Handball at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's qualification

The qualification for the 2020 Men's Olympic Handball Tournament assigned quota places to twelve teams: the hosts, the world champion, four continental champions and six teams from the World Olympic qualification tournaments respectively.[1] (The Olympics was postponed to at least 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic).[2]

Qualification summary

Qualification	Date	Host	Vacancies	Qualified
Host nation	7 September 2013	N/A	1	Japan
2019 World Championship	10–27 January 2019	Denmark /  Germany	1	Denmark
2019 Pan American Games	31 July – 5 August 2019	Lima	1	Argentina
AHF Men’s Asian qualification event	17–26 October 2019	Doha	1	Bahrain
2020 European Championship	10–26 January 2020	Austria /  Norway /  Sweden	1	Spain
2020 African Championship	16–26 January 2020	Tunisia	1	Egypt
2020 IHF Men's Olympic Qualification Tournaments	12–14 March 2021	Norway	2
		Montpellier	2
		Germany	2
Total			12

Legend for qualification type

Qualified
Key	From	To
	World Championship	Olympic Tournament
	Continental Qualification Event
	World Championship	Qualification Tournament
	Continental Qualification Event

Host country

•  Japan

World Championship

Rank	Team
	Denmark
	Norway
	France
4	Germany
5	Sweden
6	Croatia
7	Spain
8	Egypt
9	Brazil
10	Hungary
11	Iceland
12	Tunisia
13	Qatar
14	Russia
15	North Macedonia
16	Chile
17	Argentina
18	Serbia
19	Austria
20	Bahrain
21	Saudi Arabia
22	Korea
23	Angola
24	Japan

Continental qualification

Europe

Rank	Team
	Spain
	Croatia
	Norway
4	Slovenia
5	Germany
6	Portugal
7	Sweden
8	Austria
9	Hungary
10	Belarus
11	Iceland
12	Czech Republic
13	Denmark
14	France
15	North Macedonia
16	Switzerland
17	Netherlands
18	Montenegro
19	Ukraine
20	Serbia
21	Poland
22	Russia
23	Bosnia and Herzegovina
24	Latvia

Preliminary round

All times are local (UTC+3).[3]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Qatar (H)	3	3	0	0	118	44	+74	6	Semifinals
2	Saudi Arabia	3	2	0	1	96	69	+27	4
3	India	3	1	0	2	66	104	−38	2
4	Hong Kong	3	0	0	3	59	122	−63	0

Source: AHF
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) goal difference.
(H) Host.

17 October 2019 16:00	Saudi Arabia	35–24	India	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(19–13)

17 October 2019 18:00	Qatar	49–19	Hong Kong	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(19–6)

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19 October 2019 16:00	Hong Kong	16–41	Saudi Arabia	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(6–17)

19 October 2019 18:00	India	10–40	Qatar	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(4–18)

---

21 October 2019 16:00	India	32–29	Hong Kong	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(16–15)

21 October 2019 18:00	Qatar	29–20	Saudi Arabia	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(13–9)

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	South Korea	3	2	0	1	94	90	+4	4[lower-alpha 1]	Semifinals
2	Bahrain	3	2	0	1	85	78	+7	4[lower-alpha 1]
3	Iran	3	1	1	1	90	92	−2	3
4	Kuwait	3	0	1	2	89	98	−9	1

Source: AHF
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) goal difference.
Notes:

1. Bahrain 30–31 South Korea

18 October 2019 16:00	South Korea	27–28	Iran	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(12–13)

18 October 2019 18:00	Bahrain	26–21	Kuwait	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(12–10)

---

20 October 2019 16:00	Kuwait	32–36	South Korea	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(16–20)

20 October 2019 18:00	Iran	26–29	Bahrain	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(13–15)

---

22 October 2019 16:00	Bahrain	30–31	South Korea	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(16–14)

22 October 2019 18:00	Iran	36–36	Kuwait	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(18–16)

Bracket

	Semifinals				Final
	24 October
	Qatar	26
					26 October
	Bahrain	28
					Bahrain	34
	24 October
					South Korea	29
	South Korea	29
	Saudi Arabia	26
					Third place
					26 October
					Qatar	31
					Saudi Arabia	21

	5–8th place semifinals				Fifth place
	24 October
	India	21
					25 October
	Kuwait	34
					Kuwait	25
	24 October
					Iran	27
	Iran	48
	Hong Kong	16
					Seventh place
					25 October
					India	26
					Hong Kong	30

