Croatia awarded co-hosting rights for World Handball Championship 

(Photo: HRS)

ZAGREB, 28 February 2020 – Croatia will co-host the 2025 IHF World Men’s Handball Championship after a unanimous decision at the IHF Council meeting in Cairo, Egypt on Friday. 

Croatia will co-host the tournament with Denmark and Norway. Four of the eight first-round groups, two of the four second-round groups, the President Cup, two quarterfinals and one semifinal will be played in Croatia during the championship.

It will be the fifth time that Croatia has hosted a major handball tournament, but the first time as a co-host. In 2000, Croatia hosted the Men’s Euro, in 2003, it hosted the Women’s World Championship, in 2009, the Men’s World Champs and in 2018, it hosted the Men’s Euro. 

“We are very happy to have been awarded the hosting rights for the championship, it is the first time in history that it has been jointly organised by three countries. Each, apart from being a strong handball nation, also has extremely extensive experience in organising the biggest competitions. I have no doubt that we will be great hosts again, as we were in 2003 and 2009 when we first organised the women’s and then the men’s championships,” said Croatian Handball Federation President Tomislav Grahovac, before adding. 

“The guiding principle we offered and promoted was to bring the children back to the gymnasiums, to enable them to play sports, and especially handball. The IHF recognised this and gave us credit for the idea. We will be working on this a lot in the coming years.”