2010 European Men's Handball Championship qualification

This page describes the qualifying procedure for the 2010 European Men's Handball Championship.

The 2010 European Men's Handball Championship qualification matches took place from October 2008 to June 2009. In a new format approved by the European Handball Federation (EHF), only Austria (host nation) and Denmark (defending champion) qualified automatically for the final tournament, while all other national teams had to play the qualification round to reach the European Championship.

Qualification system

For the 2010 European Championship, a new qualification system was used for the first time, following its approval by the European Handball Federation (EHF) at its 9th extraordinary congress, in Lillehammer, Norway, on January 26, 2008.^[1] Under this new system, all participating national teams, except the host country and defending champion teams, had to play the qualification round in order to reach the final round tournament.^[2]

Sixteen teams were to participate in the final tournament in Austria, whose team qualified directly by virtue of being the host nation, along with Denmark, the 2008 champion. From EHF's 50 member federations, 38 had initially registered for the qualification matches, but with the withdrawal of Georgia and Moldova, only 36 teams played for the 14 final places still available. These teams were drawn into six groups of five teams and one group of six teams. Each team played twice against all the other teams in its group, in a home-and-away basis, and at the completion of all matches, the top two teams from each group qualify for the final tournament.^[3]

Seeding

The draw for the qualification round was held on April 18, 2008, during the EHF Competitions Conference, in Vienna.^[2] Teams were allocated to several pots according to EHF's national team ranking, and were successfully drawn so that each qualification group contained one team from each pot. Teams ranked 1–4 were drawn into one of the five-team groups.^[3]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4	Pot 5	Pot 6
France  Germany  Croatia  Spain  Poland  Russia  Iceland	Slovenia  Norway  Hungary  Sweden  Serbia  Czech Republic  Ukraine	Slovakia   Switzerland  Portugal  Belarus  Romania  Lithuania  Macedonia	Greece  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Latvia  Netherlands  Israel  Montenegro  Estonia	Finland  Bulgaria  Italy  Turkey  Belgium  Cyprus  Luxembourg	Georgia  Moldova  Faroe Islands

 Austria are already assured of places at Euro 2010 as host nations.

Note

^ Georgia and Moldova registered for participation in the qualification matches and were drawn into Group 1 and Group 3, respectively, but ended up withdrawing from the qualification.^[3]

Tiebreakers

If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings.

1. Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question.
2. Superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question.
3. Higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question.
4. If, after applying criteria 1) to 3) to several teams, two or more teams still have an equal ranking, the criteria 1) to 3) will be reapplied to determine the ranking of these teams. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5), 6) and 7) will apply.
5. Superior goal difference from all group matches played.
6. Higher number of goals scored in all group matches played.
7. Drawing of lots.

Summary

Below is a table containing all seven qualifying groups. Teams that have secured a place in the final tournament are highlighted in green. The order of teams is by final group position.

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	Group 5	Group 6	Group 7
Sweden  Poland	Russia  Serbia	Iceland  Norway	Croatia  Hungary	Germany  Slovenia	France  Czech Republic	Spain  Ukraine
Montenegro  Romania  Turkey	Bosnia and Herzegovina   Switzerland  Italy  Faroe Islands	Macedonia  Estonia  Belgium	Slovakia  Greece  Finland	Belarus  Israel  Bulgaria	Portugal  Latvia  Luxembourg	Netherlands  Lithuania  Cyprus

Groups

The qualifying process started in October 2008. Austria was granted places in the tournament finals as host nations.

The draw for the qualification round defined the groups shown below. A provisional match schedule was elaborated and distributed to all national federations taking part in this round, and following negotiations a final schedule was approved.^[4] The qualification matches began on October 29, 2008, and ended on June 21, 2009.^[5]

Key:

• Teams highlighted in green qualified for the finals.

Group 1

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Sweden 8 6 2 0 251 200 +51 14  Poland 8 5 1 2 242 198 +44 11  Montenegro 8 4 0 4 229 240 −11 8  Romania 8 3 1 4 242 247 -5 7  Turkey 8 0 0 8 193 272 −79 0

Sweden  – 27 : 24 29 : 24 26 : 26 42 : 18 Poland  32 : 32 – 30 : 20 34 : 22 32 : 21 Montenegro  29 : 33 23 : 31 – 35 : 33 33 : 26 Romania  29 : 36 33 : 29 27 : 28 – 37 : 30 Turkey  18 : 26 20 : 30 31 : 37 29 : 35 –

Group 2

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Russia 10 9 0 1 339 249 +90 18  Serbia 10 7 1 2 351 272 +79 15  Bosnia and Herzegovina 10 6 1 3 298 278 +20 13   Switzerland 10 4 1 5 295 288 +7 9  Italy 10 2 1 7 251 313 −62 5  Faroe Islands 10 0 0 10 212 346 −134 0

