Europe's stars dominate IHF Player of the Year-voting

The International Handball Federation's poll to vote for the World Handball Player of the year is almost an all-European with nine of ten nominees playing for one of the EHF's member federations.

In the men's category France's Nikola Karabatic, MVP at the Men's EHF EURO 2014, Joan Canellas (ESP) Thierry Omeyer (FRA), Mikkel Hansen (DEN) and Domagoj Duvnjak (CRO) have been nominated.

In the women's category Sweden's Isabelle Gullden, MVP at the Women's EHF EURO 2014, Cristina Neagu (ROU), Marta Mangue (ESP) and Heidi Loke (NOR) make up Europe's representation with Brazil's Eduarda Amorim being the one exception.

Voting is open to media and fans until 20 February via the IHF website.

Draw for Women's World Championship announced

Besides the World Handball Player-voting, the IHF has made several announcements regarding the Women's World Championship 2015 as well as future World and Beach Handball World Championships.

The draw for the Women's World Championship 2015 in Denmark will take place on 24 June.

Denmark as hosts and Norway as European champions are the first two European nations already qualified for the 24-nation event. They will be joined by another nine following the play-off matches in June 2015.

The IHF has also released information on the bidding process for the World Championships in 2021 and 2023.

Hungary, Switzerland, Slovakia, Poland, Sweden and France have submitted letters of intent for hosting the Men's World Championship 2021 and 2023.

Egypt has expressed its interest in the 2021 event, while Norway and Korea only go for the 2023 championship.

France is the only bidder to host the Women's World Championship 2021. They have also expressed an interest in the 2023 event but will have to compete with Norway and Korea.

The final decision which nations get the hosting rights will be made on 4 June 2015 by the IHF Council during the IHF Congress in Budapest.

Already awarded have been the rights to host the Beach Handball World Championships in 2016 and 2018.

The 2016 event will take place in Budapest, while Sochi, host of the 2014 Winter Olympics, will host the 2018 event.