Check out these interesting facts about handball:

1. The first World Championship was held in 1938
The first World Championship was played in February in 1938, and it was held in Germany. Four teams participated: Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Germany itself. Two days were enough to organize a small tournament where they played all against each other. The final ranking was: 1st Germany, 2nd Austria, 3rd Sweden and 4th Denmark.

2. The lowest scoring match: 3 goals
The match with less goals scored was seen in the first World Championship, in Germany in 1938. Sweden played against Denmark and the final score was 2-1, giving the Swedish team the victory.

3. The highest scoring match: 83 goals
The match with most goals of the World Championships' history was in the 2007 tournament quarter finals between Island and Denmark. The Danish country qualified after winning 42-41: 83 goals in total.

4. Spain holds the record of 40 goals in a final
Spain has been the only team able to score 40 goals in a final. It was against Croatia in Tunisia in 2005 and the final score was 40-34.

5. There are world champions that don't exist anymore
There are four countries that were champions of world tournaments that don’t exist anymore: Czechoslovakia (1967), Federal Republic of Germany (1978), URSS (1982) and Yugoslavia (1986).

6. Only one non-European team has ever won a medal
Qatar is the only non-European country that has ever won a medal in handball. The other countries which got close were Egypt in France 2001, and Tunisia in its own country in 2005. Both of them reached semifinals and finished in the fourth position.

7. Handball was played in football pitches with 11 players
For a period of time in the 20th century, the most popular version of handball was played in a football pitch with 11 players per team. However, the World Championships have always been played in indoor courts with seven players in each team. During some time both varieties coexisted, each one with its own tournaments.