2012 European Men's Handball Championship

Bidding process

The bids were as follows:

• FRA France
• GER Germany
• SRB Serbia Serbia was awarded the championship on the EHF Congress in Vienna 27 September 2008, narrowly defeating the French bid by three votes. Serbia would host the tournament in the cities of Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad and Vršac.

Qualification

Main article: 2012 European Men's Handball Championship qualification

The 2012 Championship was the second for which the new qualification system was used.

Qualified teams

:1 Bold indicates champion for that year

Squads

Main article: 2012 European Men's Handball Championship squads

Venues

• Source: Serbian Handball Federation: Euro 2010

Audience

File:Arena Beograd.jpg|Belgrade Arena. File:Mascot Tasa with Macedonian fan.JPG|Маscot Tasa (eagle) with Macedonian fan in Belgrade Arena File:Serbian and Macedonian fans.JPG|Serbian and Macedonian fans in Belgrade Arena File:Arena navijanje.ogv|Serbian and Macedonian fans in Belgrade Arena, Serbia vs Germany File:Makedonski navijači.ogv|Macedonian fans in Belgrade Arena.

Referees

On 12 September 2011, 12 couples were announced in Vienna.

List of broadcasters

Seeding

The draw was held on 15 June 2011 in Belgrade at 12:00 local time. The seeding was announced on 13 June 2011.

Group stage

The match schedule was released and confirmed on 18 April 2011. Four teams were selected to play in the four venue cities, Serbia in Belgrade, Macedonia at Niš, Hungary at Novi Sad and Croatia in Vršac. The playing schedule was announced on 1 July.

All times are UTC+1.

Group A

Venue: Pionir Hall, Belgrade

Group B

Venue: Čair Sports Center, Niš

Group C

Venue: Spens Sports Center, Novi Sad

Group D

Venue: Millennium Centar, Vršac

Main round

Group stage results between teams that qualified for the main round were carried over.

Group I

Venue: Belgrade Arena, Belgrade

Result

Initial standing and matches

(A) and (B) indicates from which group the teams came; in the main round they were playing only against teams from the other group. By three victories and the misfortune of among others Germany, Denmark qualified for the semifinals together with the host, Serbia. Notable results were Denmark's last second win against Macedonia and Poland's turnaround of first-half 9-20 result to win second half by the same numbers to equalize against Sweden.

Group II

Venue: Spens Sports Center, Novi Sad

Result

Initial standing and matches

(C) and (D) above indicates from which group the teams came, in the main round they are only playing against teams from the other group.

Knockout stage

Venue: Belgrade Arena, Belgrade

Bracket

|27 January – Belgrade||26||22 |27 January – Belgrade||24||25 |29 January – Belgrade||19||21 |29 January – Belgrade||31||27

Semifinals

Fifth place game

Bronze medal game

Final

The final was played at the Belgrade Arena between the host-nation Serbia and Denmark, and was seen by 19,800 spectators. The teams played a match against each other in the group stage of the tournament, when Serbia defeated Denmark 24–22. Serbia's coach Veselin Vuković could not rely on Žarko Šešum, whose left eye was injured after he was hit with a bottle on the halftime break of the semi-final match against Croatia.

The match started with tough play by both teams and low scoring. Denmark claimed the lead in the early phase of the match and controlled the period. Serbia's attacks were ineffective, and goalkeeper Darko Stanić made several saves. The Danes made fewer mistakes in the attacks and Anders Eggert scored important goals in the counter-attacks. Denmark led at halftime 9–7.

Early in the second half Denmark took an 11–7 lead, but then the Serbian players halted the opponent's run with a better play in defence, except for Mikkel Hansen who scored with his powerful shots in the critical moments of the game. The Danes were having the lead all the time with a margin of 1–4 goals and thanks to the saves of their goalkeeper Niklas Landin Jacobsen prevented the Serbians to level the result. The last minutes of the game were played with many mistakes on both sides, but Hansen scored the decisive goal for peerless lead 21–18 with 20 seconds to go. Serbia scored until the end making it 21–19 in favor of Denmark at the end. This was the second title for Denmark after they have previously won the European Championship in 2008.

Ranking and statistics

Final ranking

The final ranking for places 7 to 16 was determined by the team's group stage record. In case the ranking would have been relevant for Olympic qualification, there would have been a placement match for 7th and 9th place.

All Star Team

• Goalkeeper: Darko Stanić
• Left Wing: Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson
• Left Back: Mikkel Hansen
• Centre Back: Uroš Zorman
• Pivot: Rene Toft Hansen
• Right Back: Marko Kopljar
• Right Wing: Christian Sprenger

Other awards

• **Top Scorer **: Kiril Lazarov
• **Best Defence Player **: Viran Morros
• Most Valuable Player: Momir Ilić Source: ehf-euro.com, 29.01.2012

Top goalscorers

Source: EHF

Controversies

Riots

On 24 January 2012, after the match between Croatia and France, Serbian hooligans attacked Croatian fans in several locations in Vojvodina, northern Serbia. In Novi Sad, Croatian supporters were heading home after the game, when they ran into a road block and some 50 masked men assaulted them with stones, bricks and axes, smashing windscreens. The attack left several supporters injured and one of them hospitalized. In Ruma, about 30 km south from Novi Sad, a Croatian van was set on fire and one of the passengers stabbed with a knife.

