FC Barcelona hosts EHF Executive Committee meeting

The members of the EHF Executive Committee were in Barcelona on Thursday, 20 September for their scheduled autumn meeting at the start of the new European club season.

The meeting took place at the invitation of the chairman of the Professional Handball Board (PHB), Xavier O'Callaghan at the home of VELUX EHF Champions League side, Barça Lassa.

Having taken up a new role as managing director America for FC Barcelona’s global business based in New York, O'Callaghan, will however now step down from his position and a new chair will be selected at the next PHB meeting on 9 October.

Looking back on summer of youth handball

The Executive noted the large number of youth events that took place over the summer including the European Open in Sweden, M/W18 Beach EURO in Montenegro, M18 Championships in Austria and Georgia, M18 EHF EURO in Croatia, M20 Championships in FYR Macedonia and Montenegro and the M20 EHF EURO in Slovenia.

Based on recommendations from the Competitions Commission, further options for the optimisation of the younger age category (YAC) events will be reviewed including qualification modus and age structure.

These proposals will be presented at the Conference of Presidents to be held during the VELUX EHF FINAL4 2019 at the beginning of June.

Upcoming EHF EURO events

An update on the upcoming Women’s EHF EURO 2018 was provided. The 12th edition of the women’s flagship event will take place from 29 November to 16 December 2018 in Brest, Montbéliard, Nancy, Nantes, with the final weekend taking place in Paris. The meeting was informed about technical services and new developments in digital media planned for the event.

The recent announcement of a new playing schedule for the Men’s EHF EURO 2020 was discussed. The event will now to be played over 18 days instead of 17. The addition of one extra day will provide those teams with the longest distances to travel between the three host nations (Sweden, Austria and Norway) with an additional rest day.

An amended playing schedule also means that the match for third place and the final will be played separately from each other, with the bronze medal match to be played on Saturday, 25 January 2020 and the final on Sunday. The final weekend will be played in be Stockholm’s Tele2 Arena, a 20,000+ capacity stadium.

Further reports were received on progress with the events in EHF EURO 2022 and 2024 awarded at the EHF Congress in Glasgow. The Men’s EHF EURO 2022 is to be be played in Hungary/Slovakia, the Women’s EHF EURO 2022 in Slovenia, FYR Macedonia and Montenegro and the Men’s EHF EURO 2024 in Germany.

Boards and stakeholder groups

The Executive Committee was informed of and approved the club representative nominations to the various EHF Marketing Boards (Advisory Board, Men’s Club Board and Women’s Club Board).

It was pointed out that a focus of the work of these boards in the coming months would be changes to the club competition system from 2020/21 also taking into consideration the new contract with Infront and Perform.

The September meeting of the European Handball League Board was also discussed as was the nomination of its chair and vice chair to the Professional Handball Board.

Positive developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina

It was confirmed that a new federation had be created in Bosnia and Herzegovina, that this body had received recognition from the National Olympic Committee and was in the process of being legally registered.

It was also highlighted that this new body had secured the registrations for the new season including the EHF EURO 2020 Qualifiers and European Cup competitions.

The meeting agreed that the EHF would continue to monitor the development and progress of the new federation going forward.

Meeting plan 2019

The dates for EHF and EHF Marketing GmbH meetings were agreed by the EHF Executive Commission. The schedule has been confirmed well ahead of time as part of the federation’s objective to ensure good governance throughout its decision making processes.

Next meeting of EHF Executive Committee

The EHF’s executive body will next meet in Paris on the fringes of the final weekend of the Women’s EHF EURO 2018 in December.