Today the PATHF Youth Championship gets underway in San Cristobal, Venezuela. At stake are four slots at the World Championship tournament in Hungary, August 10-23. Regrettably, there is no team representing USA in this event.

In fact, the PATHF Championship points to a discouraging ‘polarization’ within our continent. First, while theoretically such a Championship could have as many as ten teams, only seven eligible teams have entered, so the hosts Venezuela are ’rounding out’ one of the groups with its ‘B’ team. Among these teams, we have Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, i.e., the four currently most competitive handball nations from the south; in addition, of course, the hosts Venezuela, but also relative newcomer Colombia. There is no representative from Central America, and the only team from the North/Caribbean region is Canada. In other words, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Greenland and Cuba are all missing, just like the U.S. team.

Four teams will qualify, and the format involves two groups of four teams. The way the groups have been drawn, we have a situation where Brazil and Chile surely will advance to the World Championship from group A, ahead of Colombia and the ‘B’ team from Venezuela which obviously is participating outside the competition. The excitement will be in group B, where Argentina should win the group, but where we may have a tough fight among Canada, Uruguay and Venezuela for the remaining slot. Let us hope the Canada will be strong enough to grab that slot, so that we will not have a situation where only teams from the very South are able to advance.

The Youth World Championship will for the first time have 24 teams. Thirteen of them will come from Europe, after Oceania gave up their slot. Most of the currently strong countries on the men’ side will be there (Spain, France, Denmark, Sweden, Croatia, Serbia, Germany, Slovenia, Romania, Austria, Norway, Belarus and host Hungary). Africa will be represented by Egypt, Tunisia, Angola and Gabon, whereas Asia will have Qatar, Japan and Korea. So the teams qualifying from PanAmerica will have their hands full in August. The event will take place in Budaoers and Erd, towns rather close to Budapest, along the highway leading southwest to Lake Balaton and Veszprem.

During the past week, the PATHF organized a combination of events in Argentina: the Men’s Junior PanAmerican Championship, the South American Women’s Championship, and a GRTP referee course.

The Men’s Junior event also served as qualification for the IHF World Championship this summer. Not surprisingly, the final was between Argentina and Brazil, with the Brazilian visitors pulling off a 25-21 victory. Together with these two teams, Chile gained the remaining slot in the World Championship, by winning the bronze medal game against Puerto Rico b y the score 34-28. Uruguay won 5th place by defeating Venezuela 34-27 and Mexico had an easy time in gaining the 7th place through a 31-18 win against Canada. It is of course pure speculation to discuss how a USA team would have fared if they had participated, but the results and placement of the Canadians may give us a hint.

In the Women’s South American event, it did not exactly come as a surprise that Brazil was able to dominate by easily winning all the games in a round-robin tournament. Argentina came in second, but they were outclassed by Brazil (37-23, half-time 20-5). Uruguay and Paraguay came next in the ranking and qualified for the PanAmerican Championship that will be held in the Dominican Republic in June. Venezuela also qualified, as the best ‘non-elite’ team, even though they actually lost to Chile, under the new, somewhat complex methods of the PATHF. The five successful teams will be joined by the team of the host country, three other representatives from North America/Caribbean and one team from Central America.

PanAmerica has been lagging behind in comparison with the other non-European continents in the efforts to identify and develop refereeing talents for the IHF level. Moreover, the existing group of IHF and Continental couples has been dominated by Argentina and Brazil. This is understandable, as these are the countries where young referees can gain tough match experience, but it creates problems when neutral referees have to be found for the Argentina vs. Brazil battles in all the different categories and events. At this moment, only one iHF couple can be found outside the southern part of our continent, namely Guzman and Perez from Puerto Rico.

The IHF/GRTP course, which could draw on the abundance of matches in the two tournaments, had about ten couples participating under the leadership of the IHF Lecturer Felix Raetz, the PATHF referee chief Salvio Sedrez and numerous lecturers from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Apart from match performances, the final results were also based on rules tests and physical tests. The five couples who gained the Continental status, as a first step in their pursuit of the IHF license were: Paolantoni and Zanikian (ARG-women), Burgos/Delagado (ARG), Magalhaes/Rocha (BRA), Lemes/Sosa (URU) and Joergensen/Posch (USA). We congratulate them and wish them good luck in their continued endeavors!

Generally I am trying to spare you from stories about my personal experiences in over 50 years in handball. But I must admit it is sometimes tempting to get carried away about some aspect of my involvement in the IHF, in Panamerica, in USA handball, or even in my young handball days in Sweden, where I first got involved internationally through Partille Cup and various other big events. Today I will however make an exception, because of the seemingly interesting link between the past and the present.

