation was as follows: AHF (Asia): 4 slots CAHB (Africa): 5 slots EHF (Europe): 17 slots (including the three co-hosts) NACHC (North America and the Caribbean): 1 slot OCHF (Oceania): 0 slots SCAHC (South and Central America): 3 slots Wildcards: 2 slots
Detailed summary of qualification process Confederation Direct slots Teams started Teams eliminated Teams qualified Percentage of entered teams with spots in finals Qualifying start date Qualifying end date AHF 4 16 12 4 25% 11 January 2024 25 January 2024 CAHB 5 16 11 5 31.25% 17 January 2024 27 January 2024 EHF 14+3+1 34+3 19 14+3+1 41.1% 1 November 2023 12 May 2024 NACHC 1+1 6 5 1+1 16.67% 6 May 2024 12 May 2024 OCHF 0 or 1 1 1 0 6.25% 11 January 2024 25 January 2024 SCAHC 3 10 7 3 30% 21 February 2023 20 January 2024 Total 27+3+2 83+3 55 27+3+2 21 February 2023 12 May 2024
Qualifying occurred between February 2023 and May 2024. Each region's continental championships acted as world championship qualification, although Europe also has its own qualification process. With the exception of Belarus and Russia, who are banned of the IHF due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, all remaining IHF member associations were eligible to enter qualification. In total, 83 nations have entered the continental championships and European qualifiers, which act as world championship qualification.
Guinea will make their debut at the championship. Of the returnees, Italy made their second appearance ever and first since 1997, Cuba and Kuwait are returning for the first time since the 2009 World Men's Handball Championship, Czech Republic made the championship after ten years, while Austria, Japan and Switzerland qualified after missing out on 2023. The United States made back to back appearances for the first time in 30 years. Netherlands qualified on merit for the first time ever.
Iran, Montenegro, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Korea and Uruguay all failed to make this edition after participating in 2023. After making their debut in 2023, Belgium failed to qualify.
AHF (4)
CAHB (5)
EHF (17+1)
(co-host)
(co-host)
(co-host)
WC NACHC (1+1)
WC
OCHF (0) None qualified
SCAHC (3)
As of 2027, this is the last time Austria, Cuba, Czech Republic, Guinea, Hungary, Netherlands and Switzerland qualified for the world championship and last time Angola, Faroe Islands, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Turkey and Uruguay failed to qualify.
Wildcards After no Oceanian team achieved a top 5 finish in the Asian Championship, two wildcards were given out by the IHF.
As the host country of the 2028 Summer Olympics, the first wildcard was given to United States on 18 October 2018. Regarding the second wildcard, 12 non-classificated nations reportedly applied. On 23 May 2024, it was announced that the second wildcard was given to Switzerland due to multiple reasons: their sporting merit, their commercial reach, their sporting project and also due to the fact that the proposal made by the Swiss broadcast partner was the most commercially interesting for the IHF. Prior to their selection, Switzerland's coach, Andy Schmid, stated that after their narrow penalty shootout loss to Slovenia, the Swiss' performance merited a wildcard.
Draw
The draw took place at 19:30 CET in Zagreb, Croatia on 29 May 2024 at the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall. Originally scheduled for the 1 June, it was changed a few weeks later to 29 May. The guests for the draw were Croatian goalkeeper Dominik Kuzmanović, head coach of the Croatian national team, Dagur Sigurðsson, Norwegian national team player, Alexander Blonz and former Danish international player, Morten Stig Christensen, who all assisted the draw.
Seeding Ahead of the draw, the 32 finalist teams were seeded into four pots according to IHF rankings in May 2024. Although, in regards to the European teams in pots 1 and 2, the 2024 European Championship decided the teams' positions. In addition, five teams were pre-assigned by the three host nations into each of the available vacant groups: Germany in Group A, Austria in Group C, Hungary in Group D, Sweden in Group F and Slovenia in Group G.
