European Men's Handball Championship

European Men's Handball Championship

Founded	1994
Region	Europe (EHF)
Number of teams	38 (Qualification) 16 (Final Tournament)
Current champions	France (3rd title)
Most successful team(s)	Sweden (4 titles)
2016 European Men's Handball Championship

The European Men's Handball Championship is the official competition for senior men's national handball teams of Europe, and takes place every two years. In addition to crowning the European champions, the tournament also serves as a qualifying tournament for the Olympic Games and World Championship. Sweden have won four of the ten championships that have been held since 1994, while Spain have been runners-up three times. Denmark is the team with most medals won in European Championship history with a total of six medals, those being two gold medals (2008, 2012), one silver (2014) and three bronze medals (2002, 2004 & 2006).

History

In 1946, the International Handball Federation was founded by eight European nations, and though non-European nations competed at the World Championships, the medals had always been taken by European nations. European Handball Federation is founded in 1991. At the same time (1995), the World Championship was changed from a quadrennial to a biannual event, and the European Handball Federation now began its own championship – which also acted as a regional qualifier for the World Championship. The record-holder for scored goals in a single Euro Championship is Kiril Lazarov. He scored 61 goals for Macedonia at the 2012 European Men's Handball Championship that took place in Serbia.

1994 Championship

Host: Portugal

Main article: 1994 European Men's Handball Championship

The first championship was held in Portugal in June 1994. The host nation had not managed to qualify for any World Championship thus far, and they finished 12th and last after losing all six games, including 21–38 to Romania in the 11th-place play-off. Sweden became the first European champion after defeating Russia by 34–21 in the final, Russia's heaviest loss in their international history. Both teams had gone through the tournament without loss, but Sweden's fast breaks became the key in the final; they scored 14 of their 34 goals on fast breaks. Swedish middle back Magnus Andersson was named the event's best player and Russian left back Vasily Kudinov was top scorer with 50 goals.

1996 Championship

Host: Spain

Main article: 1996 European Men's Handball Championship

Two years later, the championship moved to Spain, with the same format. This time, no team went through the group stage without giving up points, but Russia and Sweden were to face off once again; this time in the semi-final, and Russia got revenge with a 24–21 win in front of 650 spectators. In the other semi-final, the hosts beat Yugoslavia 27–23, before 7,500 spectators littered the arena in Sevilla to watch the hosts go down by one goal despite the efforts of Talant Dujshebaev, a Kyrgyz-born back player who had played for Russia in 1994 but who now turned out for Spain. Federal Republic of Yugoslavia participated for the first time and finished third.

1998 Championship

Host: Italy

Main article: 1998 European Men's Handball Championship

In 1998 the Championship was held in Italy, whose appearance at the 1997 World Championship was their first (and to date, only) at the top level of international handball. Spain went through the first six matches of the tournament unbeaten, while their opponents Sweden had won the first four games before becoming the first team to lose to hosts Italy. However, in the final, Sweden were too strong and won by 25–23 after having led by 15–9 at half-time in front of 6,100 spectators in Bolzano.

2000 Championship

Host: Croatia

Main article: 2000 European Men's Handball Championship

Two years later, the Championship was held in the Croatian cities of Zagreb and Rijeka. By now, the Championship had been moved back to January in the middle of the European handball season. The Championship acted as an Olympic qualifier, and hosts Croatia, who had won the 1996 Olympics, needed to finish in the top five to qualify. They lost to Spain and drew with France in the group stage, which sent them into a fifth-place play-off with neighbours Slovenia. 10,000 spectators watched as Slovenia prevailed by one goal and qualified for the Sydney Games. The two teams who had won European Championships before, Sweden and Russia, qualified for the final – Sweden had won the group stage match 28–25, but Russia took a six-goal lead at half-time. Sweden came back to tie the game at full-time, and two 10-minute extra periods were required before Sweden won 32–31 after Magnus Wislander scored the deciding goal.

2002 Championship

Host: Sweden

Main article: 2002 European Men's Handball Championship

Three-time champions Sweden were the next to host the European Championship, in 2002. This was the first tournament with 16 teams, an expansion from 12 in the previous four instalments. The Swedes won their first seven matches, and had already qualified for the semi-finals when they lost 26–27 to Denmark, having led 17–11 at half time. In the other main round group, Iceland became the third Nordic team to qualify after defeating Germany in the final match, but both Denmark and Iceland were soundly beaten in the semi-finals – Denmark lost 23–28 to Germany, while Sweden defeated Iceland by 11 goals. Sweden thus qualified for their fourth final in five attempts, and in front of 14,300 spectators in Stockholm Globe, they came back from a one-goal deficit when Staffan Olsson equalised with five seconds to spare. Sweden had substituted their goalkeeper, and Florian Kehrmann replied with a goal in an empty net, but it was disallowed because the referees had not started play after the Swedish goal. In the extra time, Sweden held on, and could celebrate their fourth title.

