Swedish anger against the rules: "It is not sportingly fair"

On Thursday, the women's European Championships will be drawn in Montenegro, Northern Macedonia and Slovenia in November.

Sweden has ended up in seeding pot 2 together with the Netherlands, Montenegro and Hungary.

Poland, which finished in 14th place out of 16 teams in the European Championship 2020, has been seeded together with major handball nations such as Norway, Denmark and France, which Handbollskanalen reported on.

Poland has simply taken over Russia's results since the country was expelled as a consequence of the invasion of Ukraine.

On paper, Poland thus won its qualifying group and finished fifth, rather than in 14th place, in the European Championships 2020.

"It's unfortunate"

- I have read the answer from the International Handball Federation, IHF, and understood that they made decisions based on the regulations.

I think it's unfortunate that a worse team ends up in pot 1. It affects the tournament in a way that is not sportingly fair, says national team captain Tomas Axnér.

TT: In what way?

- You can be lucky with the draw of course, but other nations risk getting teams that should have been in a higher pot.

The best team should be in pot 1.

The decision means that Poland takes over the Netherlands' place in the highest pot and can thus be seen as positive from Swedish eyes as Sweden can get an easier lot.

- Absolutely it can be so if we end up in the same group as Poland.

But you should not be happy if you benefit from bad rules, says Tomas Axnér.

The team captain wants to avoid

Instead, he wants to see a ranking system similar to the one in football where more consideration is given to newer championship results, rather than starting from the latest European Championship and the qualifying game.

TT: What is the dream lot?

-The other three teams in the first pot are strong and difficult, so you have to choose where you take Poland.

Probably prefers Northern Macedonia over Slovenia.

Spain and Romania could have been higher up, so they would probably prefer Switzerland.

Poland, Northern Macedonia, Sweden and Switzerland sound like a good group.

TT: Nightmare castle then?

- Always difficult in the European Championships with so many good teams.

It is probably the championship with the highest quality of the team where there are no blinders.

From the first pot, Norway and France are probably a little better than Denmark and in pot three, Germany is the best team, so we like to avoid those teams.

Aiming for the top five in the world

Axnér concludes by assessing the Swedish chances in the European Championships.

-We have made two strong championships with a fifth place in the World Cup and a fourth place in the Olympics.

-There are 8-9 teams that can make it to the semifinals.

We want to be among the five best national teams in the world and if we are in the top five in the European Championships, we are there, says the national team captain.