Five nations expressed interest in hosting the tournament. The awarding of the events took place at the next IHF Council meeting in
Cairo, Egypt, on 28 February 2020.[2][3] Germany was chosen as the host. This will be the sixth time Germany will host this tournament.
Qualification system will still depend on number of compulsory and performance places, as for 2025 World Championship. The World Championship hosts will be directly qualified, along with the reigning world champions.
The number of compulsory places awarded to other continental confederation keeps unchanged and is divided as follows: four places each for Europe, Asia and Africa, three places for the South and Central America zone and one place for the North America and Caribbean zone.[4]
One additional place is available for Oceania, but only when that region's national team ranks fifth or higher at the Asian Championship. If no Oceania team places among the top five at the Asian Championship, the IHF will award an additional wild card.
In addition, there will be 12 performance places for the continental confederations, which are based on the teams ranked 1–12 in the preceding World Championship.
According to the new qualification system and taking into consideration the results of the 2025 Men's World Championship, 20 out of 32 places are distributed as follows:
Distribution of places (following current IHF rules[4])
1All hosting federations are automatically entitled to take part in the World Championship. If there is more than one organiser from the same continental confederation, the number of compulsory places of the respective confederation shall be reduced accordingly. If there is more than one organiser and the organisers are not from the same confederation, the IHF Council shall decide about the reduction of the compulsory places, considering only the compulsory places of the confederations involved.
2The reigning world champion automatically qualifies for the next World Championship and, as a rule, is placed first in the first performance row. In case the reigning world champion is also hosting the next World Championship, the confederation of the reigning world champion obtains one additional performance place.
3The compulsory place for Oceania is subject to fulfilling certain conditions. The continental confederation of Oceania does not have a direct compulsory place for a confederational qualification event. The confederation of Oceania is invited to participate in the Asian qualification events. The compulsory place is awarded to Oceania if the representative from Oceania is ranked 5th or higher in the Asian qualification. If Oceania fails to rank 5th or does not participate, the IHF Council will award this place as a free wild card.
4The wild card shall be awarded by the IHF Council.
^ 1. To bear in mind the 2028 Summer Olympics, the IHF Council awarded the United States wild cards for the 2025 and 2027 World Championships.[5][6]
^ 2. If countries from Oceania (Australia or New Zealand) participating in the Asian Championships finish within the top 5, they will qualify for the World Championships. If they finish placed sixth or lower, the place would have been transferred to the wild card spot.
1Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host country for that year.
2 From both German teams only East Germany was qualified in 1990
Venues
At the presentation during the IHF Council Meeting in Cairo, Egypt on 27 and 28 February 2020 the bid delegation presented eight venues.[7] Six venues were ultimately announced in October 2024, with the opening match to be played in Munich and the final in Cologne.[8]
