Prague ready for beach action to begin

In total, 15 women’s and 14 men's teams will compete at the EHF YAC16 Beach Handball EURO 2022. Meanwhile, 12 men's teams and 11 women's teams will participate at the Beach Handball Championships 2022 as the action on the sand takes centre stage in Prague.

The Beach Handball Championships are the official senior qualification tournaments for the EHF Beach Handball EURO 2023: 9 women’s teams and 10 men’s teams at the event in Prague will earn their tickets for next year’s European Championships in Portugal.

European teams that qualified for the IHF Beach Handball World Championships 2022 in Greece have also secured their berth at the EHF Beach Handball EURO 2023: seven women’s teams (Denmark, Germany, Greece Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and Spain) and six men’s teams (Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Norway, Portugal, and Spain).

The EHF Beach Handball EURO 2023 is scheduled for 23-28 May 2023 in Nazaré. The seven best-ranked teams in each gender will qualify for the European Games 2023 in Kraków, Poland, where beach handball is part of the programme for the first time.

As Prague is also hosting the EHF YAC16 Beach Handball EURO 2022, it marks the first time that the EHF is running two major beach handball events at the same time at the same venue.

Prior to the first matches getting underway on Thursday, we have compiled all of the important information that you need to know about the playing systems for the four competitions.

Playing systems

Men's Beach Handball Championship 2022

• Participants: CZE, GER, ITA, POL, SWE, TUR, FRA, HUN, NED, ROU, SUI and UKR  
• The Men's Beach Handball Championship 2022 is a qualifying event for the Men's Beach Handball EURO 2023
• Preliminary round: 12 teams will play in two groups. Each group will be played in a “single round robin” format
• After the preliminary round, teams ranked first and second in groups A and B will qualify for the semi-finals
• The two semi-final winners will advance to the final. The semi-final losers will contest the bronze medal match
• The third and fourth-ranked teams in groups A and B will qualify for the 5-8 Cross Matches. The winners of the 5-8 cross matches will qualify for the 5-6 placement match and the losers will play in the 7-8 placement match
• Teams ranked fifth and sixth in both groups will play in the consolation round for places 9-12

Women's Beach Handball Championship 2022

• Participants: CRO, FRA, ITA, ROU, SUI, UKR, CZE, HUN, POL, SVK and TUR
• The Women's Beach Handball Championship 2022 is a qualifying event for the Women's Beach Handball EURO 2023
• Preliminary round: 11 teams will play in two groups – group A (six teams) and group B (five teams). Each group will be played in a “single round robin” format
• After the preliminary round, teams ranked first and second in groups A and B will qualify for the semi-finals
• The two semi-final winners will advance to the final. The semi-final losers will contest the bronze medal match
• The third and fourth-ranked teams in groups A and B will qualify for the 5-8 cross Matches
• The winners of the 5-8 cross matches will qualify for the 5-6 placement match; the losers will play in the 7-8 placement match
• Teams ranked fifth in groups A and B and the sixth-placed team in group A will play in the consolation round for places 9-11

Men's YAC16 Beach Handball EURO 2022

• Participants: BUL, CZE, GER, NED, POL, ROU, SWE, CRO, FRA, HUN, NOR, POR, ESP and UKR
• Preliminary round: 14 teams split into three groups. Groups A and B have five teams each and group C contains 4 teams. Each group will be played in a “single round robin” format
• After the preliminary round, teams ranked first and second in groups A, B and C plus the two best third-placed teams will qualify for the quarter-finals
• The worst third-ranked team and the teams ranked fourth and fifth in the preliminary round groups will play in the consolation round for places 9-14
• The consolation round will feature two groups of three teams. The group winners in the consolation round will contest the 9-10 placement match
• Teams ranked second in the consolation round groups will play in the 11-12 placement match; teams ranked third in the consolation round groups will meet in the 13-14 placement match
• Quarter-final winners will progress to the semi-finals – while the losers will contest the 5-8 cross matches
• The two semi-final winners will advance to the final. The semi-final losers will contest the bronze medal match
• The winners of the 5-8 cross matches will contest the 5-6 placement match; the losers will meet in the 7-8 placement match

Women's YAC16 Beach Handball EURO 2022

• Participants: BUL, CZE, GER, LTH, NOR, POR, ESP, UKR, CRO, FRA, HUN, NED, POL, ROU and SWE
• Preliminary round: 15 teams in three groups of five teams. Each group will be played in a “single round robin” format
• The ranking after the preliminary round will be decided according to the EHF regulations. Results in points between teams concerned, period difference in matches between teams concerned, etc.
• After the preliminary round, teams ranked first and second in groups A, B and C plus the two best third-placed teams will qualify for the quarter-finals
• The worst third-placed team and the teams ranked fourth in group A, B and C will play in the consolation round for places 9-12
• Teams ranked fifth in groups A, B and C will play in the consolation round for places 13-15
• Quarter-final winners will progress to the semi-finals – while the losers will contest the 5-8 cross matches
• The two semi-final winners will advance to the final. The semi-final losers will contest the bronze medal match
• The winners of the 5-8 cross matches will meet in the 5-6 placement match; the losers will meet in the 7-8 placement match

Follow the Beach Handball Championships and EHF YAC16 Beach Handball EURO 2022

For the Beach Handball Championships and YAC16 Beach Handball EURO 2022, you can stay up to date with live scores and results via our live ticker.

All matches and all courts from both events will be live on EHFTV. The finals on court 1 of the YAC16 Beach Handball EURO 2022 will be live on Twitch with English commentary.

You can find news and results from both events on beach.eurohandball.com. There will also be additional coverage from Prague on the Home of Handball Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube pages.