EHF Executive Committee meets in Cologne

The EHF Executive Committee has met in Cologne, the capital of European club handball, on Thursday for its final meeting in 2019.

Reports from the Finance Delegation and EHF Marketing GmbH

From the Finance Delegation the Executive Committee received information on the budgets for 2020, 2021 and 2022 as well as on the budgeting and accounting procedure for the coming years.

Intermediate information on the 2019 accounting and the 2020 budget will be presented to the Extraordinary Congress in Stockholm on 25 January. The budgets 2021 and 2022 will be presented to the Congress for approval.

The report of the EHF Secretary General focused on the federation’s business partnerships, outlining actual agreements as well as potential partnerships.

The Executive Committee received information on the 2018/19 business year as well as the current business year, 2019/20, of EHF Marketing GmbH. It was very positively noted that EHFM looks back at its best business year since foundation, resulting in payments to the clubs and the EHF (ratio 80:20) in an amount double to what is foreseen in the regulations.

The EXEC also received the reports of the EHF’s legal management and the federation’s anti-doping unit (EAU). All samples of those tests taken by the EAU taken within the past two months were negative.

Receiving the report, EHF President Michael Wiederer underlined the shared responsibility of clubs and federations to keep the sport of handball and to raise awareness for anti-doping education among the players.

Methods Commission: Rinck Convention panel introduced; wheelchair handball regulations confirmed

A number of motions were tabled to the Executive Committee by the Methods Commission, with the EXEC confirming the following requests.

The EXEC approved the introduction of an EHF RINCK Convention Panel, an expert panel thought to recommend necessary steps for the 40 RINCK Convention signatories and non-signatories on coaching education matters and structures.

It was noted positively that the EHF handles the procedures for more than 1,000 licensed coaches across Europe.

Regulations, rules and the classification manual for the upcoming European Wheelchair Handball Championship were confirmed and so was the Methods Commission’s request to sign a memorandum of understanding with the SOEE (Special Olympics Europe Eurasia Region).

Additionally, the EXEC decided to leave the post of Klaus Feldmann, who left the Methods Commission, vacant.

Beach handball: Hosts confirmed for 2020 events

The Executive Committee received the report of the Beach Handball Commission. Following an analysis of the bids at hand as well as of the commission’s recommendations, it was decided to award the 2020 events to the following federations / clubs.

• The ebt Finals 2020 (4 to 7 June 2020) will be staged in Larnaka, Cyrpus. Local organiser is the Cyprus Handball Club.
• The Men’s / Women’s 16 Beach Handball EURO (8 to 11 July 2020) will be organised by the Italian Handball Federation in Silvi Marina.
• The qualification tournaments for the Beach Handball EURO 2021 will take place in Thessaloniki, Greece, and Batumi, Georgia. Playing dates for the ‘Beach Handball European Championships 2020’ will be 3 to 5 July 2020.

Furthermore, the EXEC confirmed the resignation of Juan Carlos Zapardiel Cortés, commission member responsible for game design and coaching. His duties will be taken over by the additional member, Jelena Rakonjac.

Motions confirmed for club and national team competitions

The Executive Committee confirmed a motion that as of the 2020/21 season, matches in qualification round 2 (men) and qualification round 3 (women) in the newly introduced European Handball League have to be played on a floor with handball lines only.

It was already decided in June 2019 that matches in the European Handball League Group Phase have to be played on a unified floor.

Also confirmed were a number of adaptations to the regulations for the YAC EHF EURO and YAC EHF Championship regulations.

These adaptions were necessary to reflect changes coming into effect with the EHF’s new media and marketing contract with Infront and DAZN as of 2021 as well to reflect the EXEC decision from September this year to introduce a further qualification possibility to MU21 or WU20 World Championships.

Follow-up on board meetings

Early October saw the Nations Board, the European Handball League Board as well as the Professional Handball Board and the Women’s Handball Board gathering in Vienna – and reports from all four of them were received by the Executive Committee.

In these meetings, special focus was put on financial questions related to the new media and marketing agreement 2020+ with Infront and DAZN.

With regard to the WHB’s activities, special attention by the Executive Committee was given to the successful ‘Respect Your Talent’ programme. Selected players from this summer’s W17 and W19 competition will be invited to a camp in Vienna in December.

EHF EURO matters

The Executive Committee received the report on the EHF’s current officiating activities. With less than 50 days to go to Men’s EHF EURO 2020, these activities focus on providing mental coaching support as well as support for physical preparation for the referee pairs nominated for the final tournament.

Furthermore, a video platform featuring a plethora of referee teaching clips has been made available online – for the first time also for the delegates and the participating teams.

Following site visits and consultations with the nations bidding for Women’s EHF EURO 2024, the EXEC confirmed the three bids for the final tournament. The awarding of Women’s EHF EURO 2024 will take place at the Extraordinary Congress in Stockholm on 25 January.

Bidding for Women’s EHF EURO 2024 are

• Czech Republic/Poland/Slovakia
• Hungary/Switzerland/Austria
• Russia.

Media & marketing agreement 2020+

The Executive Committee received a status update related to the most recent activities as part of the new Infront/DAZN agreement 2020+

Information was presented regarding the work of the various task forces as well as from the meeting of the steering board and the strategy committee at the beginning of November.

In the light of this, investments into the EHF’s national team and club competitions, which are part of the contract, were also presented to the EXEC.

These will also be presented in detail at the Conference of Presidents in Stockholm on 25 January.

Next meeting at EHF EURO 2020

The next meeting of the EHF Executive Committee will take place one day earlier, on 24 January, on the day of the EHF EURO 2020 Semi-finals in Stockholm.

After their meeting the EXEC members attended the official opening of the anniversary 5th EHF Scientific Conference which takes place Thursday and Friday at the German Sports University in Cologne – a long-standing partner of the federation with regards to club manager seminars as well as the European Handball Manager education – on Thursday and Friday.