European Men's Handball Championship 37576 211281261 2008-05-09T16:11:39Z PipepBot 4984067 robot Adding: [[it:Campionato europeo di pallamano maschile]] Modifying: [[bs:Evropsko prvenstvo u rukometu]] The '''European men's handball championship''' is the official competition for senior men's national [[handball]] teams of Europe, and takes place every two years. In addition to crowning the European champions, the tournament also serves as a qualifying tournament for the [[World Men's Handball Championship|World Championship]]. [[Sweden national handball team|Sweden]] have won four of the eight championships that have been held since 1994, while [[Spain national handball team|Spain]] have been runners-up three times. ==History== In 1946, the [[Team handball|International Handball Federation]] was founded by eight European nations,<ref>[http://www.ihf.info/CDA/history,138,0,,en.html?PHPSESSID=966071207cd985260009362c3c659f5d History of Handball] from ihf.info, retrieved [[7 February]] [[2006]]</ref> and though non-European nations competed at the World Championships, the medals had always been taken by European nations until the foundation of the [[European Handball Federation]] in 1991.<ref name=MedalTable>[http://www.ihf.info/MEDIA/4528,0.pdf Medals Table - Ranking At Men's World Championships A 1938-1990] from ihf.info, retrieved [[7 February]] [[2006]]</ref> At the same time (1995), the World Championship was changed from a quadrennial to a biannual event, and the European Handball Federation now began its own championship – which also acted as a regional qualifier for the World Championship.<ref name=Spiegel>{{de icon}} [http://www.spiegel.de/sport/sonst/0,1518,398256,00.html Handball-Bundesliga diskutiert Reduzierung auf 16 Teams], by Erik Eggers, published by [[Der Spiegel]] online, [[30 January]] [[2006]]</ref> ===1994 Championship=== '''Host''': {{flag|Portugal}} {{main|1994 European Men's Handball Championship}} The first championship was held in Portugal in June 1994.<ref>{{no icon}} (ed) Arvid Eriksen ''Sportsboken 1994'', pg. 291, Schibsted. ISBN 82-516-1543-7.</ref> The host nation that had not managed to qualify for any World Championship thus far, and they finished 12th and last after losing all six games, including 21–38 to [[Romania national handball team|Romania]] in the 11th-place play-off. Sweden became the first European champion after defeating [[Russia national handball team|Russia]] by 34–21 in the final, Russia's heaviest loss in their international history.<ref name=EMGeschichte>{{de icon}} [http://www.handballworld.com/euro06-special/em-geschichte.htm Von Porto bis Ljubljana], from Handballworld.com, retrieved [[7 February]] [[2006]]</ref> Both teams had gone through the tournament without loss, but Sweden's fast breaks became the key in the final; they scored 14 of their 34 goals on fast breaks. Russian winger [[Valeri Gopin]] scored 50 goals and was top scorer. ===1996 Championship=== '''Host''': {{flag|Spain}} {{main|1996 European Men's Handball Championship}} Two years later, the championship moved to Spain, with the same format. This time, no team went through the group stage without giving up points, but Russia and Sweden were to face off once again; this time in the semi-final, and Russia got revenge with a 24–21 win in front of 650 spectators.<ref>[http://home.eurohandball.com/_TE_more1.asp?ID=1961111035 EHF - Match details], retrieved [[7 February]] [[2006]]</ref> In the other semi-final, [[Spain national handball team|the hosts]] beat [[Serbia and Montenegro national handball team|Yugoslavia]] 27–23, before 7,500 spectators littered the arena in [[Sevilla]] to watch the hosts go down by one goal despite the efforts of [[Talant Dujshebaev]], a Kyrgyz-born<ref>[http://handball.enourense.net/figuras/talant.htm Talant Dujshebaev], from hand-ball.org, retrieved [[7 February]] [[2006]]</ref> back player who had played for Russia in 1994 but who now turned out for Spain.<ref name=EMGeschichte/> Yugoslavia participated for the first time after a sporting boycott imposed due to the [[Yugoslav wars]], and finished third. ===1998 Championship=== '''Host''': {{flag|Italy}} {{main|1998 European Men's Handball Championship}} In 1998 the Championship was held in Italy, whose appearance at the 1997 World Championship was their first at the top level of international handball.