Venues confirmed for Women's World Championship 2015

The Danish Handball Association has announced the venues for the Women's World Championship 2015 in Denmark in December next year.

The four venues chosen for the final tournament from 5 to 20 December 2015 are spread to all four directions of the Scandinavian country. .

Main venue is the 14,000-capacity Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning which has already proven to be the perfect environment for big matches at both the Men’s European Championship 2014 and at the Women’s European Championship 2010.

"The Box", located almost on the west coast of Denmark, will be the home of the Danish team’s preliminary round as well as matches at all levels further on in the tournament including the final weekend.

To the north "Arena Nord" in Frederikshavn with its capacity of 2,500 spectators will host another preliminary round group and one match in the Last 16. The same goes for the arena in southern Naestved – a venue which which is still under construction.

The TRE-FOR Arena in Kolding will host the fourth preliminary group as well as Last 16 matches and two quarter-finals, and together with Herning it will also be the venue for the President’s Cup.

"At the Danish Handball Association, we are especially pleased that at the World Championship 2015 we have the opportunity to bring out this unique event to handball enthusiasts in cities we've never played at before," says DHF President Per Bertelsen.

"Both as far as the sportive level and as far as the quality of arrangement of the championship is concerned we will set the highest standards possible and together with the host cities and venues we will do our utmost to make this event an experience for everybody involved to remember."

The European qualification for the final tournament will start on 8 October 2014. The decisive play-off matches to determine the European participants will take place in the first and second week of June 2015.

World Championship direct qualification from EHF EURO 2014

Last month the EHF Executive Committee agreed to support a motion from the Competitions Commission to the EHF Congress in September regarding the direct qualification of teams to the Women’s World Championship 2015 from the Women’s EHF EURO to be played in Hungary and Croatia in December 2014.

A reduction in the number of performance places at the World Championships means that a maximum of 10 places are available for Europe (in addition to Denmark as organiser of the event).

The agreed change in the qualification process for the World Championship will mean that only one nation will qualify directly from EHF EURO 2014 to the World Championship instead of the top three nations as outlined in the regulations.

The 14 remaining teams from EHF EURO 2014 will now qualify directly to the World Championship Play-offs, who will be joined by four teams qualifying from Phase 1, to decide the nine remaining European places.