World Men’s Handball Championship 2009 - Starting on January 16 in Zagreb, Croatia

The 21st World Men’s Handball 2009 Championship will start next week from Friday 16 January and will last till Sunday 1 February 2009. This championship was first held in 1938 in Germany with the next one being held in 1954 but has been regularly held every two years since the past few years.

The champions for 2007 World Men’s Handball Championship were Germany who played the final against Poland and won by 29-24. The winners of the Bronze Medal Game were Denmark who won by 34-27 against France.  This year the major event for handball will be held in Croatia where 24 teams from 5 different confederations will compete for the Men’s Handball Title Championship. The events of handball championship will take place at six different Croatian cities which have been selected as hosts. These cities include Split, Zadar, Osijek, Varazdin, Porec and Zagreb, with the opening handball game and ceremony to be held at Split and the final match to be held at Zagreb.

The venues for these events are Spaladium Arena in Split, Krešimir osi Hall at Zadar and Arena Zagreb at Zagreb where the final event will take place. This Arena is the largest of all the others with a capacity of 15,600 people.  The 24 teams have been divided into 4 groups of 6 teams each, who will play the Preliminary Rounds starting from 16 January 2009 till 22 January 2009. Group A consists of France, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Argentina and Australia.

The teams will play 16 matches against each other to decide the first 3 teams to make it to Second Round Group 1. Group B consists of Croatia, Sweden, Spain, South Korea, Kuwait and Cuba, which will also play against each other in the Preliminary Rounds to decide the top 3 teams in this group. Group C consists of Germany, Poland, FYR Macedonia, Russia, Tunisia and Algeria and Group D consists of Denmark, Norway, Egypt, Brazil, Serbia and Saudi Arabia.

After the Preliminary rounds, the Second Rounds will start from 22 January 2009, and will go through 27 January 2009. The teams will again be divided into 4 groups which will play in the Second Rounds. The top 3 teams from Group A will play against the top 3 teams from Group B in Group I Second round. Similarly, the top 3 teams from Group C and the top 3 teams from Group D will play against each other in Group II Second round. Teams at 4th, 5th and 6th positions from both Group A and Group B will compete against each other in Group PC-1 to be held at Porec. Similarly, teams at 4th, 5th and 6th positions from Group C and Group D will play against each other in Group PC-II, also to be held at Porec.

The placement matches for the finals for men’s handball championship will start from 27 January 2009 and will last till 29 January 2009. Both the semifinal matches will take place on 30 January 2009, with the final match taking place on 1 February 2009. The Bronze Match for Men’s Handball Championship will also take place on 1 February 2009 between the losers of Semifinal 1 and Semifinal 2.

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