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.[2] 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,[3] a first in handball history while Qatar won their first ever medal.[4]Poland captured the bronze medal by defeating Spain 29–28 after extra time.[5] 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.
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:
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a decision taken by the International Handball Federation on 8 July 2014 the spot allocated for a nation from Oceania was revoked on the grounds that Oceania has no continental confederation.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.[7] Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates withdrew on 7 November 2014.[8][9] Iceland and Saudi Arabia were chosen as the replacements.[10]
The draw was held on 20 July 2014 at 21:30 local time in Doha, Qatar.[11][12]
The seedings were published on 11 July 2014.[13]
Each team selects 16 players for the tournament.
18 referee pairs are selected:[14]
The schedule was published on 21 August 2014.[15][16] A new schedule was released on 12 December 2014.[17][18] The top four teams from each group advanced to the knockout stage.
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:[19]
All times are local (UTC+3).
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 Macedonia.
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.[7][8][9]
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.[20][21] 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.[22]
Head of the Qatar Handball Federation, Ahmed Mohammed Abdulrab Al Shaabi, acknowledged the policy in a statement in June 2013, saying "We're a small nation with limited human resources, so we had to bring players from outside in the past." He also announced an end to the policy at the time, adding however that they "[might] make an exception only in the case of an experienced goalkeeper."[23] In January 2014, Danish sports agent Mads Winther said he had met with "contacts involved with Qatar" regarding the possibility of naturalising Danish players.[24]
The practice was criticised by Austrian goalkeeper after his team's loss to Qatar in the round of 16, saying "It [felt] like playing against a world selection team" and "I think it is not the sense of a world championship."[25] At a press conference during the championship, Qatar head coach Valero Rivera declined to comment on the matter.[25] Spanish player Joan Cañellas did not think it was an issue, saying "If they can do it, why not."[21]
After the controversial semi-final against Poland, and reaching the final as a result, the practice was even more criticised, with players such as Danijel Šarić having now represented four different national teams.[26]
Qatar flew in about 60 Spanish fans to cheer for Qatar during the championship.[27]
During the first 12 matches of the tournament, 143 two-minute suspensions were awarded by the referees, a figure that came under strong criticism from teams, who had not been informed of the IHF Referee Committee's instructions to referees commanding them to keep a strict disciplinary line.[28]
The referees were widely accused of being one-sided in favour of the hosts. Especially at the matches against Austria,[29][30][31] Germany[29][32][33] and Poland.[34][35][36][37] After the final whistle, the Polish players showed their discontent by ironically applauding the three referees.[38][39]
They shall not have played in any national team of another country in the three years preceding their first appearance in the national team in an official match.