The International Handball Federation announced the schedule of matches for the 28th World Men’s Championship, to be hosted by Poland and Sweden from January 11 to 29, 2023.
Qatar, who are in Group E, will start their campaign against Germany on January 13. The Maroons will play their second match two days later against Algeria, before concluding its group stage against Serbia on January 17.
The 32 teams participating in the tournament are divided into eight groups. The top three teams from each group will qualify for the second round (the main round), which will include 24 teams and divided into four groups. The six teams in each group will compete among themselves in a league system of one round, with the first and second placed teams qualifying to the quarter-finals, the start of the playoffs in the tournament.
Qatar qualified for the 2023 World Championship after topping the first group in the main round of the 2022 Asian Men’s Handball Championship, which was held in Saudi Arabia last January. It was Qatar fifth successive Asian as they beat Bahrain 29-24 in the final.
Qatar will participate in the World Championships for the ninth time, after Portugal 2003, Tunisia 2005, Germany 2007, Spain 2013, Qatar 2015, France 2017, Germany, Denmark 2019 and Egypt 2021. Qatar best performance was the second place finish at home in 2015 edition.