EHF EURO

Women's EHF EURO 2010 Qualification Draw

EHF

19 March 2009, 16:20

Women's EHF EURO 2010 Qualification Draw

For the first time in the history of an EHF EURO Event, the Women’s EURO 2010 will take place in two countries that won the organisation rights back in 2006 with a joint bid. Denmark and Norway will host the top national teams of Europe from 9 to 19 December 2010.

Norway and Denmark are waiting The joint bid, however, is not the only new feature of EHF EURO 2010. The road to the Final Tournament will be similar to that already seen in the case of the Men’s EURO 2010 Austria. There will be a qualification phase with matches played in groups on home and away basis.

Withdrawal and finalised procedure

With the recent withdrawal of Bulgaria, the EURO Qualification procedure has been modified in respect of the information published earlier in February.

Apart from the organising countries, Denmark and Norway, 14 other teams will be there at the Final Tournament.

According to the finalised applications, exactly 29 national teams have registered to take part in the qualification that will be played between September 2009 and May 2010. These are:

Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Spain, Finland, France, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Serbia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Sweden, Turkey.

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.

EURO Qualification Draw

The first step on the way towards Norway and Denmark will be the Qualification Draw on 24 March 2009 at 11hrs. On this day European handball will be watching the EHF Headquarters in Vienna to know the seven groups of four teams.

The teams are 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

Qualification schedule

The Qualification Draw on 24 March 2009 will define 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

Live graphics

As it is the case with the biggest draw events throughout the handball season, you can follow the Women’s EHF EURO 2010 Qualification Draw LIVE on http://www.ehf-euro.com/den-nor2010 or www.eurohandball.com.

All you have to do is to visit the brand new website or the EHF website and stay tuned on Tuesday, 24 March at 11:hrs.