5–8th place semifinals

24 October 2019 12:00	India	21–34	Kuwait	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(12–17)

---

24 October 2019 14:00	Iran	48–16	Hong Kong	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(25–6)

Semifinals

24 October 2019 16:00	South Korea	29–26	Saudi Arabia	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(17–12)

---

24 October 2019 18:00	Qatar	26–28	Bahrain	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(15–16)

Seventh place game

25 October 2019 16:00	India	26–30	Hong Kong	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(13–11)

Fifth place game

25 October 2019 18:00	Kuwait	25–27	Iran	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(14–11)

Third place game

26 October 2019 16:00	Qatar	31–21	Saudi Arabia	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(16–12)

Final

26 October 2019 18:00	Bahrain	34–29	South Korea	Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha
		(13–15)

Final standing

Rank	Team
	Bahrain
	South Korea
	Qatar
4	Saudi Arabia
5	Iran
6	Kuwait
7	Hong Kong
8	India

America

Rank	Team
	Argentina
	Chile
	Brazil
4	Mexico
5	Cuba
6	United States
7	Puerto Rico
8	Peru

Africa

Rank	Team
	Egypt
	Tunisia
	Algeria
4	Angola
5	Cape Verde
6	Morocco
7	DR Congo
8	Gabon
9	Congo
10	Guinea
11	Nigeria
12	Cameroon
13	Libya
14	Ivory Coast
15	Kenya
16	Zambia

Olympic Qualification Tournaments

There are three Olympic Qualification Tournaments. Only twelve teams that have not yet qualified through the five events mentioned above could play in the tournament:[4]

• The top six teams from the World championship that did not already qualify through their continental championships are eligible to participate in the tournament.
• The best ranked teams of each continent in the World championship represent the continent in order to determine the continental ranking. The first ranked continent received two more places for the tournament. The second, third and fourth ranked continent received one place each. The last place belongs to a team from Oceania, if one was ranked between 8th–12th at the World Championship. If no team from Oceania met this condition, the second ranked continent receives an extra place instead. The teams that already earned their places through their World championship ranking will not be considered for receiving places through the continental criterion.
• The twelve teams were allocated in three pools of four teams according to the table below. The top two teams from each pool will qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games.[5]

2020 Olympic Qualification Tournament #1	2020 Olympic Qualification Tournament #2	2020 Olympic Qualification Tournament #3
2nd from World:  Norway 9th from World:  Brazil^1 2nd from Americas:  Chile 2nd from Asia:  South Korea	3rd from World:  France 6th from World:  Croatia 2nd from Africa:  Tunisia 6th from Europe:  Portugal	4th from World:  Germany 5th from World:  Sweden 4th from Europe:  Slovenia 3rd from Africa:  Algeria

¹Since Spain (7th from World) won the 2020 European Men's Handball Championship, thus qualifying directly for the Olympics, their place in the Qualification Tournaments went to a non-European team – Brazil (9th from World), in this case, since Egypt (8th from World) also qualified directly for the Olympics as the 2020 African Men's Handball Championship winners.

2020 Olympic Qualification Tournament #1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Norway (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2020 Summer Olympics
2	Brazil	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Chile	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	South Korea	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played on 12 March 2021. Source: IHF
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Goal difference; 6) Goals scored; 7) Draw.
(H) Host.

2020 Olympic Qualification Tournament #2

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	France (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2020 Summer Olympics
2	Croatia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Tunisia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Portugal	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played on 12 March 2021. Source: IHF
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Goal difference; 6) Goals scored; 7) Draw.
(H) Host.

2020 Olympic Qualification Tournament #3

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Germany (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2020 Summer Olympics
2	Sweden	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Slovenia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Algeria	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played on 12 March 2021. Source: IHF
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Goal difference; 6) Goals scored; 7) Draw.
(H) Host.

References

1. "Tokyo 2020 Qualification System confirmed". ihf.info. 3 April 2018.
2. "Joint Statement from the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee". International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
3. "Who will book the Asian men's Tokyo 2020 ticket?". ihf.info. 17 October 2019.
4. "Update on 2020 Olympic Qualification Tournament places". ihf.info. 13 December 2019.
5. "Update Men's Tokyo 2020 Olympic Qualification Tournaments". ihf.info. 27 January 2020.