38 Fun Facts About Handball

A handball team has seven players on court; when may it send on substitutes?

At any time: substitutes come on over their own substitution line without telling the officials, once the player leaving has crossed off the court.

A tied handball knockout match goes first to what?

Extra time: two five-minute halves are played, and a second such period if still level, before a tie-breaker such as a seven-metre shootout.

On handball's 40-by-20-metre court, where does play restart after a goal?

From the centre: under the fast throw-off rule, the team that has just conceded can restart at once and hit back with a quick attack.

When handball's referees disagree on a punishment, which one is given?

The more severe one: the referees must first try to agree during a time-out, and only if they can't does the harsher call stand.

What earns a seven-metre throw in handball?

Foul on a clear chance: the throw is given wherever on court a clear chance is illegally destroyed, even by a spectator.

Handball's goal is the same size as which sport's goal?

Futsal: its inventor, Juan Carlos Ceriani, took the goals from handball when he drew up the game's rules in Montevideo.

Which card do handball referees show for a disqualification with a written report?

Blue: it tells everyone the referees will file a written report, so the disqualified player can face further punishment such as a ban.

Which handball attacker plays with their back to goal among the defenders on the goal-area line?

Pivot: also called the line player, it wrestles for space inside the defence, so strength and ball control matter more than jumping.

After a call against their team, what must a handball player holding the ball do?

Put it down at once: a player who holds on to the ball instead risks a two-minute suspension.

Which handball referee signal warns an attacking team that it must shoot soon?

Raising one hand high: if the attackers keep stalling after that warning, the referees can give the ball to the other team.

In handball, when a goalkeeper deflects the ball over the outer goal line, who gets possession?

The defending side: unlike a corner kick in football, the keeper's own team keeps the ball and restarts with a goalkeeper throw.

Which 1896 Olympic medallist published an early set of handball rules in 1906?

Holger Nielsen: the all-round sportsman also invented, in 1932, a method for reviving people who had drowned.

In which city were the modern handball rules published on 29 October 1917, the sport's accepted birthday?

Berlin: the game those rules set out had begun as a sport devised mainly for women and girls.

How was handball played at its 1936 Olympic debut?

Outdoors, 11 players: that field version was dropped, and handball returned to the Olympic programme only in 1972 as the indoor game.

In which city was the International Handball Federation founded in 1946?

Copenhagen: the founding congress also voted to dissolve the prewar International Amateur Handball Federation and hand its duties to the IHF.

Hassan Moustafa, who became IHF president in 2000, comes from which country?

He was appointed at the 28th Ordinary IHF Congress in 2000 and was still in office in 2025, a quarter of a century later.

Which country hosted the first indoor men's Handball World Championship in 1938?

Germany: the hosts won, and runners-up Austria were annexed by Germany just weeks later, in March 1938.

As of 2025, which nation had won the most men's Handball World Championships?

France: as recently as 1989 the team was playing in the second-tier B World Championship, where fifth place took it back to the top level.

Duda Amorim was named IHF World Player of the Year in 2014; which country did she play for?

Brazil: she followed her older sister Ana, who played for Brazil at the 2004 Olympics, into handball.

Which was the first non-European country to medal at the men's Handball World Championship, in 2015?

Qatar: the hosts took silver on home soil with a squad built largely from naturalised foreign players.

Which player scored 92 goals at the 2009 men's Handball World Championship?

Kiril Lazarov scored them for Macedonia, even though the team went out in the main round and finished only 11th.

Which was the first country outside Europe to win the women's Handball World Championship, in 1995?

South Korea: the team's later run to the 2004 Olympic final inspired Forever the Moment, a 2008 film about handball.

Which Norwegian goalkeeper won seven women's World Championship medals, the last of them in 2025?

Katrine Lunde: when her club Vipers Kristiansand went bankrupt in January 2025, she was able to sign for Denmark's Odense Håndbold.

Which three-time IHF World Player of the Year won Olympic handball gold in 2008, 2012 and 2020?

Nikola Karabatić: born in Niš, he lived there with his mother until he was about four, then joined his father, a handball player working abroad.

Which Danish star followed his father Flemming into the national handball team?

Mikkel Hansen: when his Danish club folded in 2012, he moved to Paris Saint-Germain and stayed for ten seasons.

Which Croatian playmaker earned the nickname "Handball Mozart"?

Ivano Balić played basketball in Split until 1995, when a coach who had played with his father persuaded him to try handball.

As of 2025, who is the only woman to have won four IHF World Player of the Year awards?

Cristina Neagu won three of those awards after a comeback: a shoulder injury kept her out for 605 days, and another injury cost her six months in 2013.

Anja Andersen's national women's team of the 1990s earned which nickname after their 1994 European gold?

The iron ladies: in the 1996 Olympic final, Anja Andersen missed a penalty that could have clinched it, but Denmark still took gold.

Inside the goal area, which parts of the body may a handball goalkeeper use to block the ball?

Any part, including the feet: court players may not play the ball with a foot or lower leg, but a keeper defending the goal area can kick it away.

Which club, like THW Kiel from Schleswig-Holstein, is Kiel's great handball rival?

SG Flensburg-Handewitt takes its double name from the 1990 merger of the handball sections of TSB Flensburg and Handewitter SV.

In 2011–12, what did THW Kiel become the first Handball-Bundesliga team to do?

Won every league game: about 20,000 fans packed Kiel's city hall square, where the players appeared in Top Gun-style flight suits.

Which German club won the 2025 EHF Champions League?

The title was worth €300,000 in prize money plus a shot at more at the IHF Super Globe in Saudi Arabia.

Which club made Domagoj Duvnjak handball's most expensive player when it signed him in 2009?

HSV Hamburg: in 2016 the league revoked its licence over irregular licensing papers, so the club could not play in the top two divisions the next season.

Which nation had won the most men's European Handball Championships, five, before 2026?

Sweden: yet as of Paris 2024 it had never won Olympic handball gold, finishing with silver four times.

Which Dane scored 62 goals at the Paris 2024 Olympic handball tournament?

Mathias Gidsel: as a youth he was thought too slight for the backcourt, and he later proved the doubters wrong.

Which beach handball goal is worth two points?

360-degree spin shot: beach handball rewards creative goals, and a goal scored by the goalkeeper also counts double.

Norway's women's beach handball team was fined €1,500 in 2021 for wearing what?

Bike shorts instead of bikini bottoms: after an outcry, including singer Pink offering to pay the fine, the IHF changed its rules to allow short tight pants.

Which country won the men's handball gold at the 1972 Munich Olympics?

Yugoslavia: IHF president Hans Baumann, who had led the federation since 1950, died in 1971 and never saw handball's Olympic return.