Qatar, Egypt and Tunisia are among the twelve countries that have qualified for the men’s handball event at the Rio 2016 Olympic games.
The handball tournament will start off on August 7 with a match between Qatar and Croatia. The last two matches of the day will be Tunisia vs. France, followed by Egypt vs. Slovenia. The teams are also scheduled to play on August 9, 11, 13 and 15; Tunisia will face Qatar on the 11 th.
Competing nations are divided into two groups. Qatar and Tunisia are grouped with Argentina, Croatia, Denmark and France, while Egypt is grouped with Brazil, Poland, Germany, Slovenia and Sweden. Each team will face every team in its group once and the top four teams per group will proceed to the quarter-finals.
This marks the first time Qatar’s handball team participates in the Olympics. The World Championship runner-up qualified for Rio 2016 after defeating Iran last November in Doha’s Asian Olympic Qualifiers. The team was also chosen as the year’s best Arab national team by The Arab Union of Sports Press .
However, Qatar’s triumph has also been accompanied by a storm of controversy over the number of naturalized players on the team. Among the eight players listed on the handball Olympic squad , only one is originally from Qatar. Qatar’s national handball team currently includes players from Cuba, Montenegro, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. Le Monde has referred to it as a team of "mercenary" players from around the world, playing under the name of Qatar.
Qatar’s Handball Association chief Ahmed Mohammed Abdulrab Al Shaabi defended the team by saying, “We’re a small nation with limited human resources, so we had to bring players from outside.”
On the other hand, the African Arab teams are no strangers to the Olympic Games. Since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Egypt has participated in every Olympic handball event, with the exception of London’s 2012 Olympics. Its biggest Olympic accomplishment occurred in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, when it ranked sixth place.
Egypt’s handball team has also accomplished impressive results in the Youth Olympic Games, reaching the finals during both times it participated. It won first place in the 2010 Singapore YOG and second place in the 2014 China YOG.
Egypt qualified for Rio 2016 after defeating Tunisia and winning the African Nations Cup for the sixth time this January. Yet, Tunisia still managed to book its ticket to Rio via the Olympic Qualification Tournaments that were held in Poland in April.
Tunisia took part in the 1972 Munich, 2000 Sydney and 2012 London Olympic handball tournament, ranking 16/16, 10/12 and 8/12 respectively. The country has been one of Egypt’s main rivals in the African Nations Cup, whose trophy was lifted by Tunisia nine times.
Upon their recent victories, the three teams have also secured their spots in the IHF World Men’s Handball Championship that will take place in France next year.