Seeding based on the 2023 World Championship Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4 Europe 1 Europe 2 Europe 3 Europe 4 Europe 5 Europe 6 Europe 7 Africa 1 Europe 8Europe 9 Europe 10Europe 11 Europe 12Europe 13Europe 14Europe 15 Asia 1South America 1 Europe 16South America 2North America 1Europe 17Asia 2Africa 2 Asia 3Africa 3South America 3Asia 4Africa 4Africa 5Wild card 1Wild card 2
Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4
Referees The referee pairs were selected on 14 November 2024. The list was updated on 2 January 2025.
Referees Youcef BelkhiriSid Ali Hamidi Julian GrilloSebastián Lenci Mariana GarcíaMaría Paolantoni Denis BolicChristoph Hurich Amar KonjičaninDino Konjičanin Ante MikelićPetar Parađina Václav HoráčekJiří Novotný Mads HansenJesper Madsen
Referees Karim GasmiRaouf Gasmi Robert SchulzeTobias Tönnies Ádám BíróOlivér Kiss Ahmad GheisarianAmir Gheisarian Alexei CovalciucIgor Covalciuc Gjorgji NachevskiSlave Nikolov Ivan PavićevićMiloš Ražnatović Håvard KlevenLars Jørum
Referees Cristina LovinSimona Stancu Vladimir JovandićMarko Sekulić Andrej BudzákMichaal Záhradník Bojan LahDavid Sok Javier ÁlvarezYon Bustamante Ignacio GarciaAndreu Marin Mirza KurtagicMattias Wetterwik Cristian LemesMathias Sosa
Squads
Preliminary round The schedule was announced on 8 April 2024.
All times are local (UTC+1).
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
President's Cup Group I
Group II
31st place game
29th place game
27th place game
25th place game
Main round Group I Results between advancing teams from Group A and Group B were carried over.
Group II Results between advancing teams from Group C and Group D were carried over.
Group III Results between advancing teams from Group E and Group F were carried over.
Group IV Results between advancing teams from Group G and Group H were carried over.
Final round Bracket
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Third place game
Final
Final ranking and awards Places 1 to 4 and 25 to 32 were decided by play-off or knock-out. The losers of the quarter finals were ranked 5th to 8th according to the places in the main round, points gained and goal difference. Teams finishing third in the main round were ranked 9th to 12th, teams finishing fourth in the main round were ranked 13th to 16th, teams finishing fifth in the main round were ranked 17th to 20th and teams ranked sixth were ranked 21st to 24th. In case of a tie in points gained, the goal difference of the main round was taken into account, then number of goals scored. If teams were still equal, number of points gained in the preliminary round was considered followed by the goal difference and then number of goals scored in the preliminary round.
Final ranking Rank Team 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 Qualified for the 2027 World Men's Handball Championship
2025 Men's World Champions Denmark4th title
Team roster: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Head coach: Nikolaj Jacobsen
All-star Team The All-star Team was announced on 2 February 2025.
Position Player Goalkeeper Emil Nielsen Left wing Dylan Nahi Left back Simon Pytlick Centre back Martim Costa Right back Ivan Martinović Right wing Mario Šoštarić Pivot Victor Iturriza Best young player Francisco Costa MVP Mathias Gidsel
Statistics
Top goalscorers
Rank Name Goals Shots % 1 Mathias Gidsel 74 107 69 2 Francisco Costa 54 79 68 Dika Mem 78 69 4 Simon Pytlick 50 67 75 5 Filip Kuzmanovski 49 71 69 6 Saif Al-Dawani 47 81 58 7 Rutger ten Velde 46 58 79 8 Emil Jakobsen 45 61 74 9 Martim Costa 44 82 54 10 Frankis Marzo 42 76 55
Top goalkeepers
Rank Name % Saves Shots 1 Samir Bellahcene 43 10 23 Emil Nielsen 125 294 3 Viktor Gísli Hallgrímsson 40 67 167 Torbjørn Bergerud 59 149 5 David Späth 39 41 106 6 Andreas Wolff 38 76 201 7 Marcel Jastrzębski 37 42 113 Rangel da Rosa 71 191 9 Mateus Nascimento 36 35 97 Urban Lesjak 20 56 Dominik Kuzmanović 88 247
Broadcasters