It begins on January 14th Handball-World Cup 2025 in Croatia, Denmark and Norway. It is the first time that a World Cup will take place in three countries. 32 teams are taking part in the tournament, which ends on February 2nd with the final in the Norwegian capital Oslo.
In addition to our schedule, you can also find all tables, dates and results for the 2025 Handball World Cup in our data center.
The World Cup groups at a glance
Germany is the head of Group A. The best three teams qualify for the main round after the group phase, the eight bottom-placed teams continue to play in the President’s Cup.
- Group A in Herning: DeutschlandCzech Republic, Poland, Switzerland
- Group B in Herning: Denmark, Italy, Algeria, Tunisia
- Group C in Poreč: France, Austria, Qatar, Kuwait
- Group D in Varaždin: Hungary, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Guinea
- Group E in Oslo: Norway, Portugal, Brazil, USA
- Group F in Oslo: Sweden, Spain, Japan, Chile
- Group G in Zagreb: Slovenia, Iceland, Cuba, Cape Verde
- Group H in Zagreb: Egypt, Croatia, Argentina, Bahrain
The DHB team at the Handball World Cup
The German national team only meets teams from Europe in the preliminary round, with Poland the strongest opponent waiting for the DHB team on the first match day. After Switzerland dramatically lost to Slovenia in the seven-meter throw in the World Cup playoffs, the world association IHF awarded one of two wild cards to the Swiss twelve days after the defeat.
- January 15, 2025, 8:30 p.m.: Deutschland – Poland
- January 17, 2025, 8:30 p.m.: Switzerland – Deutschland
- January 19, 2025, 6 p.m.: Deutschland – Czech Republic
Schedule of the Handball World Cup 2025
The German World Cup squad
To prepare for the World Cup, national coach Alfred Gislason has called 19 players into the squad. 14 of them won the silver medal at the Olympic Games in Paris. Gislason still has to delete one player at the start of the World Cup; the national coach can then nominate 16 players for each individual World Cup game. The DHB squad is led by captain Johannes Golla.
- Tor: Joel Birlehm (TSV Hannover-Burgdorf), David Späth (Rhein-Neckar Löwen), Andreas Wolff (THW Kiel)
- Left wing: Rune Dahmke (THW Kiel), Lukas Mertens (SC Magdeburg)
- Right wing: Timo Kastening (MT Melsungen), Lukas Zerbe (THW Kiel)
- Back area left: Marko Grgic (ThSV Eisenach), Sebastian Heymann (Rhein-Neckar Löwen), Julian Köster (VfL Gummersbach)
- Back center: Juri Knorr (Rhein-Neckar Löwen), Nils Lichtlein (Füchse Berlin), Luca Witzke (SC DHfK Leipzig)
- Back area right: Franz Semper (SC DHfK Leipzig), Christoph Steinert (HC Erlangen), Renars Uscins (TSV Hannover-Burgdorf)
- Kreis: Justus Fischer (TSV Hannover-Burgdorf), Johannes Golla (SG Flensburg-Handewitt), Jannik Kohlbacher (Rhein-Neckar Löwen)
Mode of the Handball World Cup 2025
In the Preliminary round The 32 teams compete in eight groups of four teams each. There are two points for a win and one point for a draw. The first three teams qualify for the main round after the group phase, the eight bottom-placed teams play in the President’s Cup.
Main round
The first three teams from the preliminary round qualify for the four main groups, each consisting of six teams. To do this, the teams take their points from the preliminary round games against the other teams that have also qualified for the main round. Example for Germany: If Switzerland comes bottom of the group, the DHB team will only take the points from the games against Poland and the Czech Republic. The games in the preliminary round also have significance for the main round. In the main round, however, the teams that already met in the preliminary round no longer play against each other.
Knockout round
The two group winners from the four main round groups ultimately qualify for the quarter-finals. From here until the final, the game will be played in the classic knockout mode.
The 2025 World Cup venues
For the first time, the Handball World Championship will take place in five cities in three countries. For Croatia it is the second World Cup after 2009, Denmark is hosting for the third time after 1978 and 2019. For Norway it is the first World Cup in its own country.
Denmark and Norway have each nominated a city as a host city for the World Cup. In Denmark, the World Cup games take place in the multi-purpose arena “Jyske Bank Boxen”. Herning instead, the Norwegian capital Oslo plays the World Cup games in the “Unity Arena”.
Croatia has chosen three cities to host the games. The World Cup games will take place in Zagreb in the “Arena Zagreb” and in Varaždin and in Porec instead of.
All handball world champions at a glance
France is the record world champion with a total of six titles, followed by Sweden and Romania with four wins each. Germany became world champion three times, including at the first World Cup in 1938, then still under Nazi rule as the German Reich. Defending champion Denmark became the only country to win the World Cup three times in a row by winning the 2023 World Cup title.
- 1938 German Empire
- 1954 Sweden
- 1958 Sweden
- 1961 Romania
- 1964 Romania
- 1967 Czechoslovakia
- 1970 Romania
- 1974 Romania
- 1978 Federal Republic of Germany
- 1982 Soviet Union
- 1986 Yugoslavia
- 1990 Sweden
- 1993 Russia
- 1995 France
- 1997 Russia
- 1999 Sweden
- 2001 France
- 2003 Croatia
- 2005 Spain
- 2007 Deutschland
- 2009 France
- 2011 France
- 2013 Spain
- 2015 France
- 2017 France
- 2019 Denmark
- 2021 Denmark
- 2023 Denmark
