The European qualification for the 2021 World Men's Handball Championship, in Egypt, would have been contested by the teams that did not qualify for the 2020 European Men's Handball Championship and the 20 teams that played the tournament but were not pre-qualified or failed to reach a qualifying ranking place.
Denmark as defending World Champions were already qualified and three best-ranked teams of the 2020 European Men's Handball Championship also booked their direct ticket.
Qualification Phase 1 comprised the 15 teams which haven't qualified for the EHF EURO 2020.
[1] On 25 March, the EHF announced that no matches will be played before June due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The ten aggregate winners would have advanced to the 2021 World Men's Handball Championship.