The 2015 World Men's Handball Championship was the 24th staging of the World Men's Handball Championship, organised by the International Handball Federation (IHF). The final tournament was held for the first time in Qatar, from 15 January to 1 February 2015. The Qatari bid was selected over those of Norway, Poland and France after a vote by the IHF Council on 27 January 2011, in Malmö, Sweden. This was the third time that the World Championship was hosted in the Middle East And North Africa, after Egypt in 1999 and Tunisia in 2005.
France won the final against Qatar 25–22 to win their fifth title, a first in handball history while Qatar won their first ever medal. Poland captured the bronze medal by defeating Spain 29–28 after extra time. Denmark secured the fifth place by winning against Croatia which finished sixth and thus had the worst result in the past 13 years of international handball competing.
The competition was marred by numerous controversies throughout.
Venues The games of the tournament were played in 3 cities: Doha, Al Rayyan and the newly created town of Lusail.
Three new venues were constructed for the tournament: Lusail Sports Arena in the town of Lusail: with a capacity of 15,300 seats, Lusail Sports Arena became the main venue of the tournament. The hall opened in November 2014. Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena in the town of Al Rayyan: with a capacity of 7,700 seats. The hall is part of the Al-Sadd Club sports complex. Duhail Handball Sports Hall in the capital Doha: with a capacity of 5,500 spectators. The hall is part of the Qatar Handball Association (QHA) complex.
LusailAl RayyanDohaLusail Sports ArenaAli Bin Hamad Al Attiya ArenaDuhail Handball Sports HallCapacity: 15,300Capacity: 7,700Capacity: 5,500
Qualification Twenty-four teams participated in the final tournament. Qatar, as hosts and Spain, as world champions, were automatically qualified, which left 22 places available for the best teams of each continental qualification tournament and the winners of an additional European qualification competition.
In a decision taken by the International Handball Federation on 8 July 2014 the spot allocated for a nation from Oceania was revoked on the grounds that Oceania has no continental confederation. The national team, qualified for this spot through the 2014 Oceania Handball Championship, was Australia. The spot was instead handed out as a wild card to the nation with the highest ranking at the previous world championships not qualified for the Qatar tournament. This nation was Germany. Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates withdrew on 7 November 2014. Iceland and Saudi Arabia were chosen as the replacements.
Competition Dates Vacancies Qualified Host nation 27 January 2011 1 2013 World Champions 11–27 January 2013 1 2014 African Men's Handball Championship 16–25 January 2014 3 2014 European Men's Handball Championship 12–26 January 2014 3 2014 Asian Men's Handball Championship 24 January – 4 February 2014 3 2014 Oceania Handball Championship 25–26 April 2014 1 European qualification 7–15 June 2014 9 2014 Pan American Men's Handball Championship 23–29 June 2014 3 Wildcard 8 July 2014 1 Wildcards 21 November 2014 2
Qualified teams Country Qualified as Qualified on Previous appearances1, 2 00Hosts 27 January 2011 4 (2003, 2005, 2007, 2013) 01World champions 27 January 2013 17 (1958, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013) Finalist of 2014 European Championship 22 January 2014 20 (1938, 1954, 1958, 1961, 1964, 1967, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1993, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013) Finalist of 2014 European Championship 22 January 2014 19 (1954, 1958, 1961, 1964, 1967,1970, 1978, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013) Fourth of 2014 European Championship 22 January 2014 10 (1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013) Finalist of 2014 African Championship 24 January 2014 13 (1974, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2013) Finalist of 2014 African Championship 24 January 2014 11 (1967, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013) Third place of 2014 African Championship 25 January 2014 12 (1964, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013) Finalist of 2014 Asian Championship 1 February 2014 1 (2011) Semifinalist of 2014 Asian Championship 2 February 2014 0 (debut) Semifinalist of 2014 Asian Championship 3 February 2014 0 (debut) Winner of 2014 Oceania Championship 7 (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013) European playoffs 13 (1958, 1967, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013) European playoffs 10 (1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2013) European playoffs 5 (1995, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2007) European playoffs 4 (1938, 1958, 1993, 2011) European playoffs 21 (1938, 1954, 1958, 1961, 1964, 1967, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2011) European playoffs 6 (1995, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2013) European playoffs 3 (1999, 2009, 2013) European playoffs 2 (1995, 2013) European playoffs 0 (debut) Finalist of 2014 Pan American Championship 11 (1958, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013) Finalist of 2014 Pan American Championship 9 (1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013) Third at 2014 Pan American Championship 2 (2011, 2013) Wildcard 22 (1938, 1954, 1958, 1961, 1964, 1967, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 19903, 1993, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013) Wildcard 17 (1958, 1961, 1964, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1986, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2013) Wildcard 6 (1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2009, 2013) 1 Bold indicates champion for that year 2 Italics indicates host country for that year 3 From both German teams only East Germany was qualified in 1990
Draw The draw was held on 20 July 2014 at 21:30 local time in Doha, Qatar.
Seedings The seedings were published on 11 July 2014.
Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4Pot 5Pot 6 → →
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Squads
Each team selects 16 players for the tournament.
