Changes to the World Handball Championship could make it the best ever. Inas Mazhar reports The 20th World Handball Championship starting tomorrow in Germany is being called the best WHC ever. Although the description is relative, several superlatives will flank the event, according to reports by the event's holder, the International Handball Federation. The new match schedule, for example, includes 24 teams divided into six preliminary round groups. The top 12 teams make it through to the second round, while the 12 losers compete for the President's Cup, being held for the first time. Before establishing the world champion, a total of 92 games will have been completed, more than ever before. The whole spectacle is being performed in a total of 12 of the biggest sports arenas in Germany with a capacity of up to 20,000 seats each. The organisers, the German Handball Federation, and the event's holder, the International Handball Federation, expect more than 500,000 spectators which would set a record. IHF partner Sportfive has meanwhile sold rights to 100 TV stations worldwide, once again the highest rate ever reached in the sport. When selecting the referees, the IHF also broke new ground. Fifty of the world's top referee pairs had to undergo tests after which 36 were chosen. Completing the list are 50 honourary and full-time IHF collaborators who are to contribute to staging the championship. A medical symposium is to be held at the beginning of the championship in Berlin and Dormagen. Moreover, an international youth camp will be organised to welcome guests from all participating countries. Weeks prior the championship, the German Handball Federation made considerable promotional efforts to attract the public to the event. A road show has been touring the venues around Germany, meeting with a great response. The giant truck covered by a huge handball causes amazement and a stir wherever it appears. The IHF will show up with another ball. A Danish company, the official ball supplier of the championship and the Olympic Games, produced the world's largest (hand-knitted) handball. The manufacturing company did not give any figures about the size, weight or circumference of the monster ball, which has already applied to enter the Guinness Book of Records. The ball's dimensions are to be revealed tomorrow, the day of the opening match in Berlin, when the host nation takes on Brazil in G roup C. Twenty four teams will compete in 12 venues: Cologne, Hamburg, Mannheim, Dortmund, Lemgo, Wetzlar, Stuttgart, Halle, Magdeburg, Bremen, Kiel and Berlin. The teams are divided into six groups of four teams each. Group A includes Tunisia, Slovenia, Kuwait and Greenland in Wetzlar. Group B includes France, Iceland, Ukraine and Australia competing in Magdeburg. Group C comprises Germany, Poland, Brazil and Argentina in Berlin. In Bremen, the teams of Group D are world champions Spain, the Czech Republic, Egypt and Qatar. Group E includes Denmark, Norway, Hungary and Angola appearing in Kiel while Group F includes Croatia, Russia, Morocco and South Korea in Stuttgart. The teams ranked first and second in groups A, B, C and E, F, G are put together in groups M1 and M2 in the second round. The preliminary round results of the teams playing in the same round group are taken into consideration. The teams ranked third in groups A, B, C and D, E, F are put together in Group 1 and Group 2. The teams ranked fourth in groups A, B, C and D, E, F are put in Group 3 and Group 4. Groups 1 and 2 are to compete for places from 13 to 18 while groups 3 and 4 to compete for places from 19 to 24. The teams which are ranked second to seventh in the Germany World Championship will be eligible to compete in the qualifying round for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The preliminary competition will start the following day with two matches in each group being played daily. Unlike Germany, which meets lowly Brazil in the opener, Egypt faces a tough opener as it is scheduled to meet the world champions Spain, then the Czech Republic and Qatar in the group preliminaries. Egypt's administrative manager, Alaa El-Sayed, says the team faces a tough start in the preliminary round. "Normally, we used to start with the easy matches at the beginning of a tournament, and as you play more in the competition your level improves and you get into the mood. "But this time, we are required to start at our peak, to be very strong to face the world champions. We never cared before about the first match and its result. We used to start focusing from the second match and so on," El-Sayed said. Egyptian super star Hussein Zaki, who plays for Cuidad Real of Spain, believes this year's tournament is tougher than the others. "The chances of qualifying for the second round are now limited. Before, the 24 teams were divided into four groups of six teams each and the top four qualified for the second round but this year the 24 teams are divided into six groups of four teams each which means that only the top two teams will qualify for the main round," Zaki said. The Spanish--based handballer described himself as an "open book" to the Spanish team because he has been playing for years in Spain. "Many believe that I will be more useful to my team against Spain, but on the contrary, as much as I know them and their style of play, they also know me by heart and my tactics very well, so it will be easier for them to stop me. But there is no doubt I'll be guiding my colleagues on the court tomorrow. We have studied the team very well," Zaki added. President of both the International and Egyptian Handball Federations Hassan Mustafa spoke after Egypt beat the host nation Germany 30-29 in a friendly a week before the tournament. "I hope we are victorious in the World Championships this year, but I would like the public to know that this is a new team with only a few from the veterans left. Normally, it takes a team about three years to make it to the top standings on the international map, so we have to give the team some time. Remember, it took the team almost 10 years to make it to fourth place." In the World Handball Championships in France 2001, the Egyptian national team reached the semi-finals before ending up in fourth place, its highest ranking ever.
