IHF Men's Youth (U19) World Championship

The IHF Men's Youth World Championship is a global national-team competition for players aged under-19. The event was introduced by the International Handball Federation in 2005, when only ten teams entered the competition, and it takes place every two years in odd years.

This will be the first time Greece will play host to a Youth World Championship, but it has organised the IHF Men's Junior World Championship (U21) twice before - in 1991 in Athens and in 2011 in Thessaloniki. Both competitions were praised for the level of services provided and the infrastructure.

Following IHF Council’s 2018 decision to increase the number of teams participating in World Championships from 24 to 32, with the goal to provide more nations with the opportunity to compete internationally at the highest level, the 2021 Men’s Youth World Championship in Athens will be the first competition where the new format will be tested. Therefore and in terms of logistics, the event will be the biggest team sport competition ever held in Greece.

The organising committee expects to welcome in Greece more than 1000 guests, including IHF and team officials, players, coaches, referees and fans.

The allocation of slots for each confederation is as follows: 14 teams will come from Europe, five from Africa, five from Asia, three from South and Central America, two from North America and Caribbean and one from Oceania. Greece has already qualified as the hosting nation while the last available position will go to the winner of the IHF Trophy, a biennial tournament played among emerging nations.

Participating teams will be drawn into four groups of eight teams.

Handball is a very popular team sport especially in Europe, in North Africa and in the Arabian Peninsula. IHF membership comprises of 209 national federations across all continents.