<ref name=MedalTable/> [[Spain national handball team|Spain]] went through the first six matches of the tournament unbeaten, while their opponents Sweden had won the first four games before becoming the first team to lose to hosts [[Italy national handball|Italy]]. However, in the final, Sweden were too strong in the final and won by 25–23 after having led by 15–9 at half-time in front of 6,100 spectators in Bolzano. ===2000 Championship=== '''Host''': {{flag|Croatia}} {{main|2000 European Men's Handball Championship}} Two years later, the Championship was held in the Croatian cities of [[Zagreb]] and [[Rijeka]]. By now, the Championship had been moved back to January<ref name=EM2000>[http://home.eurohandball.com/_te_en.asp?Bewerb=99&Runde=1&Ret=bew 2000 Men's European Championship - Finals], from EHF, retrieved [[27 January]] [[2006]]</ref> in the middle of the European handball season. The Championship acted as an Olympic qualifier, and hosts [[Croatia national handball team|Croatia]], who had won the [[Handball at the 1996 Summer Olympics|1996 Olympics]], needed to finish in the top five to qualify. They lost to Spain and drew with [[France national handball team|France]] in the group stage, which sent them into a fifth-place play-off with neighbours [[Slovenia national handball team|Slovenia]]. 10,000 spectators watched as Slovenia prevailed by one goal and qualified for [[Handball at the 2000 Summer Olympics|the Sydney Games]]. The two teams who had won European Championships before, Sweden and Russia, qualified for the final – Sweden had won the group stage match 28–25,<ref name=EM2000/> but Russia took a six-goal lead at half-time. Sweden came back to tie the game at full time, and two 10-minute extra periods were required before Sweden won 32–31<ref name=EMGeschichte/> after [[Magnus Wislander]] scored the deciding goal.<ref>{{sv icon}} [http://expressen.se/index.jsp?d=386&a=461388 Ryssland väntar i semifinalen], retrieved [[27 February]] [[2006]]</ref> ===2002 Championship=== '''Host''': {{flag|Sweden}} {{main|2002 European Men's Handball Championship}} Three-time champions Sweden were the next to host the European Championship, in 2002. This was the first tournament with 16 teams, an expansion from 12 in the previous four instalments. The Swedes won their first seven matches, and had already qualified for the semi-finals when they lost 26–27 to [[Denmark national handball team|Denmark]], having led 17–11 at half time. In the other main round group, [[Iceland national handball team|Iceland]] became the third [[Nordic countries|Nordic]] team to qualify after defeating [[Germany national handball team|Germany]] in the final match, but both Denmark and Iceland were soundly beaten in the semi-finals – Denmark lost 23–28 to Germany, while Sweden defeated Iceland by 11 goals. Sweden thus qualified for their fourth final in five attempts, and in front of 14,300 spectators in [[Stockholm Globe Arena|Stockholm Globe]], they came back from a one-goal deficit when [[Staffan Olsson]] equalised with five seconds to spare. Sweden had substituted their goalkeeper, and [[Florian Kehrmann]] replied with a goal in an empty net, but it was disallowed because the referees had not started play after the Swedish goal.<ref>{{de icon}} [http://www.thw-provinzial.de/thw/02020302.htm Deutschland verpaßt Europameistertitel nur knapp - Schweden am Rande der Niederlage] from starpix.se, retrieved [[27 February]] [[2006]]</ref> In the extra time, Sweden held on, and could celebrate their fourth title.<ref>[http://home.eurohandball.com/_TE_more1.asp?ID=1981214551 2002 - Men's European Championship, - Finals - Germany v Sweden], retrieved [[27 February]] [[2006]]</ref> ===2004 Championship=== '''Host''': {{flag|Slovenia}} {{main|2004 European Men's Handball Championship}} Sweden's row of three successive Championships was broken in [[Slovenia]] in 2004, when Germany won despite not being touted as a medal candidate by news agency [[Deutsche Presse Agentur]].<ref>{{de icon}} [http://www.stern.de/sport-motor/sportwelt/519028.html?eid=518909&&nv=ex_rt Vor der EM - Keine Panik"], by [[Martin Kloth]], published by stern.de, retrieved [[27 February]] [[2006]]</ref> Germany suffered an early defeat to [[Serbia and Montenegro national handball team|Serbia and Montenegro]], and qualified for the main round as the third and final team from their group, having drawn with France as well. However, as the favourites beat each other in Germany's main round group, Germany qualified for the semi-finals in first place from the six-team group. In the other group, [[Croatia national handball team|Croatia]], who won the other group, had not lost any of their first seven games, while [[Denmark national handball team|Denmark]] also had four successive wins. Croatia faced hosts [[Slovenia national handball team|Slovenia]] in the semi-final, and the clash of the two Balkan neighbours saw heightened security measures.