Hosts and champions send players to EHF EURO 2020 draw

The eyes of 24 national teams and their passionate fans will be on four players at the Men’s EHF EURO 2020 final tournament draw in Vienna on Friday 28 June (live on EHF EURO Facebook and Youtube).

Players from the three host nations and defending champions Spain will be on hand to help with the preliminary round draw. The chosen four are Sweden’s left back Philip Henningsson, Austria’s right wing Robert Weber, goalkeeper Torbjorn Bergerud from Norway and Spanish centre back Dani Dujshebaev.

All four players are regulars at international level, not only competing for their nations, but for their clubs in the VELUX EHF Champions League and EHF Cup. Daniel Dujshebaev featured for Spain on their journey to EHF EURO 2018 glory, while Henningsson played for their final opponents Sweden.

Draw procedure

The preliminary round of the final tournament will be held in Graz, Vienna, Trondheim, Malmö and Gothenburg; the main-round venues are Vienna and Malmö; and the final weekend is taking place in Stockholm.

The preliminary round will consist of six groups of four teams each. The draw for this group phase will be conducted on Friday 28 June at 18:45 hrs at Erste Bank Campus in Vienna. The draw will be streamed live on the EHF EURO Youtube channel and the EHF EURO Facebook page. 

Based on the qualification groups and the ranking of the EHF EURO 2018, the 24 teams are seeded as follows:

POT 1: Spain, Sweden, France, Denmark, Croatia, Czech Republic
(defending champions, organiser SWE, 4 first ranked teams of qualifiers)

POT 2: Norway, Slovenia, Germany, North Macedonia, Hungary, Belarus
(organiser NOR, 4 remaining first ranked teams of qualifiers, 1 second ranked team of qualifiers)

POT 3: Austria, Iceland, Montenegro, Portugal, Switzerland, Latvia
(organiser AUT, 5 second-ranked teams of qualifiers)

POT 4: Poland, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Netherlands
(2 second-ranked teams of qualifiers, 4 best third-ranked teams of qualifiers)

The organisers had the right to place one team each ahead of the draw. Croatia was therefore placed in Group A in Graz, Germany will play in Group C in Trondheim, and Denmark will play their first matches in Malmö. 

The draw procedure will follow these steps:

1. 3 teams from pot 1 are drawn into row 1

2. 4 teams from pot 2 are drawn into row 2

3. 5 teams from pot 3 are drawn into row 3

4. 6 teams from pot 4 are drawn into row 4

In the new 24-team format of the the Men’s EHF EURO there will be 65 matches played over 18 days. The top-two ranked teams from each group qualify for the two main round groups, which will consist of six teams each.

Ultimately, the semi-finals and finals will be played in Stockholm over a three-day final weekend.

Photo © ÖHB-Pucher