For the 2010 European Championship, a new qualification system was used for the first time, following its approval by the European Handball Federation at its 9th extraordinary congress, in Lillehammer, Norway, on January 26, 2008. Under this new system, all participating national teams, except the host country and defending champion teams, had to play the qualification round in order to reach the final round tournament. Sixteen teams were to participate in the final tournament in Austria, whose team qualified directly by virtue of being the host nation, along with Denmark, the 2008 champion. From EHF's 50 member federations, 38 had initially registered for the qualification matches, but with the withdrawal of Georgia and Moldova, only 36 teams played for the 14 final places still available. These teams were drawn into six groups of five teams and one group of six teams. Each team played twice against all the other teams in its group, in a home-and-away basis, and at the completion of all matches, the top two teams from each group qualify for the final tournament.
Seeding
The draw for the qualification round was held on April 18, 2008, during the EHF Competitions Conference, in Vienna. Teams were allocated to several pots according to EHF's national team ranking, and were successfully drawn so that each qualification group contained one team from each pot. Teams ranked 1–4 were drawn into one of the five-team groups.
Pot 1
Pot 2
Pot 3
Pot 4
Pot 5
Pot 6
are already assured of places at Euro 2010 as host nations. ;Note: Georgia and Moldova registered for participation in the qualification matches and were drawn into [|Group 1] and [|Group 3], respectively, but ended up withdrawing from the qualification.
Tiebreakers
If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings.
Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question.
Superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question.
Higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question.
If, after applying criteria 1) to 3) to several teams, two or more teams still have an equal ranking, the criteria 1) to 3) will be reapplied to determine the ranking of these teams. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5), 6) and 7) will apply.
Superior goal difference from all group matches played.
Higher number of goals scored in all group matches played.
Below is a table containing all seven qualifying groups. Teams that have secured a place in the final tournament are highlighted in green. The order of teams is by final group position.
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
Group 6
Group 7
Groups
The qualifying process started in October 2008. Austria was granted places in the tournament finals as host nations. The draw for the qualification round defined the groups shown below. A provisional match schedule was elaborated and distributed to all national federations taking part in this round, and following negotiations a final schedule was approved. The qualification matches began on October 29, 2008, and ended on June 21, 2009. Key:
Teams highlighted in green qualified for the finals.
