The World Championship hosts were directly qualified, along with the reigning world champions. Since there were three organisers, all from Europe, the number of compulsory places for Europe was reduced by two: 2 instead of default 4. The number of compulsory places awarded to other continental confederation remained unchanged. In regards to the 12 performance spots, and based on the results of the
2023 Men's World Championship,
Europe received 11 more spots, while
Africa took 1. The slot allocation was as follows: •
AHF (Asia): 4 slots •
CAHB (Africa): 5 slots •
EHF (Europe): 17 slots (including the three co-hosts) •
NACHC (North America and the Caribbean): 1 slot •
OCHF (Oceania): 0 slots •
SCAHC (South and Central America): 3 slots • Wildcards: 2 slots Qualifying occurred between February 2023 and May 2024. Each region's continental championships acted as world championship qualification, although Europe also has its own qualification process. With the exception of
Belarus and
Russia, who are banned of the IHF due to the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, all remaining
IHF member associations were eligible to enter qualification. In total, 83 nations have entered the continental championships and European qualifiers, which act as world championship qualification.
Guinea will make their debut at the championship. Of the returnees,
Italy made their second appearance ever and first since
1997,
Cuba and
Kuwait are returning for the first time since the
2009 World Men's Handball Championship,
Czech Republic made the championship after
ten years, while
Austria,
Japan and
Switzerland qualified after missing out on
2023. The
United States made back to back appearances for the first time in 30 years.
Netherlands qualified on merit for the first time ever.
Iran,
Montenegro,
Morocco,
Saudi Arabia,
Serbia,
South Korea and
Uruguay all failed to make this edition after participating in
2023. After making their debut in
2023,
Belgium failed to qualify.
AHF (4) • • • •
CAHB (5) • • • • •
EHF (17+1) • • (co-host) • • (co-host) • • • • • • • • (co-host) • • • • • • WC
NACHC (1+1) • • WC
OCHF (0) •
None qualified SCAHC (3) • • •
Wildcards After no Oceanian team achieved a top 5 finish in the
Asian Championship, two wildcards were given out by the
IHF. • '''''' • '''''' As the host country of the
2028 Summer Olympics, the first wildcard was given to
United States on 18 October 2018. Regarding the second wildcard, 12 non-classificated nations reportedly applied. On 23 May 2024, it was announced that the second wildcard was given to Switzerland due to multiple reasons: their sporting merit, their commercial reach, their sporting project and also due to the fact that the proposal made by the Swiss broadcast partner was the most commercially interesting for the IHF. Prior to their selection,
Switzerland's coach,
Andy Schmid, stated that after their narrow penalty shootout loss to
Slovenia, the Swiss' performance merited a wildcard. == Draw ==