Draw to determine Men’s EHF EURO 2028 Qualifiers groups

The Men’s EHF EURO 2028 is scheduled to take place between 13 and 30 January 2028 and will feature 24 teams battling for the coveted trophy. Four of the final tournament participants are already known, as reigning champions Denmark and the three host nations — Spain, Portugal and Switzerland — will not take part in the qualification and will play the Men’s EHF EURO Cup 2028 instead.

32 other teams will fight for the 20 seats available for the final tournament and the draw event will determine eight groups of four participants each for the qualifiers.

Estonia were the last team to join the Men’s EHF EURO 2028 Qualifiers line-up after clinching a decisive 35:13 victory over Cyprus in the second leg of the promotion round on 21 March and finally celebrating an aggregate 66:40 win. The second leg of the tie was postponed, after initially being scheduled to take place in January.

The first and second-ranked teams of each group in the Men’s EHF EURO 2028 Qualifiers will secure their place in the final tournament, as well as the four best third-ranked teams.

After the conclusion of the group matches, an overall standing of the third-ranked teams in each qualifiers group will be established. This ranking includes only the results of the four matches of third-ranked teams against the two teams ranked first and second in the group. The results of the two matches against the teams ranked fourth in the group will not be considered.

Up to a maximum of four lowest-ranked teams of the fourth-ranked teams in the Men’s EHF EURO 2028 Qualifiers are relegated to the promotion round for the Men’s EHF EURO 2030.

The teams are divided into four pots according to the respective EHF Men’s National Team Ranking:

Pot 1: Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden
Pot 2: Austria, Czechia, Faroe Islands, Italy, North Macedonia, Netherlands, Poland, Serbia
Pot 3: Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Montenegro, Romania, Ukraine
Pot 4: Estonia, Finland, Israel, Kosovo, Latvia, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Türkiye

The draw procedure is as follows:

Step 1: Eight teams from pot 2 are drawn to row 2
Step 2: Kosovo from pot 4 is drawn to row 4 (excluding the group with Serbia)
Step 3: The seven remaining teams of pot 4 are drawn to row 4
Step 4: Eight teams from pot 3 are drawn to row 3
Step 5: Eight teams from pot 1 are drawn to row 1

The Men’s EHF EURO 2028 Qualifiers and Men’s EHF EURO Cup 2028 will be played in three periods of two matches each (six rounds), as the playing schedule is based on four teams in each group.

Round 1: Wednesday 4 – Thursday 5 November 2026
Round 2: Saturday 7 – Sunday 8 November 2026
Round 3: Wednesday 10 – Thursday 11 March 2027
Round 4: Saturday 13 – Sunday 13 March 2027
Round 5: Wednesday 5 – Thursday 6 May 2027
Round 6: Sunday 9 May 2027 (18:00 CEST / the last round match of the Men’s EHF EURO Qualifiers will be played at a unified throw-off time)

The draw will be streamed live on EHFTV and Home of Handball Youtube channel (geo-blocking may apply) on Thursday 26 March at 19:00 CET.

Photos © Anze Malovrh / kolektiff (main), Estonian Handball Association (in-text)