Poreč is ready for the World Handball Championship in January

The World Handball Championship will be held from January 14 to February 2, 2025 in Croatia, Denmark and Norway, and Poreč, along with Zagreb and Varaždin, is the host city of the championship in Croatia. 

This is already the third time that the Žatika hall will host such a large handball competition, after the World Championship in 2009 and the European Championship in 2018.

More detailed information about the championship and preparations were presented at the press conference by the director of the SP Silvio Njirić from the Croatian Handball Association, the mayor of Poreč Loris Peršurić, the president  Sports Associations of the City of Poreč and member of the organizing committee Aleksandar Beaković and director of the TZ Poreč Nenad Velenik.

As Njirić pointed out in the introduction, in Poreč the national teams of France, Austria, Qatar and Kuwait will compete in group C of the championship during the first week of the competition, while the second week will be reserved for the President Cup - a consolation competition of the four-placed national teams by group. "Promotional activities have already started, including in Poreč, which can already see the championship mascot and other branding in several locations around the city, and all this will continue during Advent, where ticket sales will also be organized. Ahead of the World Cup, Croatia will play one preparatory match in Poreč on December 29 against the ever-improving Italian national team," said the director of the competition.

"Since 2008, when the Žatika hall was built, the sports beauty from Poreč has become one of the capitals of Croatian handball, but also of numerous other sports, where a number of top competitions are held, not only national, but also international. We are proud to host such a big sports event for the third time, at the last European Championship we were declared the best organizers and I am sure that this time we will show ourselves in the best light, as a real city of sports." said Mayor Peršurić.

Aleksandar Beaković said that nothing is left to chance in Poreč and that preparations have been going on for six months. "The fact that 200 people are needed to organize one match, and we have 22 matches scheduled in two weeks, is what kind of competition it is about..," said Beaković, emphasizing that although the organizing committee has a lot of work to do, they are ready for all challenges because they have a lot of experience considering that the gym has almost no free days every year.

"The World Handball Championship will bring to Poreč, in addition to top-quality handball and great entertainment and numerous fans in the off-season, foreign media who will promote the city with contributions and TV broadcasts of the match, as a co-organizer, but also as a champion of Croatian tourism.", said the director of the Tourist Board, Nenad Velenik, stressing that Poreč readily welcomes guests and continues to be the center of various events in Istria.

Photo: EFH Euro Poreč 2018, Tea Štokovac