Tribune News Network
Doha
Qatar – the only team from outside Europe to reach an IHF Men’s Handball World Championship final (in 2015) – will begin their campaign at the 2025 World Championship against France at the Zatika Sport Centre in the Croatian city of Porec (8pm Doha Time) on Tuesday.
The 2025 IHF Men’s Handball World Championship takes place in Denmark, Croatia, and Norway from 14 January to 2 February. Three of the five host venues – Arena Varazdin (Varazdin), Arena Zagreb (Zagreb), and Zatika Arena (Porec) are in Croatia, with Jyske Bank Boxen (Herning) in Denmark, and Unity Arena (Oslo) in Norway.
The Al Annabi delegation has already arrived in Porec, hosting the third group competitions in the preliminary round. Group C includes Qatar, France, Austria and Kuwait.
Qatar are strongly looking defend their chances despite the strength of the other participating teams. They had a final training session on Tuesday evening in the presence of Ahmed Al Shaabi, President of the Qatar Handball Federation, and members of the national team’s administrative delegation.
The Qatar national team earlier played five friendly matches as part of their preparations for the world championship. Qatar played against Slovenia and Algeria at the conditioning camp in Slovenia. Prior to that they played three friendly matches in Doha - two against Argentina national team and one against Bahrain national team.
Qatar coach Serbian Veselin Vujovic has chosen 20 players to represent the team at the world championship.
The team: Rafael Capote, Amin Zakar, Amir Danqir, Bilal Labinka, Erhad Alihozdic, Abdulrazzaq Murad, Hamdi Ayyad, Yassin Sami, Youssef Bin Ali, Amin Qahees, Wilder Memevich, Alaa Eldin Balrashed, Nidal Issa, Wagdi Ibrahim, Mustafa Heiba, Zarko Markovic, Frankis Karol, Abdulrahman Tariq, Ahmed Maddi and Anadin Soljakovic.
Qatar are scheduled to play Austria next on Thursday, before meeting Kuwait on January 18 (both games at 10.30pm Doha Time).
This is Qatar’s tenth participation at a world championship since Portugal 2003. Al Annabi’s other participations have been at Tunisia 2005, Germany 2007, Spain 2013, Qatar 2015, France 2017, Germany and Denmark 2019, Egypt 2021, and Poland and Sweden 2023.
Qatar qualified for the IHF 2025 World Championship after topping Group 1 at the 21st Asian Men’s Championship in Bahrain last January- winning the title for a sixth time in a row defeating Japan in the final.
Meanwhile, Denmark having regained their Olympic title at Paris 2024 are bidding for a unique fourth consecutive world crown after completing the first men’s title hat-trick two years ago in Stockholm.
With their long-time talisman Mikkel Hansen now retired, the likes of Mathias Gidsel and Simon Pytlick will ensure that the Danes are favourites once more.
Olympic silver medallists Germany are among the challengers, along with 2023 World Championship runners-up France and bronze medallists Spain.
Only European teams have been victorious in the history of the men’s handball World Championship, with Qatar the only team from outside Europe to reach the final, doing so in 2015.
Egypt will once again lead the challenge from outside Europe, having lost out to Spain in the Olympic quarter-finals.
