Readers to this site, know fully well my thoughts on misapplying success stories from other sports to developing Handball in the U.S. -link- But, they also know that the one sport where I see the most parallels to Handball is rugby. -link-

Notably, USA Rugby is achieving two very important benchmarks in the development/publicity department during this quiet sports week in the doldrums of summer. The first is the feature cover story in the USA Today Sports section which is all about the USA national team and its upcoming World Cup qualifier with Canada this weekend. In the article, you’ll note a number of handball/rugby parallels including cash strapped budgets, the challenges of competing against more established sports for attention and the challenge of competing against professional athletes. As a side point the article inaccurately downplays the significance of the growing contingent of professionals on the Eagles side. A few of these players are not mere afterthought athletes playing for minor clubs, but full time professionals making good money and playing for top clubs. -link- But, aside from the inaccuracies, there’s nothing better than a feature article in the top U.S. National daily sports section to promote your sport.

Well, actually there is and that’s a live broadcast on a Saturday afternoon. Sure, it’s the 4th of July and many folks will be out celebrating, but there’s no denying that you’ve hit the big time when a pivotal match is broadcast live on the #1 sports network. Undoubtedly, it will be the biggest TV audience ever in the U.S. for a rugby match. Rugby has been on basic cable many times, but in most cases the broadcasts have been tape delayed and edited. Additionally, the broadcasts were typically on the lesser known ESPNU, ESPN2 or ESPN360. With the broadest market penetration, the decision to show the match on the “mother ship“, ESPN, in High Definition (HD) means that the suits at the ESPN network our saying that this rugby match is the most marquee product available for this time slot.

Tangible Benchmarks for USA Team Handball

Every four years during the Olympics, Team Handball gets a media boost as reporters either watching on TV or in person discover the sport. Occasionally, a quality feature article gets published like the one that ran recently in the NY Times: -link- More often than not and especially in recent history, the story has been about Handball in other countries and how the U.S. is a unorganized basket case.

A tangible benchmark for USA Team Handball, which hopefully is not too far in the future, would be to see a featured article extolling the USA national team in the same vein as the Rugby article does. And even more desirable would be an ESPN broadcast of a Handball match. A U.S. national team match would be great, but I’d also take a World Championship, European Championship or Champions League match. Perhaps this may even happen sooner than we think. In January, with a little nudge from the U.S. Federation, ESPN broadcast World Championship matches on its web platform, ESPN360. ESPN must have liked the numbers it got, because in May they broadcast the Champions League Final. And more importantly this time they chose to buy the rights all on their own without any push from the Federation.

You’ve got to start somewhere and ESPN360 is as good as place as any. Here’s hoping that the viewership numbers continue to impress, the U.S. national teams improve and we all see Team Handball go to the mother ship!

USA-Canada Rugby World Cup Qualifier (Match 1): July 4th, 4:00 PM EDST on ESPN HD

Note: Similar to Champions League Handball this is the first match in a home and away aggregate series. The 2nd match will be Saturday, July 11th in Edmonton. Combined aggregate scores will determine the overall winner.

USA Today: Earning their stripes: U.S. rugby team takes aim in spotlight: -link-

If you have ever read the “About the Site” -link- page on our website, you’ll notice that there’s a short discussion about the “news” provided by official Handball websites. Essentially, the argument is that it’s very difficult for an organization to critically report on itself. Several recent events in the Handball World and the way some official websites reported on them certainly illustrate the inherent problems with self-reporting. Here’s a few examples covering a variety of topics:

New Zealand Handball Federation: NZHF - newest member of the IHF: -link-
For a fledgling organization that has liked to point out that they were all about developing the sport in New Zealand and didn’t care for the politics of the sport this article is notable for its omissions, naivety and/or dishonesty. While trumpeting their organization’s recognition by the IHF there is no mention of the IHF’s removal of the Oceania Federation President, Vern Winitana, from the Executive Council. Winitana and his family has been closely affiliated with the now deposed, Handball New Zealand. The closest the article gets to this issue is its mention of a “complex political situation.” There may very well be some legitimacy to the NZHF’s complaints that Handball NZ had done a poor job in the development of the sport in that country, but it’s naïve/dishonest to not recognize that the “love” being provided by the IHF is all about striking back at Winitana and has nothing to do with NZHF’s development efforts. Trust me, if Winitana was still in good graces with the current IHF leadership we certainly wouldn’t be treated to photos of the NZHF with the IHF leadership in Cairo.

