Hosts confirmed for Women's World Championship 2015 qualification tournaments

The majority of handball federations involved in the first qualification phase for the Women's World Championship 2015 has opted for a tournament format to decide the winners that progress to the European play-offs.

A draw at the European Handball Federation's office on Tuesday decided that Switzerland will host the tournament in Group 1, consisting of Slovenia, Belarus, Greece and themselves.

The tournament will from 3 to 6 December 2014.

The teams in Group 2 (Turkey, Austria, Portugal, Israel) also opted for the tournament format with Austria as hosts. The tournament in Group 4 (Czech Republic, Lithuania, Azerbaijan) will be hosted by Czech Republic.

The Austrian tournament will be played from 3 to 6 December 2014. The event in Czech Republic will be played from 26 to 30 November 2014.

The teams in Group 3 (FYR Macedonia, Iceland, Italy) opted to play home and away matches. The first playing period starts on 8 October 2014.

From all four groups only the four winners will progress to the European play-offs being played in June 2015. These matches decide about nine spots available to European teams at the Women's World Championship 2015.

Denmark as event hosts and the EHF EURO 2014 champions (or the second ranked team in case Denmark win) qualify directly.

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Note: Compared to an earlier version of this article the playing dates for the qualification tournaments have been updated.