The two events are scheduled to take place over two weeks in the Cretan city, with the youth tournament played between June 14 and 19 while the senior competition runs from June 21 to 26.

Provided it goes ahead, the senior event will be the first IHF World Championships since Kazan in Russia hosted the eighth edition in 2018.

The Italian city of Pescara was meant to stage the event in 2020 but it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brazil's men go to the tournament as reigning champions as they look to defend their title won in Kazan.

Despite experiencing a poor start with two losses in the first three games, they found their feet to eventually beat Croatia 2-0 in the final.

They are the most successful team in the men's tournament with five gold and two silver medals.

Greece's women will go into their home tournament with sights set on a second consecutive gold medal.

The Greeks won the first tournament in their history with a thrilling 2-1 win over Norway.

The Men's and Women's Youth Beach Handball World Championships has had to wait even longer since the first and last edition which took place in 2017.

Spain won the inaugural men's tournament while Hungary beat The Netherlands in the women's event in Flic-en-Flac in Mauritius.

Argentina claimed bronze in both competitions.

The youth event was scheduled to take place in Nazaré in Portugal in July 2021 but the IHF Council decided to move and postpone the event to 2022, once again because of the COVID-19 pandemic.