
Handball World Cup with 32 participants, the big ones are against, the small ones are for
With the start of the 2025 World Handball Championship, debates have flared up about whether 32 teams are too many at the world summits. How harmful is the increase from 24 to 32 participants, and how beneficial? There are conflicting opinions, in Sweden they believe that 32 teams is too many participants, while in the USA and the Faroe Islands they say exactly the opposite.
With the start of the 2025 World Cup, debates have flared up again about whether 32 participants in the World Cup is too many. There are conflicting opinions, with representatives of the major handball nations mainly believing that 32 is too many participants, which allegedly has a detrimental effect on handball.
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Representatives of smaller handball nations, on the contrary, believe that it is good that the number of participants has increased, because it stimulates interest in this sport. The debate was published on the website "Gohandball". The number of participants increased from 24 to 32 at the 2021 World Cup, and this is the third World Cup with so many participants.
Swede Per Johansson, who coached Sweden, Montenegro and the Netherlands, is against 32 teams at the World Cup, and believes that a suitable number would be 24 participants.
Top nations play meaningless matches
– The exclusivity of participating in a European or world championship disappears when there are too many teams. There is no excitement about who will qualify and who will be eliminated. The championship becomes too commercial a product. It would be better to have a B-world championship, where teams can compete at the same level – says Per Johansson.
His compatriot, coach Andreas Stockenberg, thinks similarly.
– When there are so many teams, there are two or three matches for the top nations, which is basically pointless. Our players, who already have a lot of matches, need to be protected. But instead, they play matches like this where the risk of injuries increases. I only see disadvantages in that. For the European Championship, I think 16 teams is reasonable. Maybe around 20 participants for the World Cup. That would maintain the quality of the championships – says Stockenberg.
Accelerated progress in the US and the Faroe Islands
In the United States, a great nation but a handball World Cup anonymous, they think the opposite of the Swedes. After a break of 10 World Cups, the USA participated in the 2023 World Cup, and they are participating now.
– It is incredibly important to be in the championships. How else would smaller nations have a chance to improve? In the championships you learn by playing against the best. We have made enormous progress in recent years and that would not have been possible without playing those matches. I don't understand the criticism – says the American coach, the Swede Robert Hedin, who points out that much more money is now being invested in handball in the United States.

The Faroe Islands almost qualified for the 2025 World Cup, which would have been their first, and made their debut in major competitions at Euro 2024.
– From our perspective as a small nation, it is a huge opportunity. We would never have succeeded without the new system. If you look at the quality of our players and teams, as well as financially, we have grown incredibly since we qualified for the championship (EURO 2024). We have more interest in handball here from the media, from the public and from sponsors. In March we are getting a new arena that will hold over 3.000 spectators – says Mark Lausen-Marcher, the sports director of the Faroe Islands team.