Venues announced for the 2027 IHF Men's World Championship

The International Handball Federation announced this week that six venues in Germany will host the 2027 IHF Men’s World Championship. Munich, Stuttgart, Magdeburg, Kiel, Hanover and Cologne will set the stage for the best handball players in the world to compete for the coveted world title.

The championship will begin in the SAP Garden in Munich — the birthplace of Olympic indoor handball. The 11,500-spectator-capacity arena was inaugurated in September with three levels of VIP areas, retail stores, a restaurant, a parking garage, and a public rooftop terrace in addition to the sports facilities.

It also boasts a new Gaming Garden, the new gaming hotspot for southern Germany, which gives the eSport community a home.

Aside from Munich, the Porsche Arena Stuttgart, the Wunderino Arena in Kiel and the GETEC Arena in Magdeburg will also host the preliminary games. In these three arenas, the eight preliminary round groups will take place, with two for each venue. The top three sides in each group will progress to the main round, which will be played in the LANXESS arena in Cologne and the ZAG arena in Hannover. 

The quarter-finals and semi-finals, as well as the placement and medal matches, will also take place in Cologne’s 19,250-seat arena where fans can watch the new world champion will be crowned on January 31st, 2027.

"The venues for the 2027 IHF Men’s World Championship reflect the high quality and versatility of Germany’s exceptional arena landscape, each telling its own story. We look forward to welcoming 31 guest nations from around the world, for whom we aim to provide the best possible conditions," says Mark Schober, CEO of the German Handball Federation in the IHF’s official press release.

This edition of the competition will be one of the flagship events in the “Decade of Handball,” which began in 2023 with the IHF Men’s Junior World Championship.

Germany will also co-host the Women’s World Championship with the Netherlands in 2025. The 2027 World Women's Handball Championship will be held in Hungary in the cities of Budapest, Debrecen, Győr and Tatabánya, with exact dates and venues to be confirmed.

Key Dates of the 2027 IHF Men's World Championship:

• Preliminary Round: 13 or 14 January 2027 to 19 January 2027 in Munich, Stuttgart, Kiel, and Magdeburg
• Main Round: 20 to 25 January 2027 in Cologne and Hannover
• Final Round: 26 to 31 January 2027 in Cologne