Besides Austria and the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands, France and Greece together with Bulgaria also applied for hosting the 2011 European Championships, but Austria together with the Czech Republic stood up to all rivals. 16 teams take part in the European Championships tournament; definite qualifiers in addition to the organisers Austria and the Czech Republic are also the five best teams at the European Championships in 2009: Bulgaria, France, Poland, Russia and Serbia.
This is a major step for the continued development of the Austrian national men’s team.

The participation in such European top league championships is a real sporting challenge for the  ustrian National Team, during which it can measure itself with the continent’s big teams. And also for Austria it is a big chance! After hosting the European Soccer Championships in 2008, the European Handball Championships in 2010 and the European Volleyball Championships in 2011 will be hold under the red-white-red flag. In Vienna, games will be played in the »Stadthalle«, in Innsbruck in the »Olympiaworld«, in Prague in the »O2 Arena« and in Karlsbad in the »KV Arena«.