2012 EHF EURO Qualification starting

In order to provide an opportunity to all Federations to present their National Teams in a top competition the 2012 Men’s EHF EURO in Serbia incorporates a qualification system.

With host Serbia and title defenders France already qualified, 37 teams are playing for 14 available places at the final tournament. The Qualification is carried out in two phases. The 12 teams for Phase 1 were seeded based on the EHF National Team Ranking valid for the EHF EURO 2012 Qualification.

Phase 1 will be played in 3 groups of 4 teams and will basically be played in form of tournaments at one venue this week from Thursday, 10th June to Sunday 13th June 2010.

Q1 Group A

Q1 Group A is played in Great Britain between Estonia, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Great Britain. The group winner goes through to EHF EURO Qualification Group 1 with Hungary, FYR Macedonia and Bosnia/Hercegovina. Their match schedule:

THU 10 Jun 2010, 14:30: Estonia vs. Bulgaria
THU 10 Jun 2010, 18:30: Cyprus vs. Great Britain
FRI 11 Jun 2010, 14:30: Bulgaria vs. Cyprus
FRI 11 Jun 2010, 18:30: Great Britain vs. Estonia
SAT 12 Jun 2010, 12:00: Estonia vs. Cyprus
SAT 12 Jun 2010, 15:30: Bulgaria vs. Great Britain

Q1 Group B

Q1 Group B is played in Georgia between Latvia, Italy, Finland, and Georgia. The group winner goes through to EHF EURO Qualification Group 5 with Germany, Iceland and Austria. Their match schedule:

FRI 11 Jun 2010, 15:00: Latvia vs. Finland
FRI 11 Jun 2010, 17:00: Italy vs. Georgia
SAT 12 Jun 2010, 15:00: Finland vs. Italy
SAT 12 Jun 2010, 17:00: Georgia vs. Latvia
SUN 13 Jun 2010, 15:00: Latvia vs. Italy
SUN 13 Jun 2010, 17:00: Finland vs. Georgia

Q1 Group C

Q1 Group C is played in Luxembourg between Israel, Belgium, Turkey and Luxembourg. The group winner goes through to EHF EURO Qualification Group 1 with Sweden, Slovakia, Montenegro. Their match schedule:

FRI 11 Jun 2010, 12:30: Israel vs. Turkey
FRI 11 Jun 2010, 14:30: Belgium vs. Luxembourg
SAT 12 Jun 2010, 19:30: Luxembourg vs. Israel
SAT 12 Jun 2010, 21:30: Turkey vs. Belgium
SUN 13 Jun 2010, 18:00: Turkey vs. Luxembourg
SUN 13 Jun 2010, 20:00: Israel vs. Belgium

The Qualification for the EHF EURO 2012 in Serbia will be carried out in 7 groups of 4 teams each. The teams will play a total of 6 matches with a home and an away match against each of the other teams in their group. The teams ranked 1st and 2nd of each group will qualify for the EHF EURO 2012 in Serbia, played on 17th to 29th January 2012.