It is true that many of my memories are related to events such as Olympic Games and World Championships, including travel to places on the other side of the globe. But many of the more nostalgic stories involve people, especially referees, and the opportunities to have met so many who struggled for the progress of handball in difficult circumstances and with limited resources.

Many of those encounters have taken place here at home in the U.S. but perhaps particularly down in Latin America. Most of my travel was to Argentina, Brazil and Cuba. And it was always a particular pleasure to identify and support refereeing talents in those countries and beyond. During one period, I had been involved with the ascension of virtually the entire group of IHF referees from our continent, and I had enjoyed a whole lot of very special moments in the process.

The struggle continues, because handball remains a sport in modest circumstances in Panamerica. But the work involved in bringing referees to the top level has been taken over by others. And for me personally, it is a bit special to see that, at this point, the key people in that task are all from among the group of now former referees whom I was once involved in helping. They have finished their own careers as referees but are so ‘hooked’ that they see is as natural to support the next generation.

In connection with next week’s Men’s Junior Panamerican Championship in Argentina, referees from all parts of our continent will endeavor to qualify for, or at least take the first big step towards, the IHF Referee status. Among the participants are Lars Jedermann and Christian Posch from the U.S., which is nice to see after we have not had a strong IHF couple for a while. And as lecturers they will find Salvio Sedrez (BRA – currently PATHF Referee Chief), Patricia Malik de Tchara (ARG – the first female top level IHF referee), Eduardo Gonzalez (URU), and Thedy Adjemian (ARG), all of whom I accompanied several times to various IHF World Championships.

In fact, we have the same situation here in the U.S., where Thomas Bojsen, Tugomir Anusic, Bruce Mosberg and Tomas Kekes-Szabo keep serving in different capacities in the referee development after having finished their own careers at the Olympic and World Championship level. Indeed, we may have one of the strongest groups of referee instructors anywhere in the world, but with the unfortunate irony that they do not typically have a large group of new referee talents to work with!

Going back to the traditional scenario in a referee course down in Argentina, I think Lars and Christian will find that the hard work and the concentration on doing their utmost to impress in their games is combined with a great atmosphere from a social standpoint. The consumption of blood sausage, the beer drinking (non-alcoholic, of course…), the music and the story telling will be important part of the experience. Language barriers tend to be easily broken in such a setting.

And by strange coincidence, the participants will arrive in Argentina at a moment when the locals seem to be in a state of euphoria after having just had a compatriot elected as the new Pope. He is known to be a humble man, a man of the people, and in Argentina that includes being a soccer fan. I had had some hope to find that he would turn out to be a fan of the team that I naturally have to support, Boca Juniors, who indeed got their blue and yellow colors from the Swedish flag. But it seems that, perhaps appropriately, he instead supports the San Lorenzo team (the team of my successor as PATHF referee chief, Miguel Zaworotny). Whether the new Pope is also a fan of handball remains unknown to me!

During the recent Congress of the PanAmerican Team Handball Federation, some important changes were made in the Statutes and in the Competition Regulations (in addition to the Competition System, as previously reported). Similarly, it was decided to introduce Regulation, including a Disciplinary and Ethics Tribunal.

The key change in the Statutes amounted to a clear separation between the function of the Executive Committee and the Council. The Executive Committee now has only five members and is set up to be able to function in a true executive capacity with frequent meetings and communications, especially regarding operational matters. The Council, which includes the Executive members, 4 Vice-Presidents elected by the four regions, the Representative to the IHF Council, and the Presidents of the Commission for Organizing and Competition and the Commission for Rules and Refereeing. The Council will have more of role in policy matters, and it also ensures a wide representation of all parts of the Continent. In addition, an Office attached to the President, with a General Manager, should be able to ensure a major improvement in communications related to competitions and other operational matters.

The Competition Regulations also were firmed up on some points. It is now clear that the member federations can count on as many as 10 participants in each PanAmerican Championship. (The PanAmerican Games are beyond the control of the PATHF and have their own rules on this point). This means that federations cannot push for a larger number for a specific event, nor do they run the risk that an organizer declines to handle this size. It is a different matter that for the junior and youth categories we might conceivably find that there are sometimes less than 10 teams entered.

Strong emphasis has been added to provisions under which federations register teams for a PanAmerican competition. The deadlines are now firm, and there are strong penalties for late withdrawal or non-appearance, as this generally causes great problems and wasted resources for both organizers and other participants. It was also decided that, in an effort to encourage a broader spectrum of member federations to volunteer as organizers, the organizers will now be able to charge up to US$30 per person and day to cover food and lodging. Previously this was supposed to be covered through the participation fees.

