After the Paris Olympic Games, France will once again be able to look forward to a major handball competition at home. This Tuesday at the Maison du Handball in Créteil (Val-de-Marne), a few hours before the draw for the group stage of the Olympic Games, the International Federation (IHF) awarded it the organization of the 2029 Men’s World Championship , along with Germany.
France will therefore host the Men’s World Cup for the fourth time in January 2029, after 1970, 2001 and 2017. The opening match and the final four will take place in Paris, half of the group stages and two quarter-finals in two other French cities remaining to be determined.
“The idea is to make our athletes dream, to offer them a post-Olympic horizon”
Philippe Bana, president of the French Federation
“It was a long journey because we had somewhat forgotten the big events at home, welcomed Philippe Bana, the president of the French Federation (FFHB). The presence of the Games had somewhat numbed our desire to continue what we had done in 2017 and in 2018 (Euro women). We rediscovered the taste for it by spending time in particular with our German friends. We are experiencing the Games before the Games with a tour of twelve cities in France, we are going to experience the Games during the Games with the fan zone at the Maison du Handball. But the Games after the Games, it had to be written. After a while, it seemed obvious to us that this couple had the power to make us bounce back after the Games. The idea was also to make our athletes dream, not just our licensees, to offer them a post-Olympic horizon. »
Denmark, Iceland and Norway in 2031
France had previously failed in its bid for men’s Euro 2022 (along with Belgium and Spain), awarded to Hungary and Slovakia. This time, after a long lobbying effort, the Franco-German duo, candidate for the 2029 or 2031 edition (Switzerland, which was initially associated with it, had withdrawn from the project), was almost certain to obtain one of the two since the recent withdrawal of Saudi Arabia’s candidacy. He had only one rival left, the Nordic trio of Denmark, Iceland and Norway, who therefore inherited the 2031 World Cup.
The French, at the head of the candidacy, strongly campaigned for 2029, as early as possible, while their Germanic partners would not have been unfavorable to 2031 because they will already organize, alone, the 2027 edition. The discussions are are stretched out until 2 a.m. the night before.
Tuesday morning, the two nations offered a nicely symbolic presentation: Uwe Gensheimer, the former star of the National team and PSG (2016-2019), spoke in French, wearing a blue jersey, while Bertrand Gille , former emblematic pivot of the Blues and Hamburg who became vice-president of the FFHB, had donned the German jersey to speak in the language of Goethe.
An opening match in Nanterre in front of 40,000 spectators?
France is expected to host half of the group matches, two quarter-finals, the President’s Cup (for ranking from 25th to 32nd place) and the final four, which will be played at the Accor Arena in Paris-Bercy. She also wants to create an event in the opening match which should be played at the Paris La Défense Arena in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), with a capacity increased to 40,000 spectators, according to Philippe Bana. The manager mentions a budget of 40 million euros for the competition and hopes to exceed the million cumulative spectators (reached by Germany during the Euro last January).
Two Women’s World Championships were awarded at the same time. Spain will organize the 2029 edition, followed in 2031 by the Czech Republic-Poland couple.
