2022 European Men's Handball Championship
The 2022 EHF European Men's Handball Championship was the 15th edition of the tournament and the second to feature 24 national teams. It was co-hosted in two countries – Hungary and Slovakia – from 13 to 30 January 2022. It was won by Sweden. The games in Hungary were played with full capacity, while the games in Slovakia were capped at 25% capacity, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bid process. Bidding timeline. The bidding timeline was as follows: Bids. On 4 May 2017 it was announced that the following nations had sent in an  official expression of interest: However, when the deadline for submitting the final bids was over, the following applications had been received: Host selection. On 20 June at the 14th ordinary EHF Congress held in Glasgow, Hungary and Slovakia were selected to host the competition. Denmark and Switzerland withdrew their bid shortly before the vote. Venues. Following is a list of all venues and host cities which were used. Qualification. The qualification for the final tournament took place between January 2019 and May 2021. The two host teams, Hungary and Slovakia, and the two best placed teams from the previous championship , Spain and Croatia, were automatically qualified, leaving a total of 40 national teams to compete for the remaining 20 places in the final tournament. The competition consisted of three rounds: two qualification phases and a relegation round. The first qualification phase involved teams that did not participate in the second round of the 2020 qualification tournament. The two best teams advanced to a relegation round, where they were joined by the best European team from the 2019 IHF Emerging Nations Championship and the three worst ranked fourth-placed teams from the second round of the 2020 qualification. The three winners  of the two-legged relegation round matches advanced to the second and last qualifying phase, joining the remaining 21 teams that participated in the 2020 championship and the remaining eight teams that were eliminated in the second round of the 2020 qualification. Those 32 teams were divided into eight groups by four teams, with top two teams and four best ranked third-teams qualifying. Qualified teams. Note: Bold indicates champion for that year. "Italic" indicates host for that year. Marketing. The official logo and slogan was unveiled on 25 January 2020 at the EHF Extraordinary Congress In Stockholm. The logo  includes the national colours of both host nations – red, green, white and blue, forming the handball and an eye, relates closely to the event's motto "Watch Games, See More", highlighting the many opportunities for fans around the six venues. Draw. The draw took place in Budapest on 6 May 2021. Seeding. The seedings were announced on 3 May 2021. The organizing countries had the right to allocate one team to each of the groups they were hosting due to potential spectators' interest. Hungary (assigned to group B) selected Croatia (assigned to group C) and Slovenia (assigned to group A ), while Slovakia (assigned to group F) selected Germany (assigned to group D) and the Czech Republic (assigned to group E). Referees. The referee pairs were selected on 10 September 2021. Two more pairs were selected on 10 January 2022. Squads. Each team consists of up to 20 players, of whom 16 may be fielded for each match. Preliminary round. "All times are local (UTC)." Group C. David Mandić received a blue card in the 47th minute for a punch against the head of Kentin Mahé. He received a one game suspension from the EHF and he missed the next game  against Serbia. Main round. Points and goals gained in the preliminary group against teams that advance will be transferred to the main round. Ranking and statistics. Final ranking. The teams ranked fourth in each group after the completion of the preliminary round matches are ranked 19 to 24, while teams ranked third in each group after the completion of the preliminary round matches are ranked 13 to 18 according to the number of points won in the preliminary round. Places seven and eight are attributed to the two teams ranked fourth in the groups, places nine and ten to the  two teams ranked fifth in the groups and places eleven and twelve to the two teams ranked sixth in the group according to the number of points won by the respective teams after completion of the main round matches. Places five and six will be decided by a play-off, and the top four places by knock-out. All-Star team. The all-star team and MVP were announced on 30 January 2022. Statistics. Top goalkeepers. <small>Source: