Qualification phase 2 draw to decide path to Women’s World Championship

The 27th IHF Women’s World Championship, co-hosted by Germany and the Netherlands, is set to take place between 26 November and 14 December 2025, with a total of 36 countries competing for the title.

The two organising countries and reigning champions France are directly qualified for the final tournament and they will be joined by Denmark, Hungary and Norway. These nations secured their spots after reaching the semi-finals of the Women’s EHF EURO 2024 and making it among the three best-ranked teams of the competition — excluding Germany, the Netherlands and France, who were already qualified.

With six tickets already booked, 11 places are still up for grabs for European countries and they will be decided during the 2025 IHF Women’s World Championship Qualification Europe Phase 2.

18 teams coming from the Women’s EHF EURO 2024 will take part in qualification phase 2, as well as four other countries who came out on top after the qualification phase 1 back in October 2024.

The 22 participants have been divided into two pots, based on their ranking at the Women’s EHF EURO 2024. One team from pot 1 will be drawn against one team from pot 2. The team which is drawn first has home right in the first leg.

Pot 1: Sweden, Montenegro, Poland, Slovenia, Romania, Switzerland, Spain, Austria, Czechia, Iceland, Faroe Islands

Pot 2: North Macedonia, Croatia, Türkiye, Serbia, Portugal, Ukraine, Slovakia, Israel, Italy, Kosovo, Lithuania

The 11 ties in qualifiers phase 2 will be played in a knockout system, with the first leg taking place on 9/10 April 2025, followed by the return leg a few days later on 12/13 April.

The draw in Vienna on 15 December will be available to watch live on our Home of Handball YouTube channel starting at 13:30 CET.

Photos © Kolektiff Images (main), Luigi Canu (in-text)