2004 Championship

Host: Slovenia

Main article: 2004 European Men's Handball Championship

Sweden's row of three successive Championships was broken in Slovenia in 2004, when Germany won despite not being touted as a medal candidate by news agency Deutsche Presse Agentur. Germany suffered an early defeat to Serbia and Montenegro, and qualified for the main round as the third and final team from their group, having drawn with France as well. However, as the favourites beat each other in Germany's main round group, Germany qualified for the semi-finals in first place from the six-team group. In the other group, Croatia, who won the other group, had not lost any of their first seven games, while Denmark also had four successive wins.

Croatia faced hosts Slovenia in the semi-final, and the clash of the two Balkan neighbours saw heightened security measures. 7,000 spectators in the Hall Tivoli saw that the hosts became the first team to beat Croatia in this tournament despite 12 goals from Croatian right winger Mirza Džomba who was reputed to be the best handball player in the world at the time. Denmark, who had reached their second successive semi-final, once again had to bow out at this stage, as they lost 20–22 to Germany in what was described as a "hard-fought victory." Germany won the final more convincingly; a 16–10 lead at half time was never squandered, as Slovenia only got within three goals in the second half, and eventually lost 25–30.

2006 Championship

Host: Switzerland

Main article: 2006 European Men's Handball Championship

The 2006 tournament was held in Switzerland, in the cities of Basel, Bern, Lucerne, St Gallen and Zürich. France won the tournament, going through with one solitary loss – a 26–29 defeat to Spain in the preliminary round (where France trailed by eight goals at half-time). Defending champions Germany was also in this preliminary group, and this time taking one point through from the group stage would not be enough for Germany. Despite winning all three main round games, so did France and Spain, and those two teams qualified for the semi-finals from Group I. From the other group, Croatia qualified in first place after a 34–30 victory over Serbia and Montenegro in the last match. Later that evening, Denmark beat Russia and qualified for their third successive semi-final, one point behind Croatia. However, the Group II teams were both defeated by Group I teams, causing France and Spain to meet again in the final. In the third-place play-off, Croatia surprisingly lost to Denmark, while the final saw France prevail by eight goals to win their first European Championship

2008 Championship

Host: Norway

Main article: 2008 European Men's Handball Championship

Norway was the host country for the 2008 tournament. Matches were played in Bergen, Drammen, Lillehammer, Stavanger and Trondheim. Croatia, Norway, Hungary and France won their preliminary groups, but two of the teams failed to utilise their advantage; Norway drew with Poland and lost to Slovenia, and needed to beat Croatia in the final match of the group stage. Instead, Ivano Balić scored the 23–22 goal with twenty seconds to spare, and only a late equaliser gave Norway third place in the group. Hungary, Spain and Germany had all gone through with two points from Group C, and Germany sealed their qualification with a two-goal win over Sweden in a match where a draw would have been enough for the Swedes. In the first semifinal Croatia played France in a game dominated by strong defense by both teams, with the Croats achieving a three-goal lead twice, only to see France come back strong. Croatia goalkeeper Mirko Alilović saved a shot from Nikola Karabatic with six seconds to go as Croatia won 24–23. Denmark came back from 7–12 down to beat Germany, despite the Germans equalising within the final minute, as Lars Christiansen slotted home a penalty shot with three seconds remaining. Croatia started off well in the final, scoring the first four goals, but with eight saves more from Denmark's keeper, Kasper Hvidt, Denmark won 24–20 and took their first major trophy.

2010 Championship

Host: Austria

Main articles: 2010 European Men's Handball Championship and 2010 European Men's Handball Championship qualification

2012 Championship

Host: Serbia

Main articles: 2012 European Men's Handball Championship and 2012 European Men's Handball Championship qualification

2014 Championship

Host: Denmark

Main article: 2014 European Men's Handball Championship

2016 Championship

Host: Poland

Main article: 2016 European Men's Handball Championship

2018 Championship

Host: Croatia

Main article: 2018 European Men's Handball Championship

2020 Championship

Host: Austria / Norway / Sweden

Main article: 2020 European Men's Handball Championship

Statistics

Year	Host	Final			Third place match
		Winner	Score	Runner-up	Third place	Score	Fourth place
1994	Portugal	Sweden	34–21	Russia	Croatia	24–23	Denmark
1996	Spain	Russia	23–22	Spain	Yugoslavia	26–25	Sweden
1998	Italy	Sweden	25–23	Spain	Germany	30–28 aet	Russia
2000	Croatia	Sweden	32–31	Russia	Spain	24–23	France
2002	Sweden	Sweden	33–31	Germany	Denmark	29–22	Iceland
2004	Slovenia	Germany	30–25	Slovenia	Denmark	31–27	Croatia
2006	Switzerland	France	31–23	Spain	Denmark	32–27	Croatia
2008	Norway	Denmark	24–20	Croatia	France	36–26	Germany
2010	Austria	France	25–21	Croatia	Iceland	29–26	Poland
2012	Serbia	Denmark	21–19	Serbia	Croatia	31–27	Spain
2014	Denmark	France	41–32	Denmark	Spain	29–28	Croatia
2016	Poland	Germany	24–17	Spain	Croatia	31–24	Norway
2018	Croatia
2020	Austria Norway Sweden

¹No extra time played.

