The draw was held for the 2021 IHF Men’s World Championship, which will be played from January 13 to 31, 2021. This version of the competition has a new format since it has the participation of 32 countries, including the 4 representatives of the Confederation of South and Central America Handball.
The qualifiers are: Argentina, continental champion in Maringá, Brazil, runner-up in the South Central America qualifier and Uruguay, who arrives at the event for the first time after having relegated Chile. The Chilean team has one chance left as the last place remains to be defined. To access, you must compete with Paraguay, Colombia and El Salvador for the name of the fourth classified, which will be known in November after the last qualifying opportunity is played in Uruguay.
Uruguay will be in Group A along with another debutant, Cape Verde, Germany that leads this series, and Hungary, both teams located within the top 10 of the EHF.
Brazil, for its part, was in Group B along with an always powerful Spain, Tunisia and Poland. Those led again by the experienced Washington Nunes arrive preceded by their ninth place obtained in the previous IHF world tournament and will seek to improve the position.
Argentina, the current continental monarch, will be part of Group D, led by the current world champion Denmark, along with Bahrain and the debutant People’s Republic of the Congo. Manolo Cadenas’ team has a good chance of overcoming this first round in search of a better position.
Group G was headed by Sweden, a country that already tried a world crown in Egypt in 1999 and will face host Egypt and the Czech Republic in this group stage. The 4th place in South and Central America will be known in November after the playoffs in Uruguay.
The IHF Men’s World Championship will take place in 4 locations: Cairo Stadium Indoor Hall, The New Administrative Capital Hall, The 6th of October Hall and The Borg El Arab Hall.
Photo: IHF archive
