Croatia, Denmark, and Norway share the hosting of this year's World Championship. Before the draw last year, the host countries also got to place five additional countries in different groups, choices made for geographical reasons.
Germany ended up in Denmark, Sweden was placed in Norway. At the same time, the on-paper weaker teams Austria, Hungary, and Slovenia get to play in Croatia, where four of the eight initial World Championship groups are decided.
"A bit of a problem"
Jim Gottfridsson is critical of the setup:
What can you say? It's still a bit of a problem we have in handball. It's called a draw, but I don't understand how you "draw"...
We could just as well have played in Croatia. But then we end up in a situation where handball thinks it's better for Sweden to play in Norway, because then we sell more tickets. Yes, but... then I don't really know what's most important – is it about the sports or selling tickets?
New for this year's World Championship is, to make matters worse, that the teams on the two halves don't cross paths on the way to the final. This makes Sweden's situation even tougher. On Sweden's half, there are, in addition to Norway and Olympic finalists Denmark and Germany – which were already clear beforehand – also, among others, Olympic bronze medalist Spain.
Only two teams reach the semifinal. Only one team gets to play the final.
It's a tough side we've ended up on, you have to say, says Gottfridsson with a crooked smile.
Premiere against Japan
Among the seven biggest favorites in the World Championship according to bookmakers, only France and Croatia are on the other half.
There have been other championships in recent times where Sweden has had a similarly favorable path in the tournament, so it's not about "Gotte" being a bad loser.
He just wants to see a change in the future.
Sports have developed so much and become so popular. Seeding is one thing, but then we should be able to draw and see what happens, then it feels fair, he says.
Sweden meets Japan in the World Championship premiere in Oslo, at 8:30 pm tonight.
Carl Göransson/TT
Facts: How the Handball World Championship is played
TT
Group A (Herning): Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Switzerland
Group B (Herning): Denmark, Italy, Algeria, Tunisia
Group C (Porec): France, Austria, Qatar, Kuwait
Group D (Varazdin): Hungary, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Guinea
Group E (Oslo): Norway, Portugal, Brazil, USA
Group F (Oslo): Sweden, Spain, Japan, Chile
Group G (Zagreb): Slovenia, Iceland, Cuba, Cape Verde
Group H (Zagreb): Egypt, Croatia, Argentina, Bahrain
The three best teams from each group advance to the intermediate round, which is played in four groups of six teams (groups A and B form one group, as well as C+D, E+F, and G+H).
From the intermediate round, the two best teams in each group advance to the quarterfinal. The teams from Sweden's group in the intermediate round (E+F) will then face teams from Denmark's group (A+B).
