The historic European Championship, in which Debrecen will also be the protagonist, was presented – with video
MTI reports that the joint Hungarian-Austrian-Swiss continental tournament, which will take place in two years, will take place in Ljubljana, the site of the European Women’s Handball Championship.
During the presentation on Saturday afternoon, it was announced that the next tournament will take place between November 28 and December 15, 2024 in the 20,022-seat MVM Dome in Budapest, the Phoenix Arena in Debrecen (6,500), the Olympiahalle in Innsbruck (8,000) and the Basel in St. Jakobshalle (12,400). Group matches will take place in all four cities, the semi-finals will take place in Budapest and Debrecen, and the final weekend will take place in the Hungarian capital. The Hungarian national team plays all matches in Budapest.
The 16th Women’s European Championship will be the first in which 24 national teams will participate instead of the current 16, so a total of 65 matches will be played – 41 of which will be in Hungary – in two and a half weeks.
The draw for the qualifiers of the tournament, which will take place in two years, will be held next spring, and the group stage will be held in May 2024.
On Saturday, the emblem of the 2024 tournament was also presented, which represents a ball hitting the net, the common national colors of the three countries, red and white, as well as the green of the Hungarian tricolor.
As mentioned, the three countries are experienced organizers of European handball: Austria alone in 2010, together with Sweden and Norway in 2020, and Switzerland alone hosted the men’s European Championship in 2006. Hungary will host the continent’s best for the third time, and the women’s tournament returns every ten years: in 2004, the Hungarians were the independent organizers, and in 2014, together with the Croatians.
Since the home team and the defending champion do not have to play qualifiers, the Hungarian, Austrian and Swiss national teams, as well as the winner of Sunday’s final in Ljubljana, will prepare for the next continental tournament within the framework of the Eurocup.
At the end of the ceremonial event, the leaders of the handball federations of the current three hosts, Slovenia, Montenegro and North Macedonia, as well as the leaders of the European Federation (EHF), handed over the flag of the continental tournament to the next three hosts, the Hungarian Federation, to Gabriella Horváth, Secretary General.
“We wanted to present the plans along which the organization was started,” Gabriella Horváth would have said on the spot. He added: preparations are already underway, so far the collaborations have mainly involved promotion and marketing elements.
He added that he is not worried about the attendance of the match, as it was confirmed at the men’s European Championship in January this year that handball is a very popular sport in Hungary. As an example, he mentioned that
There were sold-out matches in Szeged and near-sold-out matches in Debrecen, even though the Hungarian national team did not play there, the MVM Dome was full for its matches.
A member of the EHF executive committee commented on possible accompanying programs, now I want to be careful with promises.
“The coronavirus epidemic may be over, but a completely different situation has come, brought about by the war taking place next to us and the energy crisis. If the economy is going like this, we would definitely like to go in the direction of enjoying the European Championship as much as possible, but I don’t think that can be said in this situation yet,” said Horváth.