Vienna hosts meetings of technical commissions

The latest round of meetings of the EHF’s technical commissions took place at the EHF Office in Vienna 19-21 February 2015; including meetings of the Technical Delegation, Methods Commission, Competition Commission and Beach Handball Commission.

Evaluating rule changes

Additionally, a meeting of an ‘EHF Expert Group on Rules’ took ahead of the start of the regular meetings, involving representatives of each of the commissions and also coaching and player representatives: Leopold Kalin, (Competitions Commission), Dragan Nachevski (Competitions Commission), Jerzy Eliasz (Methods  Commission), Peter Kovacs (Methods Commission), Marco Trespidi (Beach Handball Commission), Marko Sibila (EHF lecturer) and Lasse Boesen (former handball player).

The group had been formed to examine, from the perspective of all stakeholders, the proposals for rule changes from the IHF, looking at issues including the interpretation of the rules, game administration and additional inputs such as the women’s ball size 1,5 and ideas resulting from the MC coaches' opinion poll. The findings of the group will now be forwarded to the EHF Executive for further action.

Technical Delegation

The Technical Delegation, comprising the chairs of each of the commission, met to discuss a range of globally relevant issues, noting in particular the agreement with the German Sport University Cologne for a European Club Manager qualification, the contract was subsequently signed on 24 February 2015.

Beach Handball Commission

The Beach Handball Commission, under the chairmanship of Ole Jorstad, reviewed preparations for upcoming events including the 2015 YAC (MW19) and senior European Championships to take place in Lloret de Mar in Spain in July 2015, as well as the ebt Finals 2015 in Budaörs, Hungary in May 2015.

They looked ahead to the 2015 EHF Champions Cup in Gran Canaria and confirmed a new three-year contract with the University of Las Palmas. The introduction of an extended match scouting system was discussed, which will increase the overall quality of the quantitative analysis. It was confirmed that a rule test will be carried out during the 2015 MW19 BH European Championships, whereby an in-flight goal and penalty shots will be awarded with three points.

Competitions Commission

For the first time, and according to a Congress decision of September 2014, Radek Wasiak joined the meeting representing the clubs, initially as a guest, with this position becoming permanent as of the 2016 Congress. Competition reports including feedback from EHF EURO 2014 were discussed, as were progress reports on upcoming events. There was an exchange of information regarding a hall infrastructure project and it was agreed to put forward a proposal to the EHF Executive for the merging of the Women’s EHF Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup from the start of the 2016/17 season. The meeting was chaired by Leopold Kalin.

Methods Commission

Chaired by Jerzy Eliasz, the Methods Commission met to discuss a range of issues including coaching licensing, a review of the Rinck Convention Seminar held on 13/14 February in Vienna and the upcoming Youth Coaches Workshop in June 2015. Members also looked ahead to the EHF Scientific Conference, planned for November 2015, which besides medical aspects of handball, will also feature a mini symposium focused on beach handball.