Unanimous: Men’s EHF EURO to be expanded to 24 teams

The EHF’s member nations have had their say. And with a unanimous vote in Dublin, Congress has agreed to an expansion of the Men’s EHF European Championship from 16 teams to 24.

Based on an initiative of the national federations and recommendations of a special task force, the motion from the EHF had proposed an increase in the number of teams from 2022.

However, an agreement between the three bidding nations for the event in 2020, we will see the first new-look event in Sweden, Austria and Norway in January 2020.

The change will result in eight more European nations taking part in the EHF’s flagship national team event and the development of a major handball event played across three nations.

65 matches will be played instead of 47 matches over 15 days. The tournament will start with six groups of four teams each, with the two top-ranked teams from each group qualifying for the two main round groups which will still consist of six teams each.

Semi-finals and finals will follow the main round as it was the case in the old system and will be played in one venue over a final weekend (Friday to Sunday).

A full overview of the changes can be found on the eurohandball.com website.