World Championships 2017 in Germany and France
Two European nations have been awarded the rights to host the 2017 World Championships – Germany for the women’s competition and France for the men.
At its meeting at the World Championship in Brazil, the IHF Council awarded those European Federations the right to organise the events. Germany was the only applicant for the women’s tournament, while France won the race against Denmark – the upcoming host of the Men’s EHF EURO 2014 and the Women’s World Championship 2015.
“We had two strong bidding nations, two very strong candidates, which is very good for the IHF as this World Championship is a very important event for us,” IHF President Dr Hassan Moustafa said before opening the envelope to reveal France as hosts.
“The current Men’s Olympic, World and European champion, France’s bid was presented by a high-ranking delegation led by Minster of Sports and five times Judo Olympic champion David Douillet and national team coach Claude Onesta.
“To organise this World Championship is a great step for French handball, not only in sporting terms but also due to media and public interest, and economical aspects,” Onesta said.
Germany was the host of the Women’s World Championships 1965 and 1997 and was host of the Men’s World Championships 1958 (GDR), 1961 (FRG), 1974 (GDR), 1982 (FRG) and 2007.
France hosted the Men’s World Championship in 1970 and 2001 and was host of the Women’s World Championship in 2007.
The German bid for the Women’s World Championship 2017 contains the following venues (which are all still TBC): Berlin, Flensburg, Wetzlar, Stuttgart, Leipzig and Cologne, which will be the venue for the final weekend and is where the VELUX EHF FINAL4 has taken place since 2010 and will be played until 2014.
The Men’s World Championship 2017 will be played in the venues Aix, Bordeaux, Lille, Paris-Bercy, Dunkerque, Lyon, Montpellier, Nantes and the new arena in Nanterre for the final weekend.
The upcoming Senior World and European Championships:
EHF EUROs 2012:
Men: Serbia, Women: Netherlands
World Championships 2013:
Men: Spain, Women: Serbia
EHF EUROs 2014:
Men: Denmark, Women: Croatia/Hungary
World Championships 2015:
Men: Qatar, Women: Denmark
EHF EUROs 2016:
will be awarded at the Congress 2012 in Monaco
World Championships 2017:
Men: France, Women: Germany
As well as the 2017 World Championships, two more World Championships were awarded to European federations.
Croatia will be the host of the 2012 Beach Handball World Championship after Brazil gave back the right to organise. And the Men’s Junior World Championship 2013 was awarded to Germany, although there are still some organisational and financial details to be fixed.
