Earlier this week, the IHF awarded the two wildcard spots to China and Croatia, completing the 32-team lineup for the 27th Women’s World Championship. Netherlands and Germany will co-host the tournament set to take place from 27th of November to December 14th, 2025.
The official draw will be held next week, on 22 May 18:00 CEST in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. With all the all qualified teams being confirmed, the IHF has announced the draw pots for the tournament.
Pot 1: France, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Montenegro, Danmark, Hungary
Pot 2: Poland, Brazil, Serbia, Romania, Switzerland, Spain, Austria, and Angola
Pot 3: Czechia, Japan, Senegal, Iceland, Argentina, the Faroe Islands, the Republic of Korea, Tunisia
Pot 4: China, Croatia, Egypt, Uruguay, Kazakhstan, Paraguay, Cuba, Iran
Teams will be placed into eight groups of four, based on the seeding. From there, the top three teams in each group will advance to the main round.
The IHF also announced that, in a unanimous decision, they approved local organizing requests to place teams in specific cities and groups. This will place teams with the largest fan bases close to their borders and divide the top nations equally between the host nations.