9th EHF Referee Candidates Course

The 9th EHF Referee Candidates course will be held from 17 to 24 July 2011 in Rijeka, Croatia. The course is open to six pairs and carried out within the framework of the 6th European Universities Handball Championship, a tournament hosted by the Croatian Universities Sport Federation (CUSF).

Six referee couples, who have been officiating matches in their highest national division, have been nominated from their respective national federation to participate as candidates. The course includes educational sessions as well as regular practice as referees at the European Universities Handball Championship on a daily basis.

During the course, all referee couples will face exams, including two theoretical tests, a physical test, an English language test and an analysis of the observations of their performance in the matches of the European Universities Handball Championship.

Referee couples passing the exams will receive the badge of Continental EHF Referees. This badge enables them to officiate matches in EHF competitions, including European Cup and European national team competitions.

Referee Candidates

• Tomislav Cindric / Robert Gonzurek (CRO)
• Martin Lillepea / Marion Kull (EST)
• Robert Schulze / Tobas Tönnies (GER)
• Allan Stokes / Brian Bartlett (SCO)
• Marko Boricic / Dejan Markovic (SRB)
• Mirza Kurtagic / Mattias Wetterwik (SWE)

Presenters

• Dragan Nachevski (MKD), EHF TRC member since 2009, former top IHF and EHF referee
• Ekke Hoffmann (GER), former women’s national team coach of Germany
• Antonio Goulao (POR), EHF lecturer since 2010, former top IHF and EHF referee
• Vladimir Rancik (SVK), EHF office staff member since 2009, BG Competitions (Refereeing), former top IHF and EHF referee

Referee Course History

Eight EHF Referee Candidates courses were held to date.

• August/September 2007 in Zaporozhye/UKR
• October 2007 in Rotterdam/NED (parallel with a course for delegates)
• March 2008 in Lagoa/POR
• May 2008 in Lignano Sabbiadoro/ITA
• March 2009 in Veria/GRE
• June 2009 in Ljubljana/SLO
• December 2009 in St. Gallen/SUI
• June 2010 in Nicosia/CYP

EHF Competitions Commission / Technical Refereeing Committee

The Competitions Commission (CC) has been part of the EHF structure since the foundation of the European Handball Federation in 1992. Back then, there was a Technical Commission dealing with all the technical matters in handball.

Due to the rapid development in handball, the Technical Commission soon split into two new commissions, the Competitions Commission and the Methods Commission. The responsibility of the CC is to deal with all the competitions matters of the EHF events, playing system of competitions and regulations based on the EHF Refereeing structure.

The CC’s fields of activity include men’s competitions, women’s competitions, club competitions and last but not least refereeing.

In order to guarantee high level refereeing all over the European handball courts, various programmes have been targeting referee- and delegate education with a special focus on young referees and female referees.

To take the subject to the next level, the EHF Executive Committee made a decision to set up a new specialised body. The EHF Technical Refereeing Committee (TRC) was formed to serve as a visionary group contributing to the further development of the European refereeing standards.

The chairman of the EHF Technical Refereeing Committee is Sándor Andorka (HUN), who is responsible for refereeing matters within the EHF Competitions Commission. The members Jiri Konecny (CZE), Dragan Nachevski (MKD) and Peter Olsson (SWE) complete this commitee. Henrik La Cour Laursen (DEN) participates at the TRC meetings as the person responsible for the EHF YRP.

Hosting City – Rijeka, Croatia

Rijeka is located on the Adriatic coast in Croatia’s northeast. It has a Mediterranean climate with temperatures from 25˚C to 37˚C in summer. With its 144,000 inhabitants Rijeka is the third largest city in Croatia.

During the colourful history of the city, it was under many different rulers, such as Habsburg, Venetians and Hungarians. The result of it is a multiethnic city, whose people greet their guests with a special kind of hospitality.

The University of Rijeka was founded in 1973 but its roots date back to the 17th century when the Rijeka Jesuit gymnasium was established. Today it is a modern university with over a 20,000 students and with a straight vision of combining academic achievements alongside with those on sport fields.

Further information

View the Official Course Leaflet (pdf)

Find more information about the 6th European Universities Handball Championship at www.handball2011.uniri.hr