2019 World Women's Handball Championship
The 2019 IHF World Women's Handball Championship, the 24th event hosted by the International Handball Federation, was held in Japan from 30 November to 15 December 2019. The Netherlands won their first title after defeating Spain in the final. Venues. Kumamoto region was entrusted with the organization of the World Championship. Additionally the Japanese Organizing Committee will have a venue in Tokyo in order to prepare for the 2020 Olympic Games. Kumamoto has had a lot of experience with handball tournaments, hosting the 1997 Men's World Championships. Qualification. 1. If countries from  Oceania (Australia or New Zealand) participating in the Asian Championships finished within the top 5, they qualified for the World Championships. If they placed sixth or lower, the place would have been transferred to the wild card spot. Draw. The draw was held on 21 June 2019 in Tokyo, Japan. Seeding. The seeding was announced on 19 June 2019. As organizer, Japan had the right to choose their group. Referees. 17 referee pairs were selected. Squads. Each team consisted of up to 28 players, of whom 16 may be fielded for each match. Preliminary round. The schedule was announced on  3 July 2019. Tiebreakers. In the group stage, teams were ranked according to points (2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). After completion of the group stage, if two or more teams had scored the same number of points, the ranking was determined as follows: If the ranking of one of these teams is determined, the above criteria are consecutively followed until the ranking of all teams is determined. If no ranking can be determined, a decision shall be obtained by IHF through drawing of lots. During the group stage, only criteria  4–5 applied to determine the provisional ranking of teams. "All times are local (UTC+9)." Main round. Group I. <onlyinclude></onlyinclude> Group II. <onlyinclude></onlyinclude> Final ranking. All Star Team. The All Star Team and MVP was announced on 15 December 2019.