• Key:
  • aet - after extra time
  • ps - after penalty shootout

Medal count

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Sweden	4	0	0	4
2	France	3	0	1	4
3	Denmark	2	1	3	6
4	Russia	1	2	0	3
5	Germany	1	1	1	3
6	Spain	0	3	2	5
7	Croatia	0	2	2	4
8	Serbia	0	1	1	2
9	Slovenia	0	1	0	1
10	Iceland	0	0	1	1

Total hosts

Hosts	Nations (Year(s)
2	Austria (2010, 2020) Croatia (2000, 2018) Norway (2008, 2020) Sweden (2002, 2020)
1	Denmark (2014) Italy (1998) Poland (2016) Portugal (1994) Serbia (2012) Slovenia (2004) Spain (1996) Switzerland (2006)

Top scorers by tournament

Year	Player	Goals
1994	Vasily Kudinov	50
1996	Thomas Knorr	41
1998	Jan Filip	48
2000	Oleg Velyky	46
2002	Stefan Lövgren Ólafur Stefánsson	57
2004	Mirza Džomba	46
2006	Siarhei Rutenka	51
2008	Ivano Balić Nikola Karabatić Lars Christiansen	44
2010	Filip Jícha	53
2012	Kiril Lazarov	61
2014	Joan Cañellas	50

Summary

Participation details

Main article: National team appearances in the European Men's Handball Championship

This article lists the performances of each of the 26 national teams which have made at least one appearance in the European Men's Handball Championship finals.

Debut of teams

Each successive European Men's Handball Championship has had at least one team appearing for the first time. Teams in parentheses are considered successor teams by IHF.

Year	Debutants Qualification	First debut at Championship	Number of Debutants	Debutants Championship	Number of Debutants
1994 Qual.	Austria Belarus Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Israel Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Moldova Netherlands Norway Poland Romania Russia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine		34	Belarus Croatia Denmark France Germany Hungary Portugal Romania Russia Slovenia Spain Sweden	4
1996 Qual.	Azerbaijan Bosnia and Herzegovina Macedonia Portugal FR Yugoslavia		5	Czech Republic FR Yugoslavia	2
1998 Qual.				Italy Lithuania Macedonia	3
2000 Qual.				Iceland Norway Ukraine	3
2002 Qual.	Faroe Islands		1	Israel Poland Switzerland	3
2004 Qual.					0
2006 Qual.				Slovakia	1
2008 Qual.	Montenegro (Serbia)		1 (+1)	Montenegro	1
2010 Qual.				Austria (Serbia)	1 (+1)
2012 Qual.	Great Britain		1		0
2014 Qual.	Ireland Malta		2		0
2016 Qual.					0

Participation details

Legend

• 1st – Champions
• 2nd – Runners-up
• 3rd – Third place
• 4th – Fourth place
• 5th – Fifth place
• 6th – Sixth place
• 7th – Seventh place
• 8th – Eighth place
• 9th – Ninth place
• 10th – Tenth place
• 11th – Eleventh place
• 12th – Twelfth place
• MR – Main round
• GS – Group stage
• Q – Qualified for upcoming tournament
• q – may still qualify for upcoming tournament
•  •  – Did not qualify
•  •×  – Disqualified
•  ×  – Did not enter / Withdrew / Banned
•    – Hosts

For each tournament, the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown.

