EHF NEWS 80 – 18.06.2007

euro 2008 in RESULTS PLAY-OFF MATCHES DRAW FINAL TOURNAMENT – PREVIEW

The 8th Men's European Championship Final Tournament will take place from 17 to 27 January 2008.

Results Play-off Matches:

Besides FRA as defending champion, ESP, DEN, CRO, GER, RUS (teams 2-6 at the Euro06 in Switzerland) and NOR as organiser, the below mentioned teams – altogether nine – qualified for the participation in the Final Tournament of the 2008 Men’s European Championship in Norway through the play-off matches taking place over the past weekends (1st leg 9/10 June 2007, 2nd leg 16/17 June 2007):

BLR, CZE, HUN, ISL, MNE, POL, SLO, SVK, SWE

For a summary of all match details, please visit the following link, http://home.eurohandball.com/report.asp?bid=249&rnr=2&pha=1026, respectively the EHF Website: www.eurohandball.com and the Euro events website: www.ehf-euro.com.

Draw Final Tournament:

After the completion of the play-off matches for the euro 2008 last Sunday, the draw for the euro 2008 in Norway is around the corner now.

The euro 2008 Preliminary Round Groups will be drawn on Friday, 22 June 2007, 20:00 hrs. in the TV2 Studio in , Norway. The draw will be transmitted live in Norway and will be available live on the euro 2008 website: www.ehf-euro.com. The draw will be followed by an official euro 2008 Press Conference.

Altogether 16 teams divided into four pots - along with all three reigning champions,

¾ Olympic Champion: Croatia, ¾ World Champion: Germany and ¾ European Champion: France,

qualified from the past European Championship and the Play-off matches which took place the past two weekends for the euro 2008 in Norway:

POT 1: FRA, ESP, DEN, CRO POT 3: POL, NOR, SVK, HUN

POT 2: GER, RUS, ISL, SLO POT 4: BLR, MNE, SWE, CZE

Montenegro made its path through to a European Championship Final Tournament for the first time in euro events history. After not participating in the euro06, has now qualified again for the euro event in 2008.

The euro 2008 Preliminary Round Groups will be played in Bergen, Drammen, Stavanger and Trondheim. The Main Round Groups in Stavanger and Trondheim and the Final Weekend in .

The assignment of the four groups to the four venues will take place after the draw and will be announced during the euro 2008 Press Conference.

For all those who are interested in tickets for the upcoming European Championship registration is possible for a newsletter regarding ticketing under www.handball.no. euro 2008 tickets will be available online from 25 September 2007. The accreditation procedure for media representatives starts on 1 October 2007 (deadline for euro 2008 accreditation is 30 November 2007). The accreditation procedure will be an online process.

The euro 2008 website is online since the beginning of the second qualification phase (play-off matches) and the euro 2008 draw will be available via www.ehf-euro.com. In addition the euro events website will serve a replay version of the entire draw for your convenience. In the enclosure please find the detailed draw procedure.

All specific details regarding the euro 2008 can be found also on the euro 2008 website: www.ehf-euro.com together with the EHF website: www.eurohandball.com.

EUROPEAN HANDBALL FEDERATION

2008 Men's European Championship in Norway (17 to 27 January 2008)

Draw Procedure for the F I N A L T O U R N A M E N T

Date: Saturday, 22 June 2007 Time: 20:00 hrs. Venue: TV2 Studio Oslo, Norway

Total number of participating teams: 16 teams

Directly Qualified for the euro 2008:

¾ FRA: Defending Champion ¾ NOR: Organiser ¾ ESP, DEN, CRO, GER, RUS: teams ranked 2-6 at Euro06 in Switzerland

Qualified from the Play off matches: POL, HUN, SVK, SLO, CZE, BLR, SWE, MNE, ISL;

(9/10 and 16/17 June 2007)

Draw for Euro 2008 Final Tournament – Preliminary Round:

The participating teams are seeded as follows:

POT 1: FRA, ESP, DEN, CRO POT 3: POL, NOR, SVK, HUN

POT 2: GER, RUS, ISL, SLO POT 4: BLR, MNE, SWE, CZE

Procedure for the draw:

Group A Group B Group C Group D 4th step teams of pot 3 are drawn ⇑ to row 3* 3rd step teams of pot 1 are drawn ⇑ to row 1 2nd step teams of pot 2 are drawn ⇑ to row 2 1st step teams of pot 4 are drawn to row 4

* The organizer NOR (pot 3) has the right to choose the group after the rows 4, 2 and 1 are determined.

The Euro 2008 Final Tournament will take place from 17 to 27 January 2008.

Euro 2008 venues:

PRELIMINARY ROUND: MAIN ROUND: SEMIFINALS, FINALS AND 9 Bergen PLACEMENT MATCH 9 Drammen 9 Stavanger 9 Stavanger 9 Trondheim 9 Trondheim 9 Lillehammer

EUROPEAN HANDBALL FEDERATION