Court of Handball imposes fine on Vujovic

The Court of Handball has decided to impose a €5,000 fine on Veselin Vujovic, coach of both the club RD Koper and the Slovenian men's national team, due to derogatory remarks made in the media towards EHF referees which may bring handball and the EHF into disrepute.

In an interview given to a Spanish media, the coach made comments in connection to a direct disqualification and subsequent suspension he faced in March this season.

The Court finds that these comments clearly questioned and threatened the referees’ integrity, impartiality and dignity. Furthermore, such allegations based on no further element than the coach’s personal and subjective opinion are likely to raise suspicions on possible match manipulations and the credibility of the sport.

Thereby, the Court finds that these remarks and behaviour contravenes the principles of respect, fair-play and sportsmanship defined in the applicable EHF competition regulations and in the EHF Code of Conduct and bring the sport of handball and the EHF into disrepute and shall therefore be sanctioned.

The Court also added that fair play and its components, such as a sportsmanlike and respectful attitude to adopt towards EHF officials, constitute a core obligation having to be complied with on and off the playing court, regardless the mean of communication used (e.g. interviews), as well as any spatial (e.g. location from where the behaviour is displayed) and/or temporal condition (e.g. before, during and after a match).

An appeal may be filed with the Court of Appeal within 7 days.