Draw for World Championship Play-Off matches

The European Handball Federation has released the draw procedures for the Play-Off matches for the 2013 World Championship.

The draw will take place on 16 December 2012 at approximately 13:00 hrs. (local time) in Belgrade following the closing press conference of EHF EURO 2012 in Serbia.

Two European teams, Norway as defending champions and Serbia as hosts, have already directly qualified for the 24-nation event.

There are ten more places available for European teams. The two best teams from EHF EURO 2012 which are not already directly qualified also go straight through to the final tournament.

As both Serbia and Norway have reached the semi-finals these teams have already been confirmed: Montenegro and Hungary, the two other teams that have made it to the final four at EHF EURO 2012.

The remaining eight European places will be decided among the remaining 12 teams that directly qualified teams for the Play-Off matches and the four proceeding nations from the first qualification phase.

Qualified for the Play-Off matches from EHF EURO 2012 are the teams from Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, France, Germany, Iceland, FYR Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Sweden and Ukraine.

Qualified through the four qualification groups from the first phase of the qualification are the Netherlands. Poland, Slovakia and Turkey.

Together with Croatia, Iceland, FYR Macedonia and Ukraine - the teams ranked 13 to 16 at EHF EURO 2012 - the abovementioned four teams will be seeded in pot 2.

Seeded in pot one will be the eight best ranked teams of EHF EURO 2012 which are not directly qualified for the final tournament in Serbia.

These teams are Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, France, Germany, Romania, Russia, Sweden.  

One team of pot 1 is drawn against one team of pot 2.

For each pair the home and away right will be drawn.

The first leg of the Play-Off matches will be played on 1/2 June 2013, the second leg will be played on 8/9 June 2013.

The winners of the Play-Off matches will qualify for the 2013 Women's World Championship in Serbia from 7 to 22 December 2013.

A live-ticker will be available on the EHF's official website, www.eurohandball.com. Live tweets will be available on Twitter via @ehfmedia.