16 teams, four groups: How the Women's EHF EURO 2022 draw works

That question will be answered during the draw on Thursday (28 April) at 17:00 CEST (live on EHFTV) at Ljubljana Castle in the Slovenian capital.

So, with 16 teams to be allocated over four groups, how does the draw exactly work? Let’s first look at the participants.

Four teams were qualified directly for the EHF EURO 2022: the three co-hosts Slovenia, North Macedonia and Montenegro, as well as defending champions Norway. During the qualifiers, 12 more teams earned a place at the final tournament: Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

For Thursday’s draw, the 16 teams have been divided into four pots:

POT 1 – NOR, FRA, DEN, POL
POT 2 – NED, MNE, HUN, SWE
POT 3 – SLO, MKD, CRO, GER
POT 4 – ESP, ROU, SRB, SUI

Four teams have already been placed in a specific group for the preliminary round: Hungary will play in group A in Ljubljana; Slovenia in group B in Celje; North Macedonia in group C in Skopje; and Montenegro in group D in Podgorica.

The actual draw will follow four steps:

STEP 1 – two teams of pot 3 are drawn to row 3
STEP 2 – two teams of pot 2 are drawn to row 2
STEP 3 – four teams of pot 4 are drawn to row 4
STEP 4 – four teams of pot 1 are drawn to row 1

The detailed draw procedure is available for download here.

The Women’s EHF EURO 2022 takes place on 4-20 November. After the preliminary round, the championship continues with the main round in Ljubljana and Skopje, and the final weekend in Ljubljana.