IHF: Interview with Dr Moustafa: -link-
Well, this interview doesn’t even need commentary. Seriously, would anyone expect anything interesting to come out of such an interview?

USA Team Handball Federation: Interview with Dr Moustafa: -link-
This interview, however deserves some commentary. As an American who has invested a considerable amount of time and energy exposing the many shortcomings of Dr Moustafa this interview, to put it mildly, rubbed me the wrong way. Back in May during the USA National Championships, USATH send out an invite to all of their followers on Twitter to send in their questions for the IHF President. I sent in a number of questions, two of which actually made it into the interview, believe it or not. As you might expect, though, none of my questions on Asian Olympic Qualification, finance irregularities or doping were asked. Instead a litany of softball questions were lobbed toward Dr Moustafa with no probing even gently into any of those issues. Of course, some might argue that a national federation shouldn’t ask probing or controversial questions in an interview. But those folks are making the wrong point. The correct point to make is that a national federation shouldn’t be doing interviews with controversial figures for official news publication. Why? Because when you do an interview with a controversial figure and you lob questions like, “You have been a successful player, coach and administrator of handball throughout your life. What have been your proudest moments?“ and omit the discussion of real issues you lose credibility and imply that the controversial issues really aren’t important anyway.

USA Team Handball has big plans to further develop the sport and they need to work closely with the IHF, regardless of whether it’s the cleanest or most corrupt sporting organization on the planet. But, that work can be done quietly behind the scenes. Posting an absurd, fluff interview on the official website accomplished nothing other than to upset the sensitivities of some (one can only hope, most) of its membership.

EHF reporting on 2009-10 Champions League Format and Seeding: In general, I would assess that the EHF does the best job amongst the official handball sites, in their efforts to self report. But while they might be the best, they all too often fall short of the mark, especially when it comes to their frequent omission of relevant facts. Case in point has been the controversies swirling around which clubs were being given direct tickets to the Main Round and which clubs were placed in qualification or wild card tournaments in next year’s Champions League. Leon Ademar won Spain’s National Cup tournament and felt they should have got direct placement into the main round ahead of Valladolid. Instead they will host a tough wild card tournament with Germany’s Lemgo a real threat to win. Additionally, Sweden was able to lobby successfully for a direct ticket to the Main Round at the expense of one of the other nations playing in the qualification groups. And underlying all of this is a debate throughout Europe as to whether the Champions League should be a league for the Champions or a league for Europe’s best teams. In other words, how is it decided that 4th place teams from German and Spain are more important than 1st place teams from other countries. Not surprisingly, there’s no mention of these controversies, just simple announcement as to the seeding for the draw.

To their credit the EHF has reported on negative issues like the spate of referee controversies pretty well for the most part with periodic announcement as to the status of their investigations. Sure it would be nice to get more detail, but at least they are providing an official position.

Canada: While the EHF has been posting official positions on some negative issues, I’m a little disappointed that Canada never posted anything regarding their non-participation at the ongoing Women’s PATHF Championships. When asked, Canadian Federation Ward Hrabi, was very forthcoming with the circumstances surrounding this decision. But the issue here, is that I first had to notice they weren’t playing and then find the time to ask the questions and write the story. I do my best to keep up with what’s going on, but inevitably worthy stories fall through the cracks. Undoubtedly, many Canadians probably already knew what had happened, but for those that don’t a simple announcement was probably warranted.

