World Club Handball Championship Kicks Off with Participation of Kuwait's Burqan Club
Cairo, 24 Sep (KUNA) -- The 19th edition of the IHF Club World Championship (Egypt 2026) kicked off on Thursday, featuring a select group of the world’s top handball clubs, including Kuwait’s Burqan Club, which is making its debut in the tournament’s history.
Abdulaziz Najib, manager of the handball department at Burqan Club, told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that the team is fully prepared for its anticipated participation in the championship. He noted that training sessions and friendly matches have resulted in “excellent” technical preparation and “ideal” readiness to compete in what he described as the strongest tournament globally.
Najib said the preparation plan began on July 25 with local training sessions in Kuwait, followed by an external training camp held from August 31 to September 20.
He explained that Burqan played four friendly matches during the external camp to finalize its form and fully prepare its technical and tactical aspects. He praised the “tangible” results and the “high” technical level displayed by the players during the preparation period.
Najib added that participating in the world championship is a “unique” opportunity to compete against the best teams and levels on the international stage, emphasizing that this experience represents a “real test” of the players’ level and will have a “positive” impact on the team’s performance in upcoming tournaments and competitions.
The IHF Club World Championship features 10 teams representing the six continents, along with the previous edition’s champion, the host nation’s representative, and two invited teams. The participating clubs are Spain’s Barcelona, Germany’s Füchse Berlin, Hungary’s Veszprém, Egypt’s Al Ahly and Al Zamalek, Morocco’s Montada, Brazil’s EC Pinheiros, the United States’ Los Angeles, Australia’s University of Sydney, and Kuwait’s Burqan.
The tournament, hosted at the New Capital Arena in Egypt, began on Thursday evening with two preliminary round matches. In the first match, Veszprém defeated the University of Sydney 45-19. The second match, currently underway, pits Al Zamalek against Los Angeles.
The group stage consists of two groups, each comprising four clubs. Teams will play a single round-robin format. After the group stage concludes, the top team from each group will advance to the final, while the second-placed teams will compete for third and fourth place.
Teams finishing third and fourth in each group will play for fifth through eighth place, while the two teams eliminated in the preliminary round will face each other to determine ninth and tenth place.
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