Handball (also known as team handball, field handball, European handball, or Olympic handball) is a team sport where two teams of seven players each (six players and a goalkeeper) pass and bounce a ball trying to throw it in the goal of the opposing team.
The game has a goal similar to but smaller than the one in association football, though as the name implies, the basic method of handling the ball involves the players' hands rather than their feet. The game has been played internationally since the 1920s.
The International Handball Federation organized the Men's World Championships in 1938 and every four (or sometimes three years) from World War II to 1995. Since the 1995 World Championship in Iceland, the competition has been held every two years. The Women's World Championships have been played since 1957. The IHF also organizes Women's and Men's Junior World Championships.
As of February 2007, the IHF lists 159 member federations which represent approximately 1,130,000 teams and a total of 31 million players, trainers, officials and referees.
Handball is played on a court forty meters long by twenty meters wide (40mx20m), with a dividing line in the middle and a goal in the center of either end. The goals are surrounded by a near-semicircular line that is generally six meters (6m) away from the goal. There is also a dashed near-semicircular line that is nine meters (9m) away from the goal. In established play (which is most of the time, although counterattacking is becoming increasingly important), the defenders stand right outside the 6m line, with the attacking players throwing the ball to each other a bit outside the 9m line, trying to create an attack (either by shooting from a distance, or passing to a player standing at the 6m line).