2012 European Men's Handball Championship qualification  This article describes the qualification for the 2012 European Men's Handball Championship. The draw for the qualification round was held on 31 January 2010 at the EHF headquarters, in Vienna, Austria. Serbia (host nation), and France (defending champion), were directly qualified. 39 teams (including Serbia) had registered for participation. 37 teams competed for 14 places at the final tournament in 2 distinct Qualification Phases. In each phase, the teams were divided into several pots according to their positions in the EHF National Team Ranking list valid for the EHF EURO 2012 Qualification in Serbia. The seedings were completely known after the playing of the final week-end of the 2010 European Men's Handball Championship. Two options were available:  If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings. The participating teams were the 12 lowest ranked according to the EHF National Team Ranking list valid for the EHF EURO 2012 Qualification in Serbia. They were: , , , , , , , , , , and . The 12 teams divided into 3 groups, with the 3 winners advancing to the Qualification Phase 2. Venue: Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, London  Venue: Tbilisi Sports Palace, Tbilisi  Venue: Centre National Sportif d'Coque, Luxembourg  There were 28 teams participating at this phase. They were drawn into 7 groups of 4 teams with the first 2 in each group qualifying for the 2012 European Men's Handball Championship. The teams participating at this phase were: