Women's World Championship 2025 Preview Part 2: Group by group breakdowns

It's part 2 of our Women's World Championship preview, where we look at the standout teams and interesting stories from groups B to H before the fun begins on Wednesday.

We begin Women's World Championship week with our preview of the tournament. We discuss where the sport currently stands in the midst of a surge in popularity in other women's sports, before diving into the first of the eight preliminary round groups. And we speak to Japan's Clare Francis Gray as she prepares for her second World Championship, hearing her thoughts on the team's development, new coach Morten Soubak and what they have in store for their larger opponents in the much-anticipated Group A encounters. If you want to hear the second preview podcast, you can hear it right now as part of our bumper preview on patreon.com/handballhour

Saturday evening in the Bundesliga makes for compulsory viewing with Berlin hosting Kiel and Flensburg taking on Magdeburg. Tim Dettmar of the 3. Halbzeit (3rd half) podcast joins to help us preview this Super Saturday and the big news so far in this Bundesliga season.

Confirming the news we shared last month, the Men's Champions League will have a new look next season. We dive into the new structure, what it means and what we think of it. And over on Patreon: Filip Jicha has signed a new contract with Kiel, ending speculation about his future. Better the devil you know?

We're just a month into the new Champions League season but we're already getting a glimpse at the bigger picture as we put the spotlight on three teams which have impressed us so far and three we are worried about. Patreon subscribers got a chance last week to hear from Scott Harrington, perhaps the most-established native English-speaking coach in world handball, now you get to as well. Sitting at the Neistin club house, we spoke about his early start in coaching, his career to date, featuring spells as coach for Faroe Islands, China and current Champions League club Sola, as well as his return to Faroe Islands last year. We discuss what has changed since the emergence of Faroe Islands as a real handball nation, what the next generations have in store for us and his coaching desires for the future.

As is tradition, we dive into our full Bundesliga coverage with a few rounds under the belt to get a feel for what's actually happening in handball's strongest domestic league. Björn Pazen joins us to discuss the contrasting fortunes of the league's top dogs and who might emerge as this season's surprise package.

We launch the new handball season with a celebratory episode, reaching episode 300 of the podcast! In the eight years since we began, the handball world has changed a lot, so we look back at our first episodes to compare and contrast how things were and where we are today. Plus, we welcome Brian Campion back to the mic to celebrate with us.

As if the Bundesliga needs drama like this to garner attention! In one of the sport's most shocking turn of events in years, if not ever, Stefan Kretzschmar and Jaron Siewert have departed Fuchse Berlin. We dive into the timeline, the background and plenty more as we come to terms with a this news in an emergency morning club.

With HB Ludwigsburg filing for insolvency just over a year after reaching the Champions League final, the women's handball community has been dealt another major blow. Following Tobias Reichmann's column stated that women's handball should dream less, accept the reality and lower expectations, former German international and current team manager Anja Althaus bit back and led the charge in calling him out. We speak to Anja in the first of a two-part interview about the reaction and the state of women's handball in Germany. Part 2 is available on Tuesday for everyone on patreon.com/handballhour

During and after the beach handball EURO in Türkiye, Chris had the chance to speak to an array of fascinating people in the beach handball community, to get their thoughts on the latest major championship, their personal perspectives and the sport in a wider sense. We hear from Germany's gold medal winner Severin Henrich, Greece's Labrina Tsakalou, Malta's Liam Harrison and EHF Beach Handball Commission Chairwoman Gabriella Horvath.