Guinea celebrates his first success at a handball World Cup: With a 33:31 win against Cuba, the West Africans complete the big tournament in 31 out of 32 participating nations. This is made possible by the “President’s Cup”: A small “tournament in the tournament”, in which the last of the preliminary round groups compete against each other again. But the event is not loved by all associations.
For example, Poland had to travel to Croatia for his participation in the placement round for ranks 25 to 32 extra from Denmark. To then in Porec In the smallest World Cup hall with a capacity of 3000 spectators, for example, against Kuwait 125 to play. For the former vice world champion in addition to the poor performance in the preliminary round.
Guinea’s greatest success in handball history, the country’s first World Cup victory at all, saw 91 spectators on Tuesday afternoon. Afterwards Bahrain defeated Algeria in the game for 29th with 29:26 (17:18) – in front of 110 fans. Negative highlight afterwards: 65 people followed the game for 27th place, which Kuwait won with 37:32 (17:16) against Japan.
Introduced 20 years ago, the tournament format was tested at the 2003 Junior World Cup. “Jogi and I won the loser tournament, as it was still said at the time,”reports ARD expert Dominik Klein in the Sportschau-Podcast “Handball on 1” about his experiences, which he gained together with Johannes Bitter. The former national team keeper adds: “We didn’t need the tournament, but at least it meant that we were able to look at Brazil a little.”
ARD reporter Florian Naß also knows the good side of the President’s Cup: “This is a really good thing for the small handball nations such as World Cup newcomers. And he pushes after: “It is a horror for teams like Poland – they must not participate, they have to.”
Stephanie Müller-Spirra /Dominik Klein /Johannes Bitter, Sportschau, 28.01.2025 4:58 p.m.
Marketing support and voices
The Cup was introduced by Hassan Moustafa, President of the World Handball Association IHF. At that time, the Egyptian beat three flies with one flap: on the one hand, the additional games help smaller handball nations to measure and learn internationally. At the same time, the games strengthen the media presence and support the associations in countries where handball is a rather small sport. But of course the Egyptian also secured the support of these nations within the World Handball Association.