Team	1994 (12)	1996 (12)	1998 (12)	2000 (12)	2002 (16)	2004 (16)	2006 (16)	2008 (16)	2010 (16)	2012 (16)	2014 (16)	2016 (16)	Attempts
Austria	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	9th	•	11th	•	12 → 2
Belarus	8th	•	•	•	•	•	•	15th	•	•	12th	10th	12 → 4
Croatia	3rd	5th	8th	6th	16th	4th	4th	2nd	2nd	3rd	4th	3rd	12 → 12
Czech Republic	•	6th	10th	•	8th	11th	•	13th	8th	14th	15th	•	12 → 8
Denmark	4th	12th	•	10th	3rd	3rd	3rd	1st	5th	1st	2nd	6th	12 → 11
France	6th	7th	7th	4th	6th	6th	1st	3rd	1st	11th	1st	5th	12 → 12
Germany	9th	8th	3rd	9th	2nd	1st	5th	4th	10th	7th	•	1st	12 → 11
Hungary	7th	10th	6th	•	•	9th	13th	8th	14th	8th	8th	12th	12 → 10
Iceland	•	•	•	11th	4th	13th	7th	11th	3rd	10th	5th	13th	12 → 9
Israel	•	•	•	•	14th	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	12 → 1
Italy	•	•	11th	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	12 → 1
Lithuania	•	•	9th	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	12 → 1
Macedonia	x	•	12th	•	•	•	•	•	•	5th	10th	11th	11 → 4
Montenegro	Part of Serbia and Montenegro							12th	•	•	16th	16th	5 → 3
Norway	•	•	•	8th	•	•	11th	6th	7th	13th	14th	4th	12 → 7
Poland	•	•	•	•	15th	16th	10th	7th	4th	9th	6th	7th	12 → 8
Portugal	12th	•	•	7th	9th	14th	15th	•	•	•	•	•	12 → 5
Romania	11th	9th	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	12 → 2
Russia	2nd	1st	4th	2nd	5th	5th	6th	14th	12th	15th	9th	9th	12 → 12
Serbia 1	Part of Serbia and Montenegro							•	13th	2nd	13th	15th	5 → 4
Slovakia	•	•	•	•	•	•	16th	16th	•	16th	•	•	12 → 3
Slovenia	10th	11th	•	5th	12th	2nd	8th	10th	11th	6th	•	14th	12 → 10
Spain	5th	2nd	2nd	3rd	7th	10th	2nd	9th	6th	4th	3rd	2nd	12 → 12
Sweden	1st	4th	1st	1st	1st	7th	•	5th	15th	12th	7th	8th	12 → 11
Switzerland	•	•	•	•	13th	12th	14th	•	•	•	•	•	12 → 3
Ukraine	•	•	•	12th	11th	15th	12th	•	16th	•	•	•	12 → 5
Yugoslavia Serbia and Montenegro1	x	3rd	5th	•	10th	8th	9th						6 → 5

¹ FR Yugoslavia competed as such until 2003 when the FRY was reconstituted as a State Union Serbia and Montenegro. Since the dissolution of the union in 2006, national teams exist for both countries.

Results of host nations

Year	Host Nation	Finish
1994	Portugal	12th place
1996	Spain	Runners-up
1998	Italy	11th place
2000	Croatia	6th place
2002	Sweden	Champions
2004	Slovenia	Runners-up
2006	Switzerland	Group Stage
2008	Norway	6th place
2010	Austria	Main Round
2012	Serbia	Runners-up
2014	Denmark	Runners-up
2016	Poland	7th place

Results of defending champions

Year	Defending champions	Finish	Defending runners-ups	Finish
1996	Sweden	Fourth place	Russia	Champions
1998	Russia	Fourth place	Spain	Runners-up
2000	Sweden	Champions	Spain	Third place
2002	Sweden	Champions	Russia	5th place
2004	Sweden	7th place	Germany	Champions
2006	Germany	5th place	Slovenia	Main Round
2008	France	Third place	Spain	Main Round
2010	Denmark	5th place	Croatia	Runners-up
2012	France	11th place	Croatia	Third place
2014	Denmark	Runners-up	Serbia	Group Stage
2016	France	5th place	Denmark	6th place

References

General statistics

Team	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	Dif
Sweden	43	35	0	8	524	447	+77
Russia	42	30	4	8	523	456	+67
Spain	40	25	2	13	502	438	+64
Germany	41	20	6	15	443	426	+17
Serbia	38	18	5	14	582	559	+23
Croatia	36	17	4	15	464	461	+3
France	32	14	5	13	442	442	0
Denmark	35	17	2	16	282	310	−28
Hungary	24	9	2	12	417	443	−26
Czech Republic	25	8	1	16	320	322	−2
Portugal	22	6	1	15	117	154	−37
Slovenia	33	10	4	19	232	278	−46
Romania	12	4	0	8	296	317	−21
Iceland	17	4	3	10	1	4	−3
Belarus	6	2	0	4	154	167	−13
Lithuania	6	2	1	3	138	151	−13
Italy	6	2	0	4	133	148	−15
Ukraine	16	2	1	13	1	3	−2
Norway	6	1	1	4	8	17	−9
Macedonia	13	4	2	7	315	349	−34
Switzerland	9	1	1	7	1	5	−4
Poland	6	0	0	6	1	5	−4
Israel	3	0	0	3	1	4	−3

Last updated: 29 January 2012.

External links

• Official homepage of the European Handball Federation
• Handball-Bundesliga diskutiert Reduzierung auf 16 Teams, from Der Spiegel (German)