Spain will be among the teams seeking to qualify for next year's Olympics in Paris ©Getty Images

The International Handball Federation (IHF) has announced the dates for six qualification tournaments for next year’s Olympics in Paris.

Denmark and Norway are the only teams to have so far secured their place at Paris 2024 along with Olympic hosts France after winning the 2023 IHF Men's World Championship and last year's European Women’s Handball Championship respectively.

It leaves 10 spaces up for grabs in both the women’s and men’s competitions for the Olympics.

Four of those places are set to be decided either in continental tournaments or the Women’s World Championship, scheduled to be held from November 29 and December 17 across Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

It has now been agreed by the IHF Executive Committee for three men’s Olympic qualifier to be held either on March 14 and 15 or March 16 and 17, followed by three women’s qualification tournaments on April 11 and 12 or April 13 and 14 where the rest of the Paris 2024 spots will be determined.

The IHF claimed that the two options would allow them to schedule matches in the "best possible way" in a bid to "avoid schedule clashes with local conditions and fulfil the TV requests which will arise as the qualified teams are known".

Denmark's women will be hoping to join the country's men at Paris 2024 ©Getty Images
Denmark's women will be hoping to join the country's men at Paris 2024 ©Getty Images

Spain, Sweden, Germany, Egypt and Hungary have automatically qualified for the men’s Olympic qualification tournaments having finished in the top eight at the World Championship.

The IIHF has placed Spain and Hungary in the first qualifier, Sweden and Egypt in the second and Germany and Norway in the third.

This could change should any of these countries earn Paris 2024 places through continental championships.

The remaining teams in each of the three qualifiers are expected to feature two from the best-ranked continent at the 2023 World Championship, two from the second-best continent and one each from the third and fourth-ranked continent, taking the total to six teams.

The outcome of the Women's World Championship will determine which teams will compete in the Olympic qualifiers, with those ranked from second to seventh earning a place in the three tournaments.

France are the defending Olympic champions in both the men’s and women’s events after beating Denmark and the Russian Olympic Committee respectively at Tokyo 2020.