Men's World Championship 2021 hopefuls to discover play-off opponents on Monday

Men's World Championship 2021 hopefuls to discover play-off opponents on Monday

The 20 European teams taking part in the qualification play-off for the Men's World Championship 2021 will find out who their opponents are when the draw takes place on Monday 9 March.

Spain, Croatia and Norway, as the top three teams from the Men's EHF EURO 2020, along with defending world champions Denmark, are already qualified for the world championship in Egypt next year.

They will be joined by a further 10 European teams who win the June play-offs. The play-offs will be contested in a two-leg knockout format with the first leg scheduled for 5-7 June, and the return leg for 9-11 June 2020.

The draw for the play-off will be conducted at the Hilton Hotel in Vienna on 9 March at 19:00 CET and streamed live on the EHF EURO YouTube and Facebook channels. The draw will pair each team from pot 1 with one team from pot 2. Teams drawn first play at home in the first leg.

All 10 teams in pot 1, plus six teams in pot 2, competed at EHF EURO 2020 but did not directly qualify for the world championship.

The remaining four spots in the draw go to the winners of an earlier play-off in April, featuring the four lowest-ranked teams of the EHF EURO 2020 and the four group winners from the previous qualification phase.

The Men's World Championship 2021 will take place between 15-31 January 2021 in Egypt, and is the first world championship to feature a total of 32 teams.

POT 1:

(teams not directly qualified from EHF EURO 2020)
Slovenia
Germany
Portugal
Sweden
Austria
Hungary
Belarus
Iceland
Czech Republic
France

POT 2:

(teams not directly qualified from EHF EURO 2020)
North Macedonia
Switzerland
Netherlands
Montenegro
Ukraine
Serbia

(winners of qualification phase 2 part 1 matches on 15/16 and 18/19 April)
Turkey or Russia
Romania or Bosnia and Herzegovina
Poland or Lithuania
Israel or Latvia