EHF allows these weapons and uniforms???

As most people who follow international handball are well aware, it is never a surprise when the Icelandic men’s national team has success in World or European Championships.  But it has been more surprising that, in a country well-known for having a strong women’s emancipation, the Icelandic women handball players have not had many good showings internationally in the past.  However, it seems that a change is now coming.

Some thought that it was just a fluke that Iceland finally managed to qualify for the women’s European Championship in 2010.  This was achieved through a home-and-away qualification win against Austria.  It was suspected that this was perhaps more due to a temporary weakness in Austrian women’s handball, especially after Iceland went on to lose all its three matches in the group play in the European Championship.  But then one must note that the opponents were Russia, Montenegro and Croatia, and that the losses were not with really discouraging margins.

Nevertheless, it came as a bit of a shock when the result was announced from the Iceland home game in the qualifying against Ukraine last month.  Ukraine has really strong traditions on the women’s side; indeed the Soviet dominance during many decades in the past was largely due to the strength of the Ukrainians, led by the husband-wife team of Coach Turtchin and team captain and world-class player Turtchina.  So the 37-18 result was really remarkable.  And the Icelandic women seemed to have little difficulty in holding on in the away game, getting a 24-24 tie.

It was known that as a team seeded in the lowest performance row, Iceland had to expect to be drawn in a very tough group in the World Championship to be held in Brazil in December.  And it will certainly be tough.  Although four teams out of six will qualify from each preliminary group for the subsequent 1/8-finals, it would seem to require a miraculous performance from the Icelandic women in order to advance, now that we know the results of the draw.

The group, which will play its matches in Santos, is headed by Norway and also includes the new power team from Montenegro, the perennially strong African champions from Angola, Germany, and China.  Germany was almost a surprise qualifier after the disaster in the European Championship, so they will be determined to seek revenge.  And the Chinese women have come on strong after the surge in connection with the 2008 Olympics.  So to get ahead of two of these five teams will certainly not be easy. 

It should be noted that the upswing for the Icelandic women is not likely to be a temporary thing.  They had teams that in the ‘under-20′ and ‘under-18′ categories did really well in the qualifying stages, even if they failed to reach the final round in the 2011 European Championships.  In the younger category, they lost out on goal difference, having gained the same points as Spain and Croatia.  In the older category, they again lost again Spain and had a narrow defeat against Serbia, in a group played in Serbia.  So the clear impression is that there are many talent younger players making good progress towards the senior level.

If we then get to see the same fighting spirit from the women as the men traditionally have displayed, then the Icelandic team is likely to become a crowd favorite in Brazil and wherever they will be competing. We wish them the best of luck!

Neptun(o) - larger than the world?

Last night it finally become clarified what will be the identity of the Spanish top club Ciudad Real in Spanish and EHF competition during the coming season.   On the basis of media reports, there was previously speculation of some kind of merger with football giant Real Madrid, as I commented in an earlier posting.   However, it has now been announced that the team will be appearing under the name of Real Madrid’s local rival Atletico Madrid instead.

I am chosing my words carefully, because it appears that we are talking about a one-year arrangement under which Atletico lends its name to the team of Ciudad Real.  But to make it more complicated, one should really say that the club Ciudad Real is now registered in Madrid as the club Neptuno.   And then Neptuno’s ‘senior’ team is allowed to use the name Atletico, which as I have commented earlier, has really proud traditions in the handball of Spain.

In this way, while the matches in the Spanish League and the EHF Champions League will be played in Madrid, possibly in Palacio de Deportes, the rest of the activities of the club Neptuno may well take place in the city of Ciudad Real.  So the players may continue to live there and and practice there, but when the time comes for the ‘home’ games, they will take their uniforms and travel to Madrid.

How this will be received in the city of Ciudad Real is perhaps not so certain.   Will the faithful fans travel with the team and continue to support them?   And whether the team will quickly be able to establish a fan base in Madrid is not so clear.  Presumably there is some dormant handball interest in the capital, so perhaps it will work out well.   By the way, it has not been mentioned whether the use of the name Atletico also means that the team will adopt the classic red-white stripes of Atletico…

Beyond this specific development, there is of course the more fundamental question of the economic viability of expensive, world-class handball in Spain.  Will the money be there to support top teams with highly-paid players from abroad, and will there be sponsors and resources that will allow some of the weaker team to stay alive?

There are also more systemic concerns.   The referees of the top league are still owed a large part of their remuneration from the 2010-11 season, and the Spanish Federation has had to step in to help out in the meantime.   This is only one reason why the situation between the Federation and the League is very tense. 

And the highest sports authorities of Spain are still having serious concerns about the whole idea of Spain being the organizer of the Men’s World’s Championship 2013.  Many of the planned host cities are having problems with the financing.   The Spanish Federation seems to have asked the IHF for a loan to bridge them over!  Who knows:  perhaps there is still a chance for France, the disppointed loser in the fight for the 2015 Championship, to get in ahead of Qatar by taking over 2013…

It is frustrating and disappointing to feel obliged to write yet again about a theme that I had hoped would be dead and buried.  But it is now ‘strongly rumored’ that the IHF President appears to insist on enforcing his personal and absurd ideas on the refereeing in the Youth and Junior World Championships.

I am talking about his persistence about splitting up well-established referees couples from around the world and suddenly using them in ‘mixed’ couples during the most important events for them and teams. 

