Season concludes with meeting of EHF Executive

Traditionally the final meeting of the season is an opportunity for the EHF Executive Committee to look back at the past season while at the same time looking ahead to the new season.

This meeting was no different with a major focus for the Executive being the distribution of places in the EHF Champions League competitions.

The decision on places was reached early in the meeting and full information on the place distribution can be found on eurohandball.com for the VELUX EHF Champions League and Women's EHF Champions League.

Also taking place during the meeting was the draw for the first round of qualification to the Men’s EHF EURO 2020, which will be played in Sweden, Austria and Norway in January 2020 with 24 teams for the first time.

An historic 48 national teams will take part in qualification to the event through the EHF EURO 2020 Qualification phases and the European IHF Trophy. The results of the draw can be found on eurohandball.com.

Reports

The meeting opened with a review of the reports from the meetings of a number of bodies including the technical and legal commissions, which took place in April 2016.

The minutes of the finance delegation meeting were noted as was the positive outcome of the 2015 business year. The approval of the finances from the internal comptrollers and external auditors were also taken into account.

EHF Marketing GmbH

The EHF Executive Committee confirmed that the President and Secretary General would be given a mandate to finalise a new contract with David Szlezak as Managing Director of EHF Marketing GmbH.

Szlezak has been in the post on an interim basis since earlier in the year and has been responsible for the successful management of EHF through the remainder of the season including three final events.

The final report of the business year 2015/16 will be presented to the EHFM Advisory Board during the Women’s Under 18 World Championship in Slovakia in July 2016.

Partnerships

The first report from the new partnership with SELECT was presented and the meeting informed that the new EHF EURO ball for Sweden 2016 was launched at the draw event in Gothenburg on 10 June 2016.

The official balls for the VELUX EHF Champions League and Women’s EHF Champions League is to be launched at the draw event in Copenhagen on 1 July 2016.

It was also confirmed that Salming, the Swedish footwear and apparel supplier, is to be the new equipment supplier of the EHF from the start of the season 2016/17.

The new partnership had already been approved by the EHFM Advisory Board and a letter of intent confirming the partnership was approved by the EHF Executive.

Stakeholder update

The EHF Executive was informed about the General Assembly of the Men’s Forum Club Handball, which took place in Cologne on the fringes of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 and saw the election of Xavi O’Callaghan (FC Barcelona/ESP) as the organisation’s new president.

Based on an initiative of Europe’s top men’s clubs and following a meeting on the fringes of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 in Cologne, the EHF and Forum Club Handball (FCH) agreed to extend their Memorandum of Understanding from 2018 to 2020. The Executive has now given a mandate to finalise the agreement for presentation at its September meeting.

It was noted that the General Assembly of the Women’s Forum Club Handball took place in Budapest following the Women’s EHF FINAL4 and saw Zsolt Akos Jeney (HUN) elected as president.

The related adaptions to the organisational structure of the EHF following the elections within both organisations will take place following the EHF Congress in November 2016.

Further reports on the cooperation with the representatives of the leagues (EPHLA) and players (EHPU) and their meetings on the fringes of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 in Cologne were presented.

Referee and delegate compensation

As a result of a motion at the EHF Congress in Dublin in September, a working group has been examining the issue of payments to delegates and referees.

Two meetings have taken place, from which a proposal was forwarded to the Executive Committee for consideration. A proposal was subsequently approved, which will see an increase in the fees, which were last changed in 2001.

Legal matters

The Executive acknowledged the work of those involved in the legal structure of the EHF and in particular the members of the Legal Delegation, Court of Handball, Court of Appeal and ECA Council not just for their tasks on the EHF’s disciplinary cases but also their constructive inputs to the work of the federation.

The EHF Executive approved two motions to be put forward to Congress, dealing with changes to nominations to the list of arbitrators and also the composition of the EHF Court of Arbitration Council.

EHF Congress

The Executive was updated on the organisation of the EHF Congress in St. Wolfgang, Austria set to take place on 17/18 November 2016, which see both elections and the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the federation.

The adaptation of the budget for 2016 was agreed, as were draft budgets for 2017 and 2018, and which will now be provided to the Congress for information.

Competitions and events

The proposals for changes to the regulations relating to the replacement of players and a reduction in the requirements for participating nations proposed by the Competitions Commission were approved.

Relating to the EHF EURO 2016 in Poland, it was confirmed that the final accounting for the tournament has been successfully completed between the EHF and the event’s Organising Committee, the Polish Handball Federation. The Executive highlighted once again the huge success of the event as well as the positive and close cooperation between the EHF and the Organising Committee.

A change of venue for the EHF EURO 2018 in Croatia for organisational reasons was approved. The arena in Split will be replaced with Varaždin as a second main round venue, alongside Zagreb, due to positive experiences during previous events.

Following discussions with club representatives, the costs for the advertising rights for clubs competing in the Women’s Challenge Cup, Men’s Challenge Cup and Women’s EHF Cup were agreed.

A report was also presented following an inspection tour of the venues for the Women’s EHF EURO 2018 in France, the venues for which are set to be fixed together with the event’s Organising Committee.

Beach Handball

The Executive confirmed the awarding of the 2017 European Beach Handball Championships to Croatia and the city of Umag. The YAC event is scheduled to take place 23-25 June 2017 and the senior championships from 27 June to 2 July 2017.

Office presentation

As part of a series of presentations by staff members from the EHF Office, the EHF Executive was also presented with an overview of the work of EHF Media and Communications by JJ Rowland, the head of the department.

Next meeting

The next scheduled meeting of the EHF Executive Committee will take place on 15/16 September 2016 in Iceland.