Future European handball managers gather in Cologne

The intake for the first English edition of the EHF’s European Handball Manager Course could not have been more diverse.

19 participants working among other as coaches, club managers, club marketing managers, league managers, national federation secretary generals, arena managers and handball teachers from 16 different nations gathered at the German Sports University in Cologne for the first attendance phase.

“This first week has been very positive. It was great to see that everyone participated actively and that we had a lot of intense discussions,” said Stefan Walzel, the course’s academic manager.

“We have participants with club, league and federation background. Bringing all these different backgrounds together has been a challenge and, yes, it became obvious that there are different viewpoints and conflicting interests.

“However, what united all participants was the will to commonly bring handball in Europe forward. For this, the European Handball Manager provides a great forum to discuss and exchange ideas and to get a common understanding of the all sides’ wishes and visions but also of their problems.

“Eventually this exchange of ideas and the understanding of each other will be beneficial for the further development of European handball.”

Benefits for all parties

Following an intense week of learning that touched on topics such economic features of team sport and strategic handball management as well as on team sport governance and sports law, the participants left Cologne with positive feedback.

“For me, this is a high-level programmer run by two highly reputed institutions, the Cologne Sports University and the European Handball Federation. In this mixture I saw a great opportunity for the further development of sport and handball in particular,” said Nadica Dimovska, general manager of the Jane Sandanski Sports Center, the main handball arena in the Macedonian capital Skopje.

“I want to grow in my position and I want to broaden my network which perfectly worked out with all these high level people coming either from a federation or a club,” said Sebastian Mühleis, marketing manager for German handball club VfL Eintracht Hagen.

“The quality has been very high. This goes for the material provided, the lectures and the participants. Everyone benefits from this combination.”

Paivi Mitrunen has been the Finnish Handball Federation’s Secretary General for the past three years.

“I have the feeling that I know the basics. It was time to take the next step and I really hope that from this course I’ll obtain more knowledge about strategic thinking and planning that goes beyond the daily business. I really hope that I’ll better and come back with visions after this course,” she said.

Making the next step

The European Handball Manager 2016/17 continues with a second attendance phase in January and concludes with the third phase and the exams at the end of May 2017.

At the beginning of January 2017 the application will start for the 2017/18 course which kicks off in autumn next year and will again take place in German. The deadline for applications is 30 April 2017.

“We are looking into specifying the material we provide to participants even further,” said Stefan Walzel. “For example, one project is to publish a team sport management textbook that focuses specifically on handball. This goes in hand with improved possibilities for e-learning for all participants in the lead-up to the attendance phases.”

For more information on the course visit: https://www.dshs-koeln.de/en/department-of-further-education/master-certificate-programmes/certificate-programmes/european-handball-manager/