Official meetings on fringes of EHF EURO 2014

Several meetings took place during the final weekend of the Women's EHF European Championship in Budapest.

Women’s EHF EURO 2018

Looking ahead to the Women’s EHF EURO 2018, the EHF leadership met with the French Organising Committee of the event to discuss the organisational structure, venue issues and the timeline going forward.

EHF Marketing General Assembly

The EHF’s subsiduary company, EHF Marketing GmbH, which is responsible for club issues including the VELUX EHF Champions League and the Women’s EHF Champions League, held its General Assembly on Saturday, 20 December.

The Assembly was conducted in the presence of Jean Brihault, the EHF President, members of the Executive, comptrollers and club representatives from the advisory board.

The final accounts for 2013/14 were agreed as was the updated 2014/15 budget.

EHFM Managing Director Peter Vargo presented a report on the development of EHF Marketing, its organisational structure, tasks and responsibilities as well as future developments.

During the meeting a contract was signed with the Hungarian Handball Federation by the EHF President and Michael Wiederer, EHF Secretary General for the organisation of the Women’s EHF FINAL4 in Budapest in 2015 and 2016.

Representing the Hungarian Handball Federation were President, Ivan Vetesi, and Secretary General, Dezső Bódi.

AIPS Handball Commission

A meeting with the International Sports Press Association (AIPS) Handball Commission took place on the final Sunday of the EHF EURO in Budapest.

The EHF President and Secretary General exchanged information on a number of handball-media related issues with commission members.

EHF Executive Meeting

The scheduled December meeting of the EHF Executive took place on Saturday, 20 December.

Reports were received from the Treasurer, Secretary General, EHF Marketing, EHF Anti-doping Unit and the technical commissions.

A special issue was the update to the 2014 budget and the adaptation of the 2015/16 budget. The EHF Treasurer Ralf Dejaco presented changes, which have been necessary in order to achieve a balanced outcome due to the related decision by Congress.

Competitions

A range of issues was discussed including qualification to the EHF European Championships as well as Younger Age Category events and the Women’s 2015 World Championship – Play-off Europe.

The referee candidate course, held in Vienna from 31 October to 2 November, and the approval of four new sets of referees from Austria, Croatia, Montenegro and Poland was confirmed.

The Executive approved motions regarding the VELUX EHF Champions League, highlighting the fact that next season there will be no requirements for draws for the Last 16 and Quarter-finals due to the new playing system.

The international calendar for the season 2015/16 was adapted, taking into account the scheduling of the Last 16 and Quarter-finals of the VELUX EHF Champions League.

The criteria for club admission to the VELUX EHF Champions League in 2015/16 were adopted. More detailed information will be circulated to national federations in January 2015 in order to prepare for the 2015/16 season. An evaluation group will be created with the Chairman of the Competitions Commission, Leopold Kalin, representative of the clubs, Joan Marin, in addition to representatives from the EHF and EHFM experts.

A motion was tabled with respect to the Younger Age Category Events as of 2016 (Men 18) and 2017 (Women 17) where the new system will be introduced. Matters relating to standards and finances for the top group, with 16 teams were approved, which will enable the EHF to send out bid documents and entry forms for the competition

Anti-doping Unit

An overall report was given on testing and special education measures and it was confirmed that no positive tests were reported in 2014. A special reporting on testing during the EHF EURO is to follow.

Methods Commission

A detailed report on activities was presented, which included an analysis of the YAC events in the summer, Young Coach Workshop in 2015, master coach and licensing and a focus on development activities on the level of ISP, Foster and SMART.

New SMART programmes for Cyprus and Portugal were approved.

Further information on nominations for courses and seminars was also provided.

Beach Handball

The EHF Executive confirmed the awarding of the 2015 YAC and senior European Beach Handball Championships to Lloret de Mar, Spain.

The EBT Finals were awarded to Budaörs in Hungary from 22 to 24 May 2015.

Subject to agreement with local organisers, and based on positive reports from the 2014 event, the Beach Handball Champions Cup will continue in Gran Canaria in the next season. The event is scheduled for the men’s national team week in indoor handball from 5 to 8 November 2015.

Congress follow-up

The follow up to the Congress in Dublin in September 2014 saw the confirmation of the minutes, to be approved at the next Congress.

The first meeting of the task force on democratic representation was held during the EHF EURO. Arne Elovsson, as chairman of the group, provided and update and information on further procedures, national federations are to be informed and will be welcomed to provide relevant inputs. The Executive will discuss the results of this process at its meeting in March 2015 in order to define the next steps.

The EHF Executive agreed that if it is to introduce an Extraordinary Congress in 2015, this will take place on 14 November 2015 at the same time as Conference of Presidents.

There was also a report on a meeting of the EHF and IHF in November as well as the latest IHF Council meeting.

Other matters

Legal issues were discussed, and the minutes of the meetings of Court of Handball, Court of Appeal and Court of Arbitration Council were noted.

The updates to the statutes were highlighted including the election of additional members in 2016.

Further reports were presented by the Nations Board, Professional Handball Board and Women’s Handball Board, which submitted a special report on their progress so far.

A motion regarding the use of the Social Fund was adopted by the Executive.

EHF EURO 2014

The meeting concluded with an initial exchange of opinions on the Women’s EHF EURO 2014 in Hungary and Croatia, and as a next step it was agreed that the EHF EURO delegation will complete an analysis of the championship.