Happy New Year - 2012 is the year of handball!

Two Senior European events, two Men’s youth European events, two Women’s youth World Championships in Europe and as the highlight the Olympic Games in London – those are the major national team events in 2012 and with the VELUX EHF Champions League again being decided at the VELUX EHF FINAL4 in Cologne, 2012 will be a year full of handball across the whole of Europe.

National team competitions

EHF EURO 2012 events

Men

16 nations will be vying for the title and Olympic qualification from 15 to 29 January in Serbia. The preliminary rounds are being held in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis and Vrsac, while the Main Round is in Belgrade and Novi Sad. The final weekend will take place in the huge Beogradski Arena in the Serbian capital.

Women

The Netherlands are hosting the 10th Women’s EHF European Championships from 3 to 16 December 2012. The matches will be played in Apeldoorn, Eindhoven, Maastricht and Rotterdam. Currently only hosts The Netherlands and defending champions Norway have qualified, with four rounds of the seven qualification groups are still to be played before June 3 2012.

EHF YAC EURO events

The Men’s U18 final tournament will take place in Austria from 12-22 July.

The Men’s U20 final tournament will take place in Ankara, Turkey from 5-15 July.

The Women’s Under-18 European Open will be played in Gothenburg from 2-6 July.

IHF YAC events

The Women’s U18 World Championship will be in Montenegro from 16–26 August.

The Women’s U20 World Championships are in the Czech Republic from 1–15 July.

IHF Men’s World Championship Qualification

The nine play-off matches in Europe will be played over 9/10 June and 16/17 June. The winners qualify for the 2013 World Championship in Spain.

IHF Beach World Championship

Like for the EHF European Beach Handball Championships 2011, the city of Umag in Croatia will be hosting the Senior Beach World Championship at the end of June.

Olympic Games

The handball tournament is an integral part of the 2012 Olympic Games in London, with the handball competition running from July 28 to August 12.

Already qualified are Great Britain (hosts/men and women), France (men’s World Champion), Norway (women’s European champion and World Champion) and Sweden (women’s European runner-up).

The winner of the Men’s EHF EURO 2012 in Serbia will also qualify for London, while another six teams qualify from the men’s and women’s Olympic Qualification Tournaments. The men’s tournament will be played 6-8 April, the women’s tournament 25-27 May. The 2012/13 season will start in September with the Qualification Tournaments, followed by the Group Stages, with the first matches on 26 September.

Club competitions

VELUX EHF Men’s Champions League

After the break for EHF EURO 2012 in Serbia, the premier club handball competition in the world will continue with the last three rounds of the Group Phase from February onwards. The knockout stages start with the Last 16 play-off games (14–25 March) and the quarter-finals (18–29 April). The pinnacle will be the VELUX EHF FINAL4, played in the LANXESS Arena in Cologne 26/27 May 2012.

EHF Women’s Champions League

With the Group Stage having finished in 2011, the top eight teams will start their Main Round matches on 3 February. After six Rounds, the four teams in the semi-finals (played 31 – 8 April) will be known. The finals will take place 5/6 and 12/13 May.

Other European Cups

The EHF Cup, Cup Winners’ Cup and Challenge Cup will have their finals in May – the women’s competitions will be played 5/6 and 12/13 May, with the men’s competition dates being 19/20 and 26/27 May.

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