ZURICH, SWITZERLAND
The draw for the Women’s EHF EURO 2024 Qualifiers took place on 20 April in Zürich, Switzerland. A total of 31 teams are in the running for the 20 places available at the final tournament, where they will join co-hosts Austria, Hungary and Switzerland and defending champions Norway.
The Women’s EHF EURO 2024 will be the first edition of the European championships with 24 teams, with the preliminary round set to take place in Basel (Switzerland), Innsbruck (Austria) and Debrecen (Hungary). The main round will be played in Debrecen and Vienna, with two groups of six, and Vienna is also the location for the final weekend between 13 and 15 December 2024.
The teams were drawn into seven groups of four teams and one group of three, owing to the withdrawal of Great Britain from the Qualifiers.
Many of the Qualifiers groups sees local rivalries to the fore: EHF EURO 2022 bronze medallists Montenegro play neighbours Serbia as well as Türkiye and Bulgaria in group 6. Bulgaria shares a border with both Serbia and Türkiye. Similarly, Croatia and neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina are drawn in group 1 alongside Romania and Greece.
Group 7 has a heavy Nordic flavour, with Sweden, Iceland and the Faroe Islands set to play each other alongside Luxembourg.
The first two rounds of the Qualifiers took place in October 2023, with several teams picking up two wins to put themselves in strong positions ahead of rounds 3 and 4 at the end of February 2024. Serbia and Türkiye were the only teams to draw.
The top two teams in each group, plus the four best third-placed teams, will qualify for the final tournament.
