A handball World Cup in Egypt with seven African countries and a France in doubt

The Egyptian Yahia Omar.

REUTERS - THILO SCHMUELGEN

Text by: Farid Achache Follow

3 min

The 2021 Men's Handball World Cup begins on Wednesday, January 13, in Egypt, and takes place without spectators at the four competition venues. 

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This 2021 edition, organized for the second time in Egypt after that of 1999, will take place in a particular context with the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 32 selections will have to adhere to a strict health bubble.

Players and staff will only be able to leave their hotel for training and matches, in order to limit the risk of contamination.

The tournament takes place behind closed doors.

The competition will take place in four venues in Cairo, New Cairo, City of October 6 and Alexandria.

The opener is scheduled for Wednesday between Egypt and Chile at Cairo Stadium Hall, which will also host the final in three weeks.

France will have to pull out all the stops

Six times world champion, - the last title dates back to 2017 -, three times European champion, and double Olympic champion, the French men's handball team will start this campaign with doubts.

For their last outing before the Egyptian World Cup, Guillaume Gille's men narrowly escaped a new setback against Serbia, Saturday January 9 (26-26).

“ 

Everything is a bit rough, there is not much missing and he is missing a lot

, commented Vincent Gérard, the goalkeeper of the Blues.

We can retain the state of mind, we have been in difficulty but we have shown self-sacrifice.

 "

Led by three goals a quarter of an hour from the end, the French indeed had the merit of avoiding a new defeat in qualifying for Euro 2022, against the Serbs, like that of January 5 (27-24).

The France team, which finished in a pitiful fourteenth place at Euro 2020, will start the competition on Thursday January 14 against Sander Sagosen's Norway.

Egypt expected at home

With this 32-team World Cup, there will be seven countries representing the African continent: Algeria, Angola, Cape Verde, Egypt, Morocco, DRC and Tunisia.

With the old 24-team formula, only three nations had the opportunity to participate in the competition.

In 2005, Tunisia obtained the best result on the continent.

At home, the Tunisians were classified fourth after the small final lost against France.

The African continent will come into play with a meeting between Algeria, absent since 2015, and Morocco next Thursday.

Egypt, reigning African champion, will obviously be eagerly awaited at home.

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