First meeting of the Professional Handball Board
Following the development from meetings at the EHF FINAL4 in May 2010 and at the EHF Congress in September 2010, the newly introduced Professional Handball Board held their first meeting in Vienna.
Jean Brihault and Jan Tuik as members of the EHF Executive Committee, Joan Marin and Gerd Butzek as representatives of the clubs in the name of Forum Club Handball, and Morten Stig Christensen and Philippe Bana as representatives for the National Federations/Nations Board as well as EHF President Tor Lian, EHF Secretary General Michael Wiederer and Assistant Secretary General Alexander Toncourt took part in the assembly.
Main topics discussed
Structural issues as well as positions of the PHB were conferred; several items for discussion were identified and examined.
A procedure focusing on the area of players’ salaries’ insurance during official events and other national team activities was established. This includes a pilot project with the National Federations in order to harmonize differences in the regional conditions.
The concept of merging the EHF Cup and the Cup Winner’s Cup into one European Cup competition in order to strengthen the competition structure shall be followed. Taking regional aspects into consideration, the Challenge Cup shall remain untouched.
The major issue of the international calendar will be treated further on the basis of the IHF calendar, which is to be received by the Continental Federations in the near future.
Furthermore the topics of TV rights, marketing rights, the awarding of events and technical matters such as the organisation of referee nominations were subjects at the meeting.
Meeting with stakeholders
After the meeting a working session with other stakeholders took place, including Jordi Pallarés (ASOBAL) and Reiner Witte (HBL) as representatives of the leagues and Jaume Fort representing the Player’s Union, which is currently under construction. The target was to include the stakeholders as soon as possible.
The recognition of their structure as well as a possible signing of a Memorandum of Understanding is planned for the end of January 2011.
Due to this development, the election of the Professional Handball Board Chairman (will be a member of the EHF Executive Committee) as well as the Deputy Chairman was postponed until the next meeting of the PHB, which is scheduled on 23/24 February 2011.
EHF President Tor Lian reflected very positively: “This very constructive meeting was in the sense of the introduction of the Professional Handball Board in order to reach the common goal for all our stakeholders.”
Additional Information
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EHF