How to watch France 2017 Handball World Championships
The 2017 Handball World Championship in France was one of the sport’s great tournaments: 84 matches across eight host cities — Paris, Nantes, Rouen, Metz, Lille, Albertville, Montpellier and Brest — ending with the home nation, the famous “Experts,” lifting the trophy in front of their own fans in Paris. For handball supporters, it was a reminder of both how thrilling the World Championship is and how frustrating it can be to actually watch it from abroad.
That second part hasn’t changed. The IHF World Championship returns every two years, national leagues and European competitions run all season, and the broadcasting rights remain scattered across a patchwork of national channels. If you’re a handball fan living or travelling outside your home country, this guide explains how to watch every match online, wherever you are.
Why Handball Is So Hard to Watch Abroad
Handball broadcasting rights are sold country by country. In France, major tournaments are typically split between pay-TV sports channels and free-to-air coverage of the biggest matches; in Germany and Scandinavia, national team games often stream free on local platforms; elsewhere, coverage may be minimal or locked behind a local subscription.
The result: the stream you’d happily watch at home is geo-blocked the moment you cross a border. Open your usual broadcaster’s site from New York, Singapore or Dubai and you’ll hit the familiar message that the content “is not available in your region.” The broadcaster checks your IP address, sees a foreign location, and shuts the door — even if you pay for the service at home.
The Solution: Watch Handball With a VPN
A VPN gets around geo-blocking by changing where you appear to be. When you connect to a Le VPN server in France, you browse with a French IP address; connect to a German server, and German streaming platforms treat you as a viewer in Germany. In a few clicks, without moving from your sofa, you’re virtually back in your home country — and your home broadcasters work again.
Here’s the whole process:
- Get a Le VPN subscription and install the app on your device — PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad or Android are all supported.
- Connect to a server in the broadcaster's country. Le VPN has servers in 100+ locations, including France (with several city options), Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Spain and Croatia — essentially every major handball nation. See the full list on the servers page.
- Open the broadcaster's website or app and stream as if you were at home. You can verify your new virtual location first at the IP test page.
If a particular platform is fussy — some streaming services actively detect VPN traffic — simply try another server in the same country. With multiple French locations available (Paris, Lille, Marseille and more), there’s always an alternative.
More Than the World Championship
The same trick covers the whole handball calendar and far beyond:
- World and European Championships — connect to your home country's server and watch your national broadcaster's coverage, commentary and all.
- Domestic leagues — French, German, Danish and Spanish league streams open the same way.
- Everything else on TV — with a French IP you can watch French channels' live streams and catch-up services exactly as if you were in France; the same goes for any of the 100+ countries and locations on the network.
And because a VPN encrypts your entire connection, you get a genuine security upgrade thrown in: your streaming and browsing stay private even on hotel and airport Wi-Fi — exactly the networks travelling sports fans use most.
One Account, All Your Screens
A single Le VPN subscription covers up to 5 simultaneous connections, so the big match can run on your laptop while your phone and tablet stay protected too. Apps are available for Windows, macOS, iOS and Android, with modern protocols (OpenVPN, WireGuard, Stealth WireGuard, IPSec/IKEv2) to keep streams fast and stable.
France 2017 showed what a World Championship can be. Don’t let geography decide whether you see the next one. Sign up for Le VPN and watch every match from anywhere — your first purchase is backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.
