The IHF Women's World Championship in 2025 is the third tournament in the "decade of handball" in Germany - and is jointly organized by the German Handball Association and the Dutch Handball Association. From 26 November to 14 December 14 2025, 32 teams will compete in five cities in the two neighboring countries to crown the 27th women's handball world champion - under the common motto "Catch the dream".
Germany to host the IHF Women's Handball World Championship for the fourth time
For the second time after the successful IHF Men's World Championship in 2019 organized with Denmark, the German Handball Association is once again co-hosting a world championship. The Women's World Championship is the female highlight in the decade of handball - for the fourth time after 1965, 1997 and 2017, a Women's World Championship is being held in Germany.
From 26 November to 9 December 2025 in Germany
The throw off is on 26 November 2025, when the preliminary round matches with two groups each will begin in the Porsche-Arena Stuttgart and the SWT Arena Trier, among others. The six preliminary round match days will take place until 1 December. Then, on the German side of the tournament, the main round will continue from 2 to 7 December in the Westfalenhalle Dortmund - two groups will play there. The two best teams in each of these groups will qualify for the quarterfinals on December 9 in the "heart of German handball". Semifinals and medal games will be played on 12 and 14 December 2025 in the Ahoj Hall in Rotterdam.
Preliminary Round groups in Trier and Stuttgart
The SWT Arena Trier, which has a capacity of 5,400 fans, was already one of the preliminary round venues at the last Women's World Championship in Germany in 2017. The German team aims to lay the foundation for its winter fairytale in the Porsche-Arena, which has a capacity of 6,200 visitors. The arena was already preliminary round venue for the Men's World Championship in 2007 and has also hosted numerous international matches, HBL Super-Cup matches and, since 2018, the HBF Cup Final4 tournaments.
Main Round and Quarterfinals in Dortmund's Westfalenhalle
The Westfalenhalle 1 in Dortmund, which will be a 12,000 seater for the World Championship, is one of the cult sites of German and international handball. Handball World Championship games were held there in 1961, 1965, 1982 and 2007 - in 1965 the women played in the large arena. In the 1970s and 1980s, Dortmund was VfL Gummersbach's second home for major European Cup games. On 19 February 2023, the women’s team of Borussia Dortmund set a new attendance record for German women's handball clubs in the hall with 11,112 fans at their European League victory against Siofok.
32 teams fight for the title
In addition to co-hosts Germany and the Netherlands, 16 other European teams will compete for the world title. They will be joined by five teams from Asia, four from Africa, four from South and Central America, and Cuba as the qualified team from North America and the Caribbean.
Serbia, Iceland, and Uruguay are the opponents of the German women's national team at the home World Cup starting on November 26.
These are the preliminary round groups for the 2025 Women's World Cup:
Group A in Rotterdam: Denmark, Romania, Japan, Croatia
Group B in 's-Hertogenbosch: Hungary, Switzerland, Senegal, Iran
Group C in Stuttgart: Germany, Serbia, Iceland, Uruguay
Group D in Trier: Montenegro, Spain, Faroe Islands, Paraguay
Group E in Rotterdam: Netherlands, Austria, Argentina, Egypt
Group F in 's-Hertogenbosch: France, Poland, Tunisia, China
Group G in Stuttgart: Sweden, Brazil, Czech Republic, Cuba
Group H in Trier: Norway, Angola, South Korea, Kazakhstan
Both hosts have won the World Championship once each: Germany in 1993 and the Netherlands in 2019. After the Men's EHF EURO in 2024, which broke all spectator records, the German Handball Association is hoping for a similar boom for the women's national team in 2025.
