World Men's Handball Championship 2025
The next WC for men will be played in Norway, Denmark and Croatia in January/February 2025.
The world's best handball players will excite in arenas in Norway, Denmark and Croatia during the 29th Men's Handball World Cup. The three host nations connect different corners of Europe through the championship slogan Inspired by Handball.
For the third time in history, 32 teams will participate in the Men's Handball World Cup.
Two preliminary groups, one main round group, two quarter-finals, one semi-final, as well as the bronze final and final, will be played in Telenor Arena in Fornebu.
Herning is the venue for two preliminary pools and one main round group, while in the Croatian capital Zagreb two preliminary rounds, one main round, two quarter-finals and one semi-final will be played.
- We are really looking forward to hosting the WC on Norwegian soil, with the final weekend as the icing on the cake. This will be the first World Cup final in Norway since the Women's World Cup in 1999, and it will be a great honor for us to welcome the world's best handball players to Norway and Fornebu. We are in full swing planning the championship. Much work remains, but with the help of skilled and hard-working colleagues in the three host countries, and the several hundred volunteers who make it possible to organize the championship, we look forward to opening Telenor Arena to the rest of the handball world, says project manager Kia Haftorn Otnes.
The final will be played in Telenor Arena on 2 February. Two and a half weeks before this, the opening ceremony, and the WC's first match, will be held in Herning in Denmark on 14 January.
- We are excited that Denmark can start the defense of the WC trophy at home. This will be the seventh championship in the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning, where the atmosphere is always electric. This time we also want to raise the bar and create new standards for world-class handball experiences, says Anita Kristiansen, event manager at the Danish Handball Association.
Croatia will host the teams from the four remaining groups. Two of these will be played in Zagreb, while one will be placed in Porec and one in Varazdin. Furthermore, one main round will be played in Zagreb and one in Varazdin, before Zagreb hosts two quarter-finals and one of the semi-finals. In addition, the President's Cup will be held in Porec.
- We are happy and proud that Croatia will host the WC for men in 2025 together with Denmark and Norway. We are confident that the three major handball nations will offer unforgettable experiences for the 32 teams and for handball enthusiasts around the world - whether they visit the host cities and arenas, or follow the tournament from TV or the Internet, says Croatian handball president Tomislav Grahovac.
Initially, the three host nations applied separately, before agreeing to merge their applications. A prerequisite then was that the semi-finals were divided between two countries. The two teams that progress from the main round in Herning travel to Telenor Arena to play the quarter-finals and semi-finals there, while the teams from the main round in Varazdin travel to Zagreb to face the top-ranked nations from that group in the quarter-finals and semi-finals.
The two teams that meet in the semi-finals in Zagreb travel to Norway to play on the final day in Telenor Arena on 2 February, when the entire World Cup reaches its climax.
Visit www.inspiredbyhandball.com for the complete match schedule!
18 out of 32 nations have already qualified for the tournament.
We will get the name of additional participating nations through the European playoff in May. The preliminary groups will be drawn in Zagreb on 29 May.
