2011 World Men's Handball Championship – European qualification
This page describes the European zone qualifying procedure for the 2011 World Men's Handball Championship. Qualification system. Seeding. The draw for the qualification round was held on 6 August 2009 at the EHF headquarters, in Vienna. Sweden (host nation), and France (defending champion), are directly qualified. The top 3 participants at the 2010 European Men's Handball Championship, excluding Sweden and France will also qualify for the final tournament, while the other 11 participants are guaranteed a place in the Play-Off Round. The remaining 23 teams were divided into several  pots according to their positions in the 2010 European Men's Handball Championship qualification, and were successfully drawn so that each qualification group contained one team from pots 1 to 3. Groups 1 and 2 will also comprise one team from pot 4. 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. Qualification Round. Each group will take place on the court of the third seeded team. In case the third seeded team can't organize the qualification tournament, the first seed will take  its place. The winner of each group qualifies for the play-off matches, which will be played on 12/13 June and 19/20 June 2010. Play-Off Round. Will take place on the 12/13 June and 19/20 June 2010. It will comprise 18 teams overall: The draw for the Play-Off Round will take place on 31 January 2010, in Vienna. Seeding will be based on teams appearance and record on 2010 European Men's Handball Championship.