Kosovo, Georgia receive first right to host qualification tournaments

Georgia and Kosovo have received the first right to organise a Men’s World Championship 2019 Qualification Europe tournament in Groups 2 and 4 respectively following a draw at the EHF Office in Vienna on Wednesday.

The second right to organise has gone to Lithuania in Group 2 and to Portugal in Group 4. Latvia (Gr. 2) and Poland (Gr. 4) have the third right and Israel and Cyprus the fourth.

Group 3 will also be played in a tournament format, but the four teams – Romania, Ukraine, Italy and the Faroe Islands – already agreed on Italy as hosts.

All three tournaments will be played from 12 to 14 January 2018.

The three remaining groups, 1, 5 and 6, will be played in the foreseen home and away format over six rounds on the following playing dates.

The qualification matches will be played over six rounds.

• Round 1: 25/26 October 2017
• Round 2: 28/29 October 2017
• Round 3: 3/4 January 2018
• Round 4: 6/7 January 2018
• Round 5: 10/11 January 2018
• Round 6: 13/14 January 2018

The winner of each group qualifies for the play-offs which will be played in June next year.

Europe will be represented by 13 teams at the 24-nation Men's World Championship 2019 which will be played from 10 to 27 January 2019 in Germany and Denmark.

France as defending champions as well as Germany and Denmark as hosts are already qualified. They will be joined by the champion of the Men's EHF EURO 2018 or the respective best ranked team in case France, Germany or Denmark win gold.

Hence 12 of the following 13 teams are qualified for the play-offs: Austria, Belarus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Spain, Hungary, Iceland, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Slovenia, Serbia and Sweden.

The play-offs from 8 to 10 and from 12 to 14 June will determine the final nine European participants for the Men's World Championship 2019.