A day later the unrest continued and many cars were damaged, torched, or burnt out throughout Novi Sad. The Croatian Foreign Ministry officially complained to Serbian Ambassador Stanimir Vukicevic over the attacks; Vukicevic expressed regret and stated that the Serbian police was already taking the necessary steps. Thirteen people were arrested in connection with the incident, including Ivan Ključovski and Jovan Bajić, leaders of a fan group from Novi Sad, and a member of the Obraz right-wing organization. After questioning, all of them remained in custody for a month.

Serbia–Croatia semifinal

Serbia and Croatia met in the semi-final of the tournament, which caused further concern on both sides. About 5,000 policemen were deployed to ensure the security of the fans, while in Croatia some tourist agencies cancelled trips for the match and the Croatian Handball Federation (Hrvatski rukometni savez, HRS) also recommended not to go to Serbia as the supporters' safety might not be guaranteed. Spokesman Zlatko Skrinjar also added that the HRS had planned to organize trips for the event, however, they changed their mind due to the incidents in the preceding days. On the Croatian-Serbian border, joint checkpoints were set up to prevent hooligans and other groups who have no ticket for the match to enter Serbia, and to escort the fans with tickets from the border to Belgrade.

The police reported that there were no incidents during the match, which was eventually won by the Serbians 26–22, however, a bottle actually meant for Croatian playmaker Ivano Balić and coach Slavko Goluža hit Serbian back player Žarko Šešum, severely injuring his eye. Šešum's eye suffered significant bleeding. After the trauma he had only minimal vision on the affected eye, but the risk of permanent sight loss was reportedly averted. Morten Stig Christensen, Secretary of the Danish Handball Federation, Serbia's opponent in the final said that he was "severely shocked" by the incident and so were the people from the European Handball Federation with whom he spoke. Christensen also added that he was shocked that although there were more than five thousand security personnel at the stadium, the hooligans still managed to sneak in Roman candles and laser lights.

References

References

1. (28 January 2012). "Serbian hooligans spoil European handball championships". [[Deutsche Welle]].
2. (12 September 2011). "Referees nominated for EHF EURO 2012". ehf-euro.
3. (17 May 2011). "EHF EURO 2012 Final Tournament Draw". eurohandball.com.
4. (15 June 2011). "The draw has been made for EHF EURO 2012". eurohandball.com.
5. [http://cms.eurohandball.com/PortalData/1/Resources/1_ehf_main/EHF_EURO_Draw_Procedure.pdf Draw Procedure]
6. (18 April 2011). "EHF EURO 2012 match schedule". ehf-euro.com.
7. (13 June 2011). "Draw procedures for EHF EURO 2012". eurohandball.com.
8. (1 July 2011). "Official Playing Schedule". eurohandball.com.
9. [http://cms.eurohandball.com/ResourceImage.aspx?raid=11094 Playing schedule]
10. [http://www.eurohandball.com/ech/men/2012/match/1/059 2012 Men's European Championship – Final] {{Webarchive. link. (8 March 2012 , ''[[European Handball Federation). EHF]]'' official web site.
11. [http://www.telegraf.rs/sport/44297-sesum-zbog-kretenskog-ispada-navijaca-propusta-finale Šešum zbog kretenskog ispada “navijača” propušta finale], ''Telegraf'', 28 January 2012. {{in lang. sr
12. Björn, Pazen. (29 January 2012). "Denmark win gold at Euro 2012". [[European Handball Federation]].
13. (25 January 2012). "Croatian handball fan stabbed in Serbia". T-Portal.
14. (25 January 2012). "Croat fans attacked in northern Serbia". B92.
15. (25 January 2012). "Croatia protests to Serbia over assaults on fans". Macedonian International News Agency.
16. (26 January 2012). "Cars set on fire after handball match". B92.
17. (26 January 2012). "Police continue search for attackers". B92.
18. (28 January 2012). "Suspects for attack on Croat fans remanded in custody". B92.
19. (26 January 2012). "Sports: Violence hurts Serbia's name in intl sports – again". Adkronos.
20. (27 January 2012). "Handball grudge match grips Serbia's capital". [[Al Jazeera English.
21. (27 January 2012). "5,000 police to secure Serbia-Croatia game". Tanjug.
22. (28 January 2012). "No incidents reported at Serbia-Croatia handball match in Belgrade". T-Portal.
23. (27 January 2012). "Serbian handball player struck in eye by dart". [[Yahoo!]].
24. (28 January 2012). "Serbiens træner: Sesum ude af EM". [[TV 2 (Denmark)]].
25. (28 January 2012). "DHF-boss: Jeg er voldsomt rystet". [[TV 2 (Denmark)]].