Referees 18 referee pairs are selected:
Referees Jesus MenezesRogéro Pinto Matija GubicaBoris Milošević Václav HoráčekJiří Novotný Martin GjedingMads Hansen Mohamed RashedTamer El-Sayed Laurent ReveretStevann Pichon Lars GeipelMarcus Helbig Kiyoshi HizakiTomokazu Ikebuchi Mindaugas GatelisVaidas Mažeika
Referees Gjorgji NachevskiSlave Nikolov Duarte SantosRicardo Fonseca Saleh BamutrefMansour Al-Suwaidi Nenad NikolićDušan Stojković Nenad KrstićPeter Ljubič Bon-ok KooSeok Lee Óscar LópezÁngel Ramírez Michael JohanssonJasmin Kliko Samir KrichenSamir Makhlouf
Preliminary round The schedule was published on 21 August 2014.Schedule A new schedule was released on 12 December 2014. The top four teams from each group advanced to the knockout stage.
Tie-breaking criteria For the group stage of this tournament, where two or more teams in a group tied on an equal number of points, the finishing positions will be determined by the following tie-breaking criteria in the following order: number of points obtained in the matches among the teams in question goal difference in the matches among the teams in question number of goals scored in the matches among the teams in question (if more than two teams finish equal on points) goal difference in all the group matches number of goals scored in all the group matches drawing of lots
Team advanced to the knockout stage
All times are local (UTC+3).
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Knockout stage
Championship
Round of 16
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Bronze medal game
Final
5–8th place playoffs
5–8th place semifinals
Seventh place game
Fifth place game
President’s Cup
17–20th place playoffs
21–24th place playoffs
Placement semifinals
23rd place game
21st place game
19th place game
17th place game
Statistics
Top goalscorers RankNameTeamGoalsShots% 1 Dragan Gajić 71 93 76% 2 Žarko Marković 67 127 53% 3 Uwe Gensheimer 54 72 75% 4 Rodrigo Salinas 52 92 57% 5 Rafael Capote 48 78 62% 6 Valero Rivera Folch 47 58 81% 7 Kiril Lazarov 45 78 58% 8 Siarhei Rutenka 43 75 57% 9 Robert Weber 42 61 69% 10 Ivan Čupić 41 53 77% Source: IHF.info
Top goalkeepers RankNameTeam%SavesShots 1 Carsten Lichtlein 38% 57 1522 Filip Ivić 37% 44 119 Thierry Omeyer 105 283 Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas 97 2595 Mattias Andersson 36% 53 147 Danijel Šarić 75 206 Petr Štochl 75 2108 Jannick Green 35% 47 135 Silvio Heinevetter 67 193 Nikola Marinovic 52 150 Source: IHF.info
Final ranking
{| class="wikitable" !width=40|Rank !width=200|Team |- bgcolor=#ccffcc |align=center| ||align="left"| |- bgcolor=#bbf3ff |align=center| ||align="left"| |- bgcolor=#ccccff |align=center| ||align="left"| |- bgcolor=#ccccff |align=center|4 ||align="left"| |- bgcolor=#ccccff |align=center|5 ||align="left"| |- bgcolor=#ccccff |align=center|6 ||align="left"| |- bgcolor=#bbf3ff |align=center|7 ||align="left"| |- bgcolor=#ccccff |align=center|8 ||align="left"| |- bgcolor=#ccccff |align=center|9 ||align="left"|
|align=center|10 ||align="left"|
|align=center|11 ||align="left"| |- bgcolor=#bbf3ff |align=center|12 ||align="left"|
|align=center|13 ||align="left"| |- bgcolor=#bbf3ff |align=center|14 ||align="left"|
|align=center|15 ||align="left"|
|align=center|16 ||align="left"|
|align=center|17 ||align="left"|
|align=center|18 ||align="left"|
|align=center|19 ||align="left"|
|align=center|20 ||align="left"| |- |align=center|21 ||align="left"|
|align=center|22 ||align="left"|
|align=center|23 ||align="left"|
|align=center|24 ||align="left"| |} Qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics Qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics thru continental events Qualified for the Olympic Qualification Tournament
2015 World Men's Handball Championship champions France5th title Team roster William Accambray, Igor Anić, Xavier Barachet, Cyril Dumoulin, Jérôme Fernandez, Mathieu Grébille, Michaël Guigou, Samuel Honrubia, Guillaume Joli, Luka Karabatic, Nikola Karabatić, Kentin Mahé, Daniel Narcisse, Alix Nyokas, Thierry Omeyer, Valentin Porte, Cédric SorhaindoHead coach: Claude Onesta
All-Star Team All-Star Team of the tournament: Goalkeeper: Right wing: Right back: Centre back: Left back: Left wing: Pivot:
Other awards Most Valuable Player:
The final rankings were used in the 2016 Summer Olympics qualification process. France, as World Champion, qualified for the Olympics. The next 6 teams earned a place in the Olympic Qualification Tournaments. Qatar and Germany, however, won their continental tournaments (qualifying them directly for the Olympics) and thus their spots in the Olympic Qualification Tournaments went to Slovenia and North Macedonia.
Controversies
Withdrawal of teams As mentioned under qualifications, Australia lost its spot in the tournament due to an IHF decision, being replaced by Germany, who had not originally qualified. Further, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates withdrew.
Qatar player naturalisation A large number of players in the Qatar team had been naturalised in the years leading up to the championship. According to IHF rules, to gain eligibility for a new national team, a player cannot have played for another nation for three years in an official match. This allowed several foreign-born players, including Spanish-born Borja Vidal, Goran Stojanović and Jovo Damjanović from Montenegro, and Bertrand Roiné who previously played for France, to play for the Qatar team at the championship. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine, only four of the 17 players in the squad were native to Qatar.