2007 World Men's Handball Championship – qualification

Qualification matches for the 2007 World Men's Handball Championship took place in 2006, mostly as continental championships. According to the IHF rules, each continent had three places (except Oceania, which had one), and the host (Germany) and holders (Spain) were automatically qualified. The other nine places are allocated to the continents according to performance in the 2005 World Men's Handball Championship. Thus:

• Europe had 13 places
• Africa 4 places
• Asia 3 places
• Americas (North and South together) 3 places
• Oceania 1 place

Africa

The 2006 African Men's Handball Championship in Tunisia resulted in four teams qualifying for the tournament.^[1]

• Angola
• Egypt
• Morocco
• Tunisia

Americas

The Pan-American qualifying events was scheduled to be held in Brazil in April 2006.^[2] However, due to players' commitments with clubs in Europe, it was agreed to postpone the qualifying until June, and the tournament was eventually held from 6 June to 10 June at Aracaju.^[3]

Eight teams participated, and Brazil and Argentina went through the group stages unbeaten, as the only teams with positive goal difference. The two top teams in each group qualified for the semi-finals: Greenland joined Brazil from Group A after two 32–30 wins over Chile and Uruguay, while in Group B United States qualified after drawing with Mexico and beating Puerto Rico.

In the semi-finals, Brazil and Argentina both won by more than ten goals, securing their place in Germany, while the third-place play-off saw Greenland prevail by one goal against United States to secure the third spot.^[4]

• Brazil
• Argentina
• Greenland

Asia

Asia's qualifying events, the 2006 Asian Handball Championship took place in Thailand between 12 February and 21 February 2006.^[5] Kuwait and South Korea qualified after winning the semi-finals,^[6] while Qatar beat Iran 21–20 in the third place play-off to be the final team to qualify^[7]

• Kuwait
• South Korea
• Qatar

Europe

Eleven places were at stake (Germany and Spain were already qualified), and the top three finishers at the 2006 European Men's Handball Championship in Switzerland in January and February 2006 qualified. As Spain qualified for the semi-final at that tournament, the other three semi-finalists – Croatia, Denmark and France – qualified. The other 11 participants at the European Championship played off with five winners in preliminary qualifying groups, which are shown below.

Final standings (as of 20 January 2006):^[8]

Group 1 Team Pld W D L GF GA Pts Greece 6 4 0 2 164 148 8 Bosnia and Herzegovina 6 4 0 2 182 169 8 Netherlands 6 2 0 4 159 181 4 Italy 6 2 0 4 157 181 4		Group 2 Team Pld W D L GF GA Pts Austria 6 5 0 1 205 161 10 Finland 6 3 0 3 173 170 6 Israel 6 3 0 3 171 173 6 Bulgaria 6 1 0 5 153 198 2
Group 3 Team Pld W D L GF GA Pts Czech Republic 6 5 0 1 219 149 10 Macedonia 6 4 1 1 200 176 9 Estonia 6 2 1 3 169 182 5 Cyprus 6 0 0 6 133 214 0		Group 4 Team Pld W D L GF GA Pts Romania 6 5 1 0 186 143 11 Lithuania 6 3 1 2 174 149 7 Latvia 6 2 0 4 177 169 4 Luxembourg 6 1 0 5 129 205 2
Group 5 Team Pld W D L GF GA Pts Sweden 6 6 0 0 223 139 12 Belarus 6 4 0 2 189 160 8 Turkey 6 2 0 4 140 197 4 Belgium 6 0 0 6 155 211 0

The play-off draw was made in Zürich on 5 February. The matches^[9] are two-legged affairs, and were played in the second and third weekend of June. Teams in bold below qualified for the World Championship.^[10]

Team 1		Result	Team 2		1st leg	2nd leg
Greece		47–51		Poland	27–22	20–29
Portugal		47–55		Ukraine	21–30	26–25
Romania		56–57		Norway	29–30	27–27
Serbia and Montenegro		58–73		Czech Republic	31–37	27–36
Slovenia		67–51		Austria	36–26	31–25
Slovakia		52–65		Hungary	24–33	28–32
Sweden		54–57		Iceland	28–32	26–25
Switzerland		54–85		Russia	26–41	28–44

Oceania

The Oceanian qualifying tournament, took place in Dural, Sydney from 22 May to 24 May 2006, immediately before the Pacific Cup

Australia qualified for the world championships after defeating New Zealand 41–14 and the Cook Islands 63–5.^[11]

References and notes

World Handball Championships
Men's	Tournaments Germany 1938 Sweden 1954 East Germany 1958 West Germany 1961 Czechoslovakia 1964 Sweden 1967 France 1970 East Germany 1974 Denmark 1978 West Germany 1982 Switzerland 1986 Czechoslovakia 1990 Sweden 1993 Iceland 1995 Japan 1997 Egypt 1999 France 2001 Portugal 2003 Tunisia 2005 Germany 2007 Croatia 2009 Sweden 2011 Spain 2013 Qatar 2015 France 2017 Denmark/Germany 2019 Egypt 2021 Poland/Sweden 2023 Squads 1938 1954 1958 1961 1964 1967 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015
Women's	Tournaments Yugoslavia 1957 Romania 1962 West Germany 1965 Netherlands 1971 Yugoslavia 1973 Soviet Union 1975 Czechoslovakia 1978 Hungary 1982 Netherlands 1986 South Korea 1990 Norway 1993 Austria/Hungary 1995 Germany 1997 Denmark/Norway 1999 Italy 2001 Croatia 2003 Russia 2005 France 2007 China 2009 Brazil 2011 Serbia 2013 Denmark 2015 Germany 2017 Japan 2019 2021 2023 Squads 1957 1962 1965 1971 1973 1975 1978 1982 1986 1990 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015