Despite Covid-19 restrictions affecting federations and clubs, the battle to reach the Men’s EHF EURO 2022 final in Budapest on 30 January 2022 began in early November with the first of six rounds of qualifiers.

The journey towards the Men’s EHF EURO 2022 in Hungary and Slovakia saw 22 teams in action in the opening two rounds of qualifiers, further highlighting the hard, meticulous and careful work carried out by federations to enable matches to be played in a safe environment during the pandemic.

In total, 32 teams in eight groups are set to vie for the 20 tickets reserved for each of the eight group winners and runners-ups, as well as the four best third-ranked teams.

Besides the hosts – Hungary and Slovakia – EHF EURO 2020 champions Spain and silver medallists Croatia have directly qualified for the 2022 event. The quartet threw off in the second edition of the EHF EURO Cup.

Digital success

In cooperation with DAZN Group, the EHF provided participating federations with more video content than ever. Through Socialie, a special content delivery platform, federations received tailor-made content almost in real time.

A total of 163 posts led to 1.1 million impressions and almost 500,000 video views on their own channels for the content published through Socialie.

In total, the social media coverage of the Men’s EHF EURO 2022 Qualifiers and EHF EURO Cup 2022 generated a reach of 12.5 million – with 2.3 million video views and 9.9 million photo impressions. This includes the EHF’s social media channels and those of federations, players and broadcasters.

The EHF EURO 2022 Qualifiers continue in January, March and April 2021 before the all-important final round of qualifiers in May 2021 determines the 24-team line-up for the final tournament in January 2022.