The Solution: Official sites should follow these 3 guidelines when deciding what to report and how to report it:
1) Don’t report on controversial subjects not directly related to your organization
2) When something controversial happens directly related to your organization, however, don’t ignore it. Provide an official explanation on your webpage
3) And finally, when reporting the controversial topic don’t omit obvious aspects of the controversy

Earlier today, for the 4th consecutive time Brazil and Argentina met in the Gold Medal game of the Women‘s PATHF Championship. But unlike the 3 previous matches Argentina came away the victory against the heavily favored Brazilians. Tied 23-23 at the end of regulation, Argentina won in the 2x5 minute overtime period by a final score of 26-25. This victory marks the first crack in the total dominance the Brazilian women have had in recent years in all PATHF competitions.

In the bronze medal game Chile needed two overtimes to subdue the Dominican Republic by a final score of 34-30. According to an account on the Chile Federation webpage, Chile was fortunate to send the game into overtime at the end of the regulation. The Dominican Republic took a 23-22 lead when Judith Granados scored one of her 13 goals with 5.4 seconds left. Chile, however, was able to immediately strike back with a tying goal by Inga Feutchmann to send it into overtime tied 23-23. The first overtime ended 27-27 and the 2nd overtime saw Chile pull away for the 34-30 victory. The win means that Chile will attend it’s first ever World Championship later this year in China. The Dominican Republic which qualified for 2007 will stay home.

In a game to decide 5th place, Mexico and Uruguay played to a 23-23 tie. By virtue of their larger victory over Uruguay, Mexico secures 5th place. Paraguay which lost to both Mexico and Uruguay finished in 7th place. Along with Canada, which did not participate they will be relegated to the Division 1 Championship tournament tentatively scheduled for the fall of 2010.

Editor’s note: In an odd coincidence all 3 matches played on the final day ended regulation with a 23-23 tie. I estimate the odds of all 3 matches being drawn as 500-1. The odds that they would all be drawn with the same score: At least 5,000-1 and probably more.

PATHF Website: Final scores: -link-
Chile Federation: Chile qualifies for the World Championship (Spanish): -link-

As expected, both Brazil and Argentina advanced to the semifinal of the 2009 PATHF Women’s Championships without losing a match. In Group A, Argentina beat the Dominican Republic 24-17 and Uruguay 29-21 to advance. The scoreline in these two matches were important, however, as the Dominican Republic and Uruguay had played to a 21-21 draw on the first match day. With 2nd place in Group A coming down to whoever lost by less to Argentina, the Dominican Republic edged Uruguay by a 1 goal, losing by 7 to Uruguay’s 8 goal loss.

In Group B, Brazil has been totally dominant, winning all 3 of their matches by an average of 21 goals. The battle for 2nd place was won by host, Chile, who won their key matches against Paraguay, 34-30 and Mexico, 27-19.

Brazil will face the Dominican Republic in the first semifinal today and Argentina will take on host Chile in the 2nd. The top 3 teams in the tournament will qualify for the 2009 Women’s World Championships in China later this month.

USA Team Handball has established a Competition Committee to develop a comprehensive plan for next year’s club competition. The committee, which is composed of a diverse group of club members and national federation staff has been given instructions to “examine formats for regular season competition, regional seasons and tournaments, and post-season championships in youth, open, elite and collegiate divisions.”

This is a very much welcomed move to me and others who have voiced concerns that the new Federation has not involved its dues paying membership sufficiently in areas that directly impact them. Importantly, it also appears the Federation is empowering the committee by giving them basic overall objectives and then sufficient leeway to come up with a comprehensive plan on their own. Rest assured it will not be a simple task. The U.S. is a vast country with handball developed unevenly throughout it. A one size fits all format won’t work and inevitably a number of compromises will be required.

Finally, I think its fairly safe to say that almost anyone involved in USA Team Handball has at least one member of that committee that they are comfortable with enough to discuss key competition issues that will affect their club. If you have suggestions on what should be done, it behooves you to contact those individuals now and in the upcoming months…. Instead of later, after the fact.

