The World Championship qualifiers began in October, with three sides — Kosovo, Latvia and Türkiye — progressing from phase 1. Phase 2 will take place in March, with those three teams plus 13 others meeting for two-leg play-offs to decide who joins the teams ranked seventh to 18th at the Men’s EHF EURO 2026 in phase 3.
The 13 teams joining the race in phase 2 are Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovakia, Lithuania, Belgium, Finland and Israel.
The teams ranked seventh to 18th at the EURO, and thus starting their qualification campaigns in phase 3, were France, Slovenia, Norway, Hungary, Spain, Switzerland, Faroe Islands, North Macedonia, Netherlands, Austria, Czechia and Italy.
Draw results for 2027 Men's World Championship European qualification phase 3:
- winner Ukraine vs Slovakia vs North Macedonia*
- winner Bosnia and Herzegovina vs Kosovo vs Faroe Islands
- Czechia vs France
- Switzerland vs Italy
- winner Finland vs Montenegro vs Slovenia
- winner Serbia vs Lithuania vs Hungary
- Spain vs winner Georgia vs Israel
- winner Greece vs Belgium vs Netherlands
- Norway vs Türkiye vs Romania
- Austria vs winner Poland vs Latvia
The two-leg play-offs are scheduled for 13–14 and 16–17 May 2026. The aggregate winners qualify for the World Championship, which will be held in January 2027.
The hosts Germany and defending title holders Denmark were qualified prior to the EHF EURO 2026. With four of Europe’s total 14 places decided through the final ranking at the EURO and Germany and Denmark among the semi-finalists, the other two semi-finalists plus the teams in the 5/6 placement match — Croatia, Iceland, Portugal and Sweden — secured the World Championship places.
*The home right for this match was drawn again as part of the draw for the EHF European Cup Women quarter-finals (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbMwGRhsDb0). While the tie as such was drawn correctly, the home right was not correctly allocated.
