Copenhagen hosts Europe’s secretaries general

A total of 60 participants from 47 national federations, together with EHF staff and officials, gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark (3-5 April) for the 11th edition of the Conference for Secretaries General.

The three-day programme included information updates from the EHF on topics including the 2020/21 competition calendar, EHF Scientific Conference (10-11 November in Cologne Germany) and also the planned roll-out of an electronic match report for all EHF matches and online professional player database from the start of the new season.

The event was also an opportunity for networking and an exchange of views and information as the EHF develops proposals for a further revamp of its younger age category events as well as a new-look qualification system for the Women’s EHF EURO from 2024, when the final tournament will be enlarged from 16 to 24 teams.

Focus on development

Morten Stig Christensen, Secretary General of the Danish Handball Federation, together with Steen Jorgensen, the federation’s head of development, delivered a key note outlining the federation’s vision for the future development of the sport in the country.

Conference participants also got the opportunity to try out one element of these plans for themselves with a special session of 5-a-side handball – a new version of the sport, played on a smaller court with a soft ball and with a focus on playing for fun and socialising with friends in the ‘third half’ of the match.

Future is digital

With a special focus on women’s sport, Joe Edwards, VP Digital Marketing Partnerships with the EHF’s new media and partner, DAZN Group, delivered an overview of best practice in the digital marketing space – looking in particular at examples such as the ‘This Girl Can’ campaign in the UK and the recent Women’s EHF EURO 2018 in France.

Edwards also gave participants an overview of the plans currently being developed by DAZN and Infront together with the EHF and EHF Marketing GmbH as part of a new digital strategy to be launched in 2020.

EHF EURO 2020 draw

Federation officials were also in Denmark to find out the fate of their teams in the Women’s EHF EURO 2020 Qualifiers draw.
32 teams were drawn into eight pots as Europe’s best compete for a total of 14 places in the final tournament to be played in Norway (venues) and Denmark (venues) from 4 to 20 December 2020.