24.03.2009, 11:58
Women's EHF EURO 2010 Qualification

The seven qualification groups have been drawn in Vienna.

Women's EHF EURO 2010 Qualification

The draw procedure for the EHF EURO 2010 Qualification was carried out on 24 March. The event that took place in the EHF HQ, Vienna, is an important date for the competition that will take place in Denmark and Norway on 7-19 December 2010.

The importance of the event was underlined by the presence of the President of the European Handball Federation, Tor Lian; a delegation from Denmark led by the President of the Danish Handball Federation, Per Rasmussen; and the Secretary General of the Norwegian Handball Federation, Per Otto Furuseth.

EURO Qualification

The organising countries of the Women's EHF EURO 2010, Norway and Denmark, are directly qualified for the Final Tournament. The other 29 teams registering for the qualification process were divided into four pots according to the EHF Women’s National Team Ranking:

Pot 1: RUS, GER, ESP, HUN, FRA, CRO, ROU
Pot 2: SWE, MKD, POL, UKR, AUT, SRB, BLR
Pot 3: NED, SLO, POR, TUR, SVK, CZE, ISL
Pot 4: LTU, ITA, MNE, SUI, AZE, GRE, FIN/GBR

The EURO qualification will be played between September 2009 and May 2010. First, a pre-qualification (home and away match)will take place for the two lowest ranked teams on the EHF National Team Ranking in September 2009. Finland and Great Britain will fight for the one available place in the qualification groups.

The organising countries, Denmark and Norway are directly qualified for the event, while the teams ranked no. 1 and no. 2 of the seven groups will also qualify for the Final Tournament.

Qualification groups

The draw carried out on 24 March allocated the teams into seven groups of four.

Qualification schedule

The draw defined the teams of the seven groups and also a basic match schedule.

However, this will also be a date for the National Federations to start talks with each other about an optimised playing schedule with respect to television, sports and logistic requirements.

As only the dates of the qualification rounds are fixed by the 2009/2010 Calendar, the order of the games and the playing times are subject to discussion between the Federations. As a result, a finalised playing schedule will only be published at a later time.

Playing dates:

Pre-qualification: September 2009
Rounds 1 and 2: 14 to 18 October 2009
Rounds 3 and 4: 31 March to 4 April 2010
Rounds 5 and 6: 26 to 30 May 2010

EURO website

The official website of the Women’s EURO 2010 is available under www.ehf-euro.com/den-nor2010. Find more information on the Qualification, .

TEXT: EHF