The group stage matches were held at the Copper Box and the knockout rounds took place at the larger Basketball Arena.

Unlike in previous Olympics there was no placement matches involving the losing teams of the quarter-finals.

The medals for the competition were presented by Austin Sealy, Barbados, IOC Member, Gunilla Lindberg, Sweden, IOC Executive Board Member, and Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, Kuwait, IOC Member, and the medalists' bouquets were presented by Hassan Moustafa, IHF President, Egypt, Miguel Roca Mas, 1st IHF Vice President, Spain, and Leon Kalin, Slovenia, IHF Commission of Organising and Competitions.

Before the draw the IHF seeded the teams in six pots.

Jérôme FernandezDidier DinartXavier BarachetGuillaume GilleBertrand GilleDaniel NarcisseGuillaume JoliSamuel HonrubiaDaouda KarabouéNikola KarabatićThierry OmeyerWilliam AccambrayLuc AbaloCédric SorhaindoMichaël Guigou Head Coach: Claude Onesta Mattias AnderssonMattias GustafssonKim AnderssonJonas KällmanMagnus JernemyrNiclas EkbergDalibor DoderJonas LarholmTobias KarlssonJohan JakobssonJohan SjöstrandFredrik PetersenKim Ekdahl du RietzMattias ZachrissonAndreas Nilsson Head Coach: Staffan Olsson Venio LosertIvano BalićDomagoj DuvnjakBlaženko LackovićMarko KopljarIgor VoriJakov GojunZlatko HorvatDrago VukovićDamir BičanićDenis BuntićMirko AlilovićManuel ŠtrlekIvan ČupićIvan Ninčević Head Coach: Slavko Goluža