A total of 16 teams has received their road map for the first part of the journey to the Men’s World Championship 2023 in Sweden and Poland.

The draw for the first European qualification phase, which took place at the EHF Office in Vienna on Thursday, divided the 16 teams that failed to qualify for the EHF EURO 2022 into four groups.

The top two teams from each group will qualify for phase 2 of the qualification.

Draw for Men’s World Championship 2023 Qualification Europe Phase 1

Group 1:
Belgium, Turkey, Greece, Kosovo

Group 2:
Finland, Estonia, Georgia, Great Britain

Group 3:
Romania, Israel, Cyprus, Moldova

Group 4:
Latvia, Italy, Luxembourg, Faroe Islands

Each group can decide whether they want to play home and away matches, or play a tournament with all four teams at one venue.

If they prefer the latter option, the nation mentioned last in that group – i.e. Kosovo, Great Britain, Moldova, Faroe Islands – has the first right to host that tournament.

The first matches will be played in the first week of November 2021.