<ref name=GermanyFinal2004>[http://www.stern.de/sport-motor/sportwelt/519661.html?eid=518909&&nv=ex_rt Deutschland ist im Finale]</ref> 7,000 spectators in the [[Hall Tivoli]] saw that the hosts became the first team to beat Croatia in this tournament despite 12 goals from Croatian right winger [[Mirza Džomba]] who was reputed to be the best handball player in the world at the time.<ref>{{de icon}} [http://www.thw-provinzial.de/thw/04013111.htm#CROSLO Slowenien erreicht nach 27:25-Sieg über Kroatien das Finale], from thw-provinzial.de, retrieved [[27 February]] [[2006]]</ref> Denmark, who had reached their second successive semi-final, once again had to bow out at this stage, as they lost 20–22 to Germany in what was described as a "hard-fought victory.<ref name=GermanyFinal2004/> Germany won the final more convincingly; a 16–10 lead at half time was never squandered, as Slovenia only got within three goals in the second half, and eventually lost 25–30.<ref>{{de icon}}[http://www.thw-provinzial.de/thw/04020111.htm Europameister! Deutschland gegen Gastgeber Slowenien ganz cool zum Titel], from thw-provinzial.de, retrieved [[27 February]] [[2006]]</ref> ===2006 Championship=== '''Host''': {{flag|Switzerland}} {{main|2006 European Men's Handball Championship}} The 2006 tournament was held in Switzerland, in the cities of [[Basel]], [[Berne]], [[Lucerne]], [[St Gallen]] and [[Zürich]]. France won the tournament, going through with one solitary loss – a 26–29 defeat to Spain in the preliminary round (where France trailed by eight goals at half-time). Defending champions Germany was also in this preliminary group, and this time taking one point through from the group stage would not be enough for Germany. Despite winning all three main round games, so did France and Spain, and those two teams qualified for the semi-finals from Group I. From the other group, Croatia qualified in first place after a 34–30 victory over Serbia and Montenegro in the last match. Sometime later the Serbian coach was charged with suspicion of match fixing, and Serbian goalkeeper Arpad Sterbik was tasked with confirming these allegations. <ref>{{no icon}} ''Svindlet i håndball-EM?'' by Arne Hole, Aftenposten, [[27 February]] [[2006]]</ref>.<ref>{{no icon}} [http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=160677 - Serbia tapte med vilje], from vg.no, retrieved [[27 February]] [[2006]]</ref><ref>{{es icon}}[http://www.marca.es/edicion/marca/balonmano/es/desarrollo/618700.html Los serbios Sterbik y Skrbic acusan a Vujovic de venderse en el Europeo], from Marca, retrieved [[27 February]][[2006]]</ref> However it is believed by many that this was simply fabricated to cover up the loss of the Serbia and Montenegro team, and that there in fact never was any match fixing. Later that evening, Denmark beat Russia and qualified for their third successive semi-final, one point behind Croatia. However, the Group II teams were both defeated by Group I teams, causing France and Spain to meet again in the final. In the third-place play-off, Croatia surprisingly lost to Denmark, while the final saw France prevail by eight goals to win their first European Championship. ===2008 Championship=== '''Host''': {{flag|Norway}} {{main|2008 European Men's Handball Championship}} Norway was the host country for the 2008 tournament. Matches were played in cities of Bergen, Drammen, Lillehammer, Stavanger and Trondheim. The top-placed teams from the preliminary group stage were Croatia, Norway, Hungary and France. The main group stage would see Croatia and Denmark confirm their places in the semifinals from group I along with France and Germany from group II. In the first semifinal Croatia would play France and it was a game dominated by strong defense by both teams. Croatia obtained a three-goal lead a number of times only to see France come back strong. In the end Croatia won 24 to 23. In the second semifinal Germany were able to obtain a margin of 12 to 7 over Denmark at the 25th minute of the first half only to eventually lose the match 25 to 26. In