This Thursday (April 10) will see the draw made for the 2025 IHF Men’s and Women’s Youth (U17) Beach Handball World Championships.

Tunisia 2025 is the third edition of the global event and the second time it has visited Africa, following its debut in 2017 in Mauritius, where Spain’s men and Hungary’s women took the titles. Greece were the second hosts, in 2022, which saw Croatia (men) and Spain (women) win gold.

This year’s event will take place on Mamaia Beach in Hammamet, Tunisia, with the draw being made in the north-eastern town at 16:30hrs (local time in Tunisia, GMT+1) at the Dar Sebastien - International Cultural Center and streamed live on the IHF YouTube channel.

A total of 32 teams (16 in each competition) will find out their preliminary group opponents for the beach handball spectacular which also acts as a qualification event for the 2026 Youth Olympic Games, set to be held in Dakar, Senegal next year.

Hammamet has previously hosted a stage of the 2023 IHF Beach Handball Global tour and the beach handball events of the 2nd African Games.

Draw procedure
The draw for each competition will see 16 teams drawn into four preliminary groups of four teams each. Each team has been allocated a draw pot, with each pot seeing teams drawn into one preliminary group each – group A, group B, group C or group D. Pot 4 will be drawn first, followed by Pot 3, then Pot 2. 

As organisers, Tunisia, in Pot 1, have the right to choose the group in which they will compete. Once they have decided, the remaining teams in Pot 1 will be drawn. This applies for both the men’s and women’s competitions. 

Men’s competition
Pot 1: HUN, ARG, IRI, TUN
Pot 2: ESP, BRA, GER, THA
Pot 3: OMA, URU, TAN, MEX
Pot 4: KEN, PUR, COK, SEN*

Women’s competition
Pot 1: NED, FRA, CRO, TUN
Pot 2: HUN, BRA, GER, URU
Pot 3: CHN, THA, MEX, ESP
Pot 4: TAN, KEN, SEN*, BUL

*Senegal have been awarded a place in both competitions by the IHF Executive Committee, replacing one of the withdrawn teams. The decision was taken after taking into consideration that Senegal are the hosts of the 2026 Summer Youth Olympics, where beach handball will be present, and participating in this edition of the IHF Youth Beach Handball World Championships will help the nation prepare and build on their legacy.

Competition format

Both competitions feature four preliminary groups of four teams each, 16 teams in total. Each group will see teams playing each other once, with the teams ranked in the top three qualifying through to the main round.

The main round then features two groups of six teams each. Each team will take their preliminary results against the teams who qualify through with them into the group. They will each play three games each, against the teams from the parallel group who qualified through to their main round group. Then, the top four in each group will move into the quarter-finals and subsequent, semi-finals, medal matches and 5-8 placement round matches.

The bottom team in each preliminary group will drop into a consolation round, consisting of a group, with the teams who finish fifth and sixth in their respective main round groups joining later to play for the 9-16 places.

Player eligibility info

The 2025 IHF Men’s and Women’s Youth (U17) Beach Handball World Championships are for players aged between 15 years old (on or before the day of their first match) and 17 years old (players who have exceeded 17 years old in 2025 are not eligible to participate). Teams have to register a squad of 20 players two months before the start of the event (17 April 2025).

The throw-off times for matches at the 2025 IHF Men’s and Women’s Youth (U17) Beach Handball World Championships will be communicated in due course. The IHF reserves the right to change the throw-off times and other details of the match schedule at any time within the principles of the Regulations for IHF Competitions.