Next stage of World Championship qualifiers on the line

The teams were divided into four groups of three through a draw held in July. Each group functions as a mini round-robin tournament, where the winners of each secure progression to the next stage. All matches will be streamed live on EHFTV. 

The groups are as follows:

• Group 1: Greece, Lithuania, Great Britain
• Group 2: Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium
• Group 3: Finland, Israel, Estonia
• Group 4: Italy, Luxembourg, Bulgaria

Lithuania, Belgium, Finland and Italy are the hosts of their respective tournaments.

Of the 12 teams contesting phase 1 of the qualifiers, only Bulgaria and Italy have played the Women’s World Championship before, but it has been a long wait for both sides, as Bulgaria’s last participation was in 1990 and Italy’s was when they hosted the event in 2001.

On the path to the last edition of the World Championship, in 2023, Kosovo, Italy and Greece made it to phase 2 in a qualification stage that followed a different format. On that occasion, Kosovo lost the phase 2 play-off to Poland, Italy to Slovenia and Greece to Germany. 

Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Montenegro, Spain, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Croatia, Czechia, Poland, Serbia, Austria, Switzerland, North Macedonia, Ukraine, Iceland, Slovakia, Portugal, Türkiye and Faroe Islands are all already through to phase 2 of the qualifiers. In addition, three European sides are directly qualified for the World Championship itself: the Netherlands and Germany as co-hosts, and France as the defending title holders.

Three European places will be decided at the upcoming Women’s EHF EURO 2024, which will be held in Austria, Hungary and Switzerland from 28 November to 15 December. The places will go to the three top-ranked teams, excluding the already qualified World Championship co-hosts and France, which means even sixth position at the EURO can end up being valuable.

The draw to determine the pairings for phase 2 of the qualifiers will take place in conjunction with the EURO, on 14 December in Vienna. The two-leg play-offs will be played in April 2025, with the World Championship to be held from 27 November to 14 December 2025.

See the match schedule and standings for phase 1 of the World Championship qualifiers here.