USATH Website Article: -link-
Earlier Commentary: USA National Championships (Format Problems and Solutions): -link-

The EHF and Norwegian TV are providing live web streaming of matches from the European Beach Handball Championships from Larvik, Norway. On demand matches are also available at the site.

Norway TV2: -link-
Twitter updates: -link-

First Miami and the LNH.

Now, here come the Germans and the Poles.

Kicker.de is reporting that a 2010 friendly match between Poland and Germany at Chicago's United Airlines Arena is in the works. If anyone can translate the article - please do!

Thanks to Nathalie Dorner for the tip.

Addendum: Handball-World has two articles on U.S. - Germany cooperation
Interview with Frank Schneller: -link-
Translation Page: -link-

Dream with Unlimited Possibilities: International Match against Poland in the USA: -link-
Translation Page: -link-

Anyone can assist in updating the wikispace translation pages. Simply click the "edit this page" button and start typing. To start a google automatic translation has been uploaded.

Of course, everyone’s probably been hearing about Twitter with news accounts of how it has been used by the protesters during the current unrest in Iran. I’ve been somewhat ambivalent about Twitter and what to do with my account. Heck, the only reason I had signed up in the first place was to get USA Team Handball’s feed. I enjoyed getting Handball scores from the National Championships on my cell phone, but other tweets are simply redundant to information you can get at the website. With that concept in mind, I didn’t think it was too necessary for me to both tweet and write at the Team Handball News website.

Yesterday, however, I felt that a timely message was warranted to Handball devotees. As I had my morning breakfast and checked out the latest Handball news, I saw a posting on the Handball123 forum concerning a live web stream for the Slovakia - Hungary qualifier for Euro 2010. As one of the only matches remaining with any real meaning I looked at my watch and clicked on the link and lo and behold, there was the match on my laptop live from Hlohovec, Slovakia. As I watched, I got to thinking, “Would I like to get a tweet on my cell phone with this news and a link?” And hence I sent my first tweet yesterday:

Live webstreamed Euro 2010 Qualifier: Hungary at Slovakia. Slovakia needs win to Qualify 1600 CET -link-

Alas, Hungary pounded Slovakia 30-19 to secure the last spot for Austria next January. Still, it was kind of neat to watch the match live from my kitchen table.

So, if you want to join the Twitter universe and get tweets like this feel free to join up and follow me on Twitter. -link- And, if you don’t-- Well, I won’t be offended.

The Canadian Women’s national team will not be participating at the upcoming Pan American Team Handball Federation (PATHF) Championships next week in Chile. In email correspondence, Canadian Handball Federation President, Ward Hrabi, indicated that several factors played a role in this decision which was made by the Federation’s Board of Directors. Chief among these factors was the unanticipated retirement of several veteran players and an insufficient number of skilled junior players ready or willing to make the commitment for national team training and competition. In particular, the lack of an experienced goalie was seen as a major handicap to fielding a competitive team.

Hrabi, added that the decision with its impact on future qualification tournaments was not taken lightly. As a result of this decision Canada is automatically relegated from the PATHF’s Elite Division to Division I status. Assuming that the current PATHF World Championship qualification system is used again for 2011, Canada will now be required to participate in a Division 1 Championship in Fall 2010. Additionally, at about the same time, qualification for the 2011 Pan American (PANAM) Games should also take place. In 2006 Canada beat the U.S. in a best of 3 match series to qualify for the 2007 PANAM Game.

2009 Women’s PATHF Championship: -link-

Der Spiegel, one of Germany’s leading weekly magazines has an article on the IHF Congress. Included in the article is a mention of USATH President Dieter Esch's actions at the Congress. I’ve placed an automatic google translation at the wikispace page link below. German readers are invited to clean up the translation at that page. To make correction just click on the “edit this page” button and start typing.

Der Spiegel Article: -link-
Wikispace Translation page: -link-