the third-place play-off, France was too strong for Germany winning by 10 goals. The final saw Denmark play Croatia. Croatia started of well scoring the first four goals, but due to the outstanding play by Danish keeper Kasper Hvidt, especially in the second half, the Danes would go on to win the match & their first major trophy. ==Medal summary== ==Medal count== {| {{RankedMedalTable}} |- |1||align=left| {{SWE}} ||'''4'''||0||0||'''4''' |- |2||align=left| {{RUS}} ||1||2||0||3 |- |3||align=left| {{GER}} ||1||1||1||3 |- |4||align=left| {{DEN}} ||1||0||'''3'''||'''4''' |- |5||align=left| {{FRA}} ||1||0||1||2 |- |6||align=left| {{ESP}} ||0||'''3'''||1||'''4''' |- |7||align=left| {{CRO}} ||0||1||1||2 |- |8||align=left| {{SLO}} ||0||1||0||1 |- |9||align=left| {{SCG}} ||0||0||1||1 |} ==Teams by Year== {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:90%" ! Nation ! [[1994 European Men's Handball Championship|1994]] !! [[1996 European Men's Handball Championship|1996]] !! [[1998 European Men's Handball Championship|1998]] !! [[2000 European Men's Handball Championship|2000]] !! [[2002 European Men's Handball Championship|2002]] !! [[2004 European Men's Handball Championship|2004]] !! [[2006 European Men's Handball Championship|2006]] !! [[2008 European Men's Handball Championship|2008]]!! Years |- |align=left|{{hb|BLR}} |8th|| || || || || || ||15th|| 2 |- |align=left|{{hb|CRO}} |bgcolor=#cc9966|'''3rd'''||5th||8th||6th||16th||4th||4th||bgcolor=silver|'''2nd'''|| 8 |- |align=left|{{hb|CZE}} | ||6th||10th|| ||8th||11th|| ||13th|| 5 |- |align=left|{{hb|DEN}} |4th||12th|| ||10th||bgcolor=#cc9966|'''3rd'''||bgcolor=#cc9966|'''3rd'''||bgcolor=#cc9966|'''3rd'''||bgcolor=gold|'''1st'''||7 |- |align=left|{{hb|FRA}} |6th||7th||7th||4th||6th||6th||bgcolor=gold|'''1st'''||bgcolor=#cc9966|'''3rd'''|| 8 |- |align=left|{{hb|GER}} |9th||8th||bgcolor=#cc9966|'''3rd'''||9th||bgcolor=silver|'''2nd'''||bgcolor=gold|'''1st'''||5th||4th|| 8 |- |align=left|{{hb|HUN}} |7th||10th||6th|| || ||9th||13th||8th|| 6 |- |align=left|{{hb|ISL}} | || || ||11th||4th||13th||7th||11th|| 5 |- |align=left|{{hb|ISR}} | || || || ||14th|| || || || 1 |- |align=left|{{hb|ITA}} | || ||11th|| || || || || || 1 |- |align=left|{{hb|Lithuania}} | || ||9th|| || || || || || 1 |- |align=left|{{hb|MKD}} | || ||12th|| || || || || || 1 |- |align=left|{{hb|MNE}} | || || || || || || ||12th|| 1 |- |align=left|{{hb|NOR}} | || || ||8th|| || ||11th||6th|| 3 |- |align=left|{{hb|POR}} |12th|| || ||7th||9th||14th||15th|| ||5 |- |align=left|{{hb|POL}} | || || || ||15th||16th||10th||7th|| 4 |- |align=left|{{hb|ROM}} |11th||9th|| || || || || || || 2 |- |align=left|{{hb|RUS}} |bgcolor=silver|'''2nd'''||bgcolor=gold|'''1st'''||4th||bgcolor=silver|'''2nd'''||5th||5th||6th||14th|| 8 |- |align=left|{{hb|SCG}} | ||bgcolor=#cc9966|'''3rd'''||5th|| ||10th||8th||9th|| || 5 |- |align=left|{{hb|SVK}} | || || || || || ||16th||16th|| 2 |- |align=left|{{hb|SLO}} |10th||11th|| ||5th||12th||bgcolor=silver|'''2nd'''||8th||10th|| 7 |- |align=left|{{hb|ESP}} |5th ||bgcolor=silver|'''2nd'''||bgcolor=silver|'''2nd'''||bgcolor=#cc9966|'''3rd'''||7th||10th||bgcolor=silver|'''2nd'''||9th|| 8 |- |align=left|{{hb|SWE}} |bgcolor=gold|'''1st'''||4th||bgcolor=gold|'''1st'''||bgcolor=gold|'''1st'''||bgcolor=gold|'''1st'''||7th|| ||5th|| 7 |- |align=left|{{hb|SUI}} | || || || ||13th||12th||14th|| || 3 |- |align=left|{{hb|UKR}} | || || ||12th||11th||15th||12th|| ||4 |} *{{hb|SCG}} includes [[Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]] ==External links== * [http://www.eurohandball.com/ Official homepage] of the [[European Handball Federation]] * [http://www.spiegel.de/sport/sonst/0,1518,398256,00.html Handball-Bundesliga diskutiert Reduzierung auf 16 Teams], from ''[[Der Spiegel]]'' {{de icon}} ==Further references== {{reflist}} {{fb start}} {{International Handball}} {{European Men's Handball Championship}} {{fb end}} [[Category:European men handball championships|*]] [[Category:Transnational European sports competitions|Handball]] [[ar:بطولة أوروبا لكرة اليد للرجال]] [[bs:Evropsko prvenstvo u rukometu]] [[cs:Mistrovství Evropy v házené mužů]] [[da:EM i håndbold (mænd)]] [[el:Ευρωπαϊκό πρωτάθλημα χειροσφαίρισης ανδρών]] [[es:Campeonato Europeo de Balonmano]] [[hr:Europska prvenstva u rukometu]] [[it:Campionato europeo di pallamano maschile]] [[nl:Europees Kampioenschap Handbal Mannen]] [[no:Håndball-EM for menn]] [[sr:Европско првенство у рукомету]] [[sv:EM i handboll för herrar]]