Russia  – 35 : 31 35 : 29 37 : 25 38 : 19 37 : 16 Serbia  35 : 29 – 35 : 27 28 : 23 48 : 24 39 : 20 Switzerland   30 : 31 32 : 32 – 31 : 34 28 : 20 35 : 21 Bosnia and Herzegovina  23 : 29 31 : 28 34 : 23 – 31 : 28 45 : 28 Italy  23 : 34 31 : 34 23 : 30 25 : 25 – 30 : 23 Faroe Islands  18 : 34 20 : 41 23 : 30 21 : 27 22 : 28 –

Group 3

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Iceland 8 5 3 0 264 212 +52 13  Norway 8 5 2 1 266 226 +40 12  Macedonia 8 4 1 3 231 223 +8 9  Estonia 8 2 2 4 213 238 −25 6  Belgium 8 0 0 8 196 271 −75 0

Iceland  – 34 : 34 34 : 26 38 : 24 40 : 21 Norway  31 : 31 – 36 : 30 31 : 23 35 : 24 Macedonia  26 : 29 30 : 29 – 31 : 22 33 : 26 Estonia  25 : 25 25 : 33 28 : 28 – 37 : 28 Belgium  25 : 33 29 : 37 19 : 27 25 : 29 –

Group 4

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Croatia 8 7 0 1 252 180 +72 14  Hungary 8 6 0 2 241 179 +62 12  Slovakia 8 4 0 4 214 215 -1 8  Greece 8 3 0 5 199 223 -24 6  Finland 8 0 0 8 159 268 −109 0

Croatia  – 26 : 25 34 : 21 32 : 20 39 : 20 Hungary  30 : 28 – 29 : 30 32 : 19 34 : 15 Slovakia  26 : 30 19 : 30 – 28 : 27 34 : 21 Greece  24 : 29 21 : 27 27 : 24 – 31 : 26 Finland  14 : 34 21 : 34 17 : 32 25 : 30 –

Group 5

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Germany 8 8 0 0 300 191 +109 16  Slovenia 8 6 0 2 293 221 +72 12  Belarus 8 4 0 4 253 233 +20 8  Israel 8 2 0 6 222 269 −47 4  Bulgaria 8 0 0 8 168 322 −154 0

Germany  – 38 : 30 38 : 27 36 : 24 42 : 11 Slovenia  26 : 27 – 38 : 26 40 : 27 47 : 20 Belarus  23 : 25 32 : 36 – 38 : 31 36 : 18 Israel  21 : 40 28 : 36 28 : 31 – 29 : 20 Bulgaria  29 : 54 23 : 40 19 : 40 28 : 34 –

Group 6

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  France 8 6 0 2 251 192 +59 12  Czech Republic 8 6 0 2 255 221 +34 12  Portugal 8 5 0 3 234 229 +5 10  Latvia 8 3 0 5 227 249 −22 6  Luxembourg 8 0 0 8 182 258 −76 0

France  – 32 : 25 36 : 23 34 : 22 35 : 18 Czech Republic  32 : 29 – 30 : 26 41 : 29 30 : 19 Portugal  24 : 31 31 : 28 – 33 : 31 33 : 22 Latvia  27 : 24 31 : 34 25 : 31 – 31 : 29 Luxembourg  21 : 30 24 : 35 26 : 33 23 : 31 –

Group 7

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Spain 8 7 0 1 247 189 +58 14  Ukraine 8 5 0 3 205 192 +18 10  Netherlands 8 3 2 3 215 190 +25 8  Lithuania 8 3 2 3 194 194 0 8  Cyprus 8 0 0 8 166 262 −96 0

Spain  – 30 : 21 31 : 21 32 : 29 32 : 20 Ukraine  25 : 23 – 24 : 23 25 : 18 28 : 21 Lithuania  22 : 28 30 : 25 – 19 : 19 26 : 22 Netherlands  26 : 35 24 : 19 25 : 25 – 40 : 16 Cyprus  25 : 36 23 : 38 20 : 28 19 : 34 –

Notes on the tie-breaking situation:

• Netherlands and Lithuania are tied on their head-to-head records, and are thus ranked by their overall goal difference in the group:
  • Netherlands – 2 pts, 0GD, 0GF, 0 away goals (25–25 H vs Lithuania, 19–19 A vs Lithuania) – Overall GD = +25
  • Lithuania – 2 pts, 0GD, 0GF, 0 away goals (19–19 H vs Netherlands, 25–25 A vs Netherlands) – Overall GD = 0

References

1. "EURO 2010 Qualification". Men's EURO 2010. EHF. Archived from the original on 21 December 2008. Retrieved December 26, 2008.
2. "Technical Information: Competition". Men's EURO 2010. EHF. Retrieved December 26, 2008.
3. "EURO 2010 Qualification Groups". Men's EURO 2010. EHF. Archived from the original on 20 December 2008. Retrieved December 26, 2008.
4. "Qualification schedule". Men's EURO 2010. EHF. June 6, 2006. Retrieved December 27, 2008.
5. "Technical information: Qualifications timetable". Men's EURO 2010. EHF. Archived from the original on 20 December 2008. Retrieved December 26, 2008.

External links

• Official website
• European Handball Federation (EHF)