EHF Young Referee Programme in full swing across Europe

Founded in the 1990s, the EHF Young Referee Project aims to supervise nominated referee pairs over the course of three years (one tournament per year) and evaluate their performance. After each tournament, a group of EHF Lecturers gives their final report and overall evaluation of each nominated pair. In the next step, the EHF Lecturers give a recommendation for the pairs who have passed all exams and tests to participate in a continental course held by the EHF.

M17 European Open 2019 – Gothenburg, SWE

The European Open in Gothenburg, Sweden has traditionally been a place where YRP pairs come to practise their skills. This year, 12 referee pairs have been nominated together with six delegates and one EHF Lecturer to officiate the matches of the M17 European Open which is played from 1 to 5 July.

Nominated YRP pairs:

Ivo Bosnjak/Josip Maric (BIH)
Tituan Picard/Pierre Vauchez (FRA)
Ioannis Fotakidis/Charalampos Kinatzidis (GRE)
Eliav Cohen/Matan Aharon Pinker (ISR)
Ivo Gjorgievski/Igor Naumovski (MKD)
Hakon Aksdal/Eiveind Holager (NOR)
Fernando Costa/Diogo Teixeira (POR)
Catalin Dinescu/Andrei Stanca (ROU)
Zan Puksic/Miha Satler (SLO)
Stefan Berdic/Filip Sorak (SRB)
Martin Manak/Andrej Majstrik (SVK)
Alice Watson/Line Welin (SWE)

EUSA Handball Championship 2019 – Bydgoszcz, POL

Supervised by three EHF Lecturers, 10 referee pairs have arrived in Bydgoszcz for the European University Championship which takes place from 4 to 10 July. Besides refereeing the championship matches, nominated referee pairs will take the IHF Rule test and will need to prove their fitness with shuttle run test.

They will also listen to the lectures given by the EHF Lecturers Alexandru Ascinte (ROU), Klaus Dieter Convents (BEL) and Tomo Vodopivec (SLO) with the support from Marcos Bestillero from the EHF Office.

Nominated YRP pairs:

Hrvoje Cacic/Frano Josic (CRO)
Nika Kevlishvili/Tamazi Kevlishvili (GEO)
Genc Bujupi/Getoar Bujupi (KOS)
Martins Leitis/Ralfs Persis (LAT)
Ivan Jovanovski/Gjorgji Vasilevski (MKD)
Sara Pinto/Flavia Santos (POR)
Georgiana Lungu/Mihaela Paraschiv (ROU)
Anastasiya Gerasimova/Darya Gerasimova (RUS)
Danni Petersen/Elias Petersen (SWE)
Anastasiia Kuruch/Hanna Silvestova (UKR)

Costa Doiro Tournament – Lagos, POR

The Portuguese city of Lagos is hosting the 28th edition of the Costa Doiro Tournament, one of the partner tournaments for the EHF Young Referee Project. The HEF Lecturers Antonio Marreiros (POR), Cesar Castillo (GBR) and Carlos Garcia (POR) will supervise five nominated pairs from 30 June to 7 July.

Nominated YRP pairs:

Tomas Deml/Michal Dvoracek (CZE)
Ron Peretz/Niv Schwartz (ISR)
Ziga Buric/Anton Lovric (SLO)
Stevan Djurasinovic/Nikola Music (SRB)
Gokhan Adiguzel/Ildeniz Kaygusz (TUR)

Prague Cup 2019 – Prague, CZE

Earlier this year, 10 YRP pairs have been nominated for Prague Cup which took place from 17 to 22 April 2019 in Prague, Czech Republic. They were supervised by Alexandru Acsinte (ROU), Vladimir Sokol (CRO) and Sotiris Migas (GRE), all EHF Lecturers.

Nominated YRP pairs:

Lena Hofmarcher/Dragana Ugarkovic (AUT)
Jacob Pagh/Karl Thygesen (DEN)
Lucas Hellbusch/Darnel Jansen (GER)
Stefania Kovacs-Sebok/Rebeka Reti (HUN)
Marcello Carrino/Stefano Pellegrino (ITA)
Ernestas Nikitinas/Justinas Nikitinas (LTU)
Ane Stremsborg/Marte Leveraas (NOR)
Cortina Constantin/Daniela Enache (ROU)
Kristina Kazantceva/Alina Kazantceva (RUS)
Mattias Fält/Mikael Holm (SWE)

The EHF Young Referees Project will continue during the summer as more referees have been nominated for the following tournaments: W17/M17 European Youth Olympic Festival 2019 – Baku, Azerbaijan (20 to 28 July) and German International Youth Championships – Düsseldorf, Germany (19 to 21 August).