As I have noted before, there is nothing ‘holy’ about the idea of permanent couples.  Mixed couples (or trios) function in basketball.  So even if the mutual familiarity and teamwork within the couple are critical for good performances of handball referees, it is theoretically possible that mixed couples could function in handball also.  But, this would be dependent on a worldwide agreement to change the current system, and instead start bringing up young referees in the habit of constantly changing partners.  In this way, they would be completely used to the method, if one day they were nominated to a World Championship.

However, we currently have a system under which referees around the world become used to a fixed partner, as they climb the career ladder up to the international level.  This means that they know each other and trust each other completely.  They have the same interpretations, and they know what to expect in each situation.  Clearly this facilitates quick and accurate decision-making in hectic moments.

Moreover, in recent years, the IHF and many continental/national federations have had their top referees use headsets and wireless communication to be in constant contact with each other.  This obviously depends on quick and easy verbal exchanges that would be totally undermined when two referees of different nationalities and native languages are put together. 

Again, if one wanted to experiment with an approach based on mixed couples, to investigate the desirability of a complete change in the future, then they are safe events where this could be done.  The reason why this is not happening is that no major handball federations are interested in the idea and that the IHF President has not had the courage to try to convince them.

But in any case it is obvious that this kind of experiment does not belong in a World Championship.  On previous occasions, when the IHF President came with the same idea, the participating federations joined together and refused to accept this inappropriate experiment.  One would hope that either this happens again, or that somebody can convince the President to stop the nonsense.  But I am not so optimistic.  The reason is that the President, as always, is sure that “he knows best” and that nobody can stop him…

Is this when the medals are decided?

Of course I must admit that sometimes I have started speculating about an event when I have seen the result of the draw.   And it is of course legitimate to discuss what might happen, even if the event in question will not take place for another six months.  But sometimes the euphoria seems a bit excessive, and one almost gets the impression that the media create a hype to have something to get excited about and write about when there is no event currently going on.

But it then seems to go a bit far when team representatives are being interviewed, and much of the story is focused on bad luck in draw, or unfairness in the seeding even before the draw has been made, seemingly to create some excuses for the possibility of bad results when the event finally takes place.  Examples of this artificial excitement have been seen recently, during the month of June, when the draw for the Men’s European Championship in January 2012 took place, and when the seeding both for the Women’s World Championship in December and for the EHF 2011-12 Champions League were announced.

We all know that the preliminary round of the Men’s European Championship is always very tough, typically with 14-15 really strong teams out of 15.  So even of three teams from each group of four go on to the next round, it is critical first to have some relative luck with opponents in that first round, and then, when looking ahead, also with the teams placed in the neighboring group on the same half.  I cannot remember having such a unanimous sigh of relief as among the four teams in Group B:  Germany, Sweden, Czech Rep., and FYRO Macedonia.  They were in a sense insulting each other by talking excitedly about how lucky they had been.  I would not want to be the part of the team that fails to qualify from that group.  What possible excuses will they have?  Perhaps the bad referees…

By contrast, there has to be a ‘group of death’ in every event.  And if perennial champions France and recent bronze medal winners Spain are drawn in the same group, that certainly is enough,  And if you add Russia and Hungary to that mix, then one can understand if the optimism is not so great.  If one then, like France and Spain undoubtedly want to do, look ahead to the next stage, it is not exactly reassuring to know that three out of the group with Croatia, Island, Norway and Slovenia will be waiting there.  In Slovenia they talk especially about the game against Croatia, but in Croatia they seem to be more concerned about the tough battle they always seem to have against Iceland.

On the women’s side, the draw will not take place until July 2, when the PanAmerican Championship finishes.  But there has already been some grumbling about the caprices of how the teams have been placed in seeding groups.  The second category finds Kazakhstan mixed in with Denmark and France, while the unpredictable opponents from Angola and Brazil are on the third line.  Germany, who were a surprise qualifier against Hungary, after the dismal exit from the European Championship, now find themselves down on the fourth line together with Korea.  Which team from a higher level would want to see Korea being drawn into their group?  Finally, China and Spain have had to accept a fifth-level seed, but they are surely capable of causing surprises.  So the final draw will surely be a nerve-racking affair for the participants and their supporters.

Finally, the seeding of the men’s teams for the next Champions League has already created a stir.  First, of course, there was the issue of which teams would be allowed to compete for the wild-card entry.  For some reasons that are hard to understand, the EHF open mentioned five candidates for four slots, and then went ahead and left one team out without any clear criteria.  But perhaps Skjern on the men’s side were being ‘punished’ for the fact that their Danish compatriots Viborg were given a wild card chance on the women’s side.

As the draw is not directly based on the relative qualities and results of the individual team but rather on the rankings within the countries, there are some seemingly odd outcomes.  For instance, Chekhovski and Montpellier were placed in category 1, whole Ciudad Real and Kiel had to accept line 3.  And in between there are teams like Veszprem, Croatia and AG on line 2.  But the lack of grumbling may have been the effect of the EHF’s rules being clear, which they apparently were not for the Men’s EURO 2012. 

What makes the draw a little bit anticlimactic is that, just as was the case in 2010-11, there seems to be a demarcation between the top 16 team and the eight teams that will complete the groups.  In other words, it might not matter much for the better teams which group they are drawn in, because as long as four teams out six advance, there is not too much of a risk for them.  The risk is instead, for neutral observers who simply want some excitement, that again the whole group phase will be a long, boring ‘transportation stage’.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed for some surprises and unexpected thrills.