The road to the final tournament has been outlined for all 32 teams in the EHF EURO 2024 Qualifiers.
Reigning Olympic champions France will face Poland, Latvia and Italy in their bid to reach the Men’s EHF EURO 2024 after the qualifiers draw in Berlin divided 32 nations into eight four-team groups.
The EHF EURO 2020 runners-up, Croatia were pitted against the Netherlands in group 5 together with Belgium and Greece.
The bronze medallists from the 2020 edition, Norway, meet Serbia, Slovakia and Finland in group 2.
Four Balkan countries form group 7, as Slovenia ended up together with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Kosovo.
The qualifiers will begin on 12 October 2022 and run until 30 April 2023 with the nations battling for 20 places at the final tournament in Germany which will be played between 10-28 January 2024.
Qualification groups overview
Group 1: Portugal, North Macedonia, Turkey, Luxembourg
Group 2: Norway, Serbia, Slovakia, Finland
Group 3: Iceland, Czech Republic, Israel, Estonia
Group 4: Austria, Ukraine, Romania, Faroe Islands
Group 5: Croatia, Netherlands, Greece, Belgium
Group 6: Hungary, Switzerland, Lithuania, Georgia
Group 7: Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo
Group 8: France, Poland, Latvia, Italy
The winners and runners-up of all eight groups as well as the four best third ranked teams will earn a spot at the final tournament. To determine which four third ranked teams are ‘the best’, an overall ranking including all eight third ranked teams will be established once the qualifiers have been completed.
This ranking will take into account only the results of the four matches against the two teams that finished first and second in the respective group; the results of the two matches against the team that finished last in that group will not be considered.
Four national team players assisted at the draw podium at the Hubertusbad in the German capital to determine the fate of all teams vying for a ticket at the final tournament.
Luca Witzke represented the hosting team of Germany at the draw and was accompanied by Maciej Gebala from Poland, Norway’s Kristian Sæverås and Bobby Schagen from the Netherlands
EHF EURO Cup for the hosts and the last medallists
Germany as the hosts, and Sweden (champions), Spain (runners-up) and Denmark (bronze medallists) as the EHF EURO 2022 medallists, are qualified directly for the final tournament. Those four teams will play in the EHF EURO Cup when other nations play their qualifiers.
Playing schedule
The first round of the Men’s EHF EURO 2024 qualifiers will be played in October 2022. The basic match schedule is as follows:
Round 1: 12/13 October 2022
Round 2: 15/16 October 2022
Round 3: 8/9 March 2023
Round 4: 11/12 March 2023
Round 5: 26/27 April 2023
Round 6: 30 April 2023 (unified throw-off time for all matches)
Source: EHF