Finally, on the basis of the negative experience with the handling of disciplinary matters in the absence of a solid regulation, and therefore with a risk of inconsistencies in decisions and procedural flaws, it was agreed that the PATHF must establish formal and comprehensive regulations. These will cover violence, misconduct and other offenses related to games and competitions, but also administrative violations in the relations of member federations with the PATHF and regarding their obligations in the area of competition. There will also be a separate segment focusing on ethical conduct and possible violations. The key body in this area is the independent Disciplinary and Ethics Tribunal. During the course of a competition, there will the traditional ‘Disciplinary Committee’ as the first level, typically with a member of the Tribunal serving as ‘Jury’ in the case of appeals. For situations outside competitions, the Tribunal is the first and the last entity to handle reports of violations. Its decisions will then be without scope for appeal.

One of the main topics during the PATHF Congress was the discussion of a new system for the qualifying to the PanAmerican Championships in the different categories (men, women, juniors and youth). If one goes back to the ‘old days’ it was simpler. There were essentially only five member nations down in the ‘cone’ of South America, the Central America rarely participated outside their region, Mexico and Puerto Rico were regulars, with Cuba joining on a capricious basis, and then we had USA and Canada before Greenland joined the fun. So a major qualification system was not really needed, and the main Championship was THE regular competition.

But now the irony is that there are more interested participants and nevertheless less competition opportunities for them. Most of the other South Americans have become active, the Dominican Republic is a force to be reckoned with, and the Central Americans want to measure themselves against their more advanced colleagues. However, the size of the continent and the lack of resources on the part of most federations create a dilemma. If you need to travel from North to South in the qualifying process and are successful, then you soon need the money to travel again to the main Championship, perhaps again in the South. So imagine that you then try to go back to government, sponsors and player families and find the money if you actually get a slot in the World Championship in another continent!

For some short period, the idea was to create a ‘second division’, as a way of eliminating qualification tournaments. This meant that the only duplication of events was for those who moved up from one level to the next for the coming year. But this concept did not work out, because it put teams from all over the continent together in the ‘second division’, and who would find it easy to obtain the funding for long-distance travel in something that was not even a meaningful Championship.

So in connection with Mario Moccia taking over as a President, the emerging new proposal was now to return to a regional qualifying concept, BUT with the difference that the focus should not just be on the qualifying but on what the regional events could –and needed to – do in terms of ‘forcing’ more regular competition among neighbors, especially among those of approximately equal strength. There was general agreement that such tournaments, which might also spur additional competition in between the qualifying events, are absolutely necessary to raise the standards for both individual countries and the continent as a whole. With rare exceptions, the ‘number 3 and 4′ teams from the continent have been doing very poorly when getting their opportunities in various World Championships, and no clear trend for improvements has been seen.

So the idea now is that 10 teams should be allowed for each PanAmerican Championship, assuming of course that in the younger age groups you actually get that many teams interested in participating. The slots should then be distributed in a standardized way among three regions: the South, where Chile and Uruguay have been responsible for much of the progress in recent time, would get FIVE slots. This means that the ‘big four’ (ARG, BRA, CHI, URU) would often qualify but that there would always be room for at least one team from among the newer ones, where for instance Venezuela has come on strong. ONE slot would be set aside, as some kind of development tool or motivation, for the six Central American countries to fight about in their regional events, as they would otherwise never have much of a chance to get to the Championship.

This leaves FOUR slots for a rather evenly matched group of seven member federations: CAN, GRL and USA from the North, and CUB, DOM, MEX and PUR from the Caribbean. So the three North teams now have to ‘mix it up’ with some other teams instead of just doing the qualifying among themselves. This could be a really interesting group, often with a real struggle to avoid being left out from the subsequent championship. Much will depend on the resources that GRL and CUB may or may not have in order to participate in the lower age groups, for GRL due to travel expenses and for CUB due to internal politics. I suspect all these 7 member federations are a bit apprehensive about the implications of this approach. It really makes them have to weigh the advantages of more frequent and intensive competition against the risks that too many of the others will turn out to be stronger.

It should be noted that the system above applies only to the process leading to the PanAmerican Championships; the system for the quadrennial PanAmerican GAMES, which is controlled by the continent’s Olympic organizations and not by PATHF, remains unaffected, and only eight teams will qualify for the men’s and women’s competitions in Toronto 2015.
Finally, increased competition of good quality and between teams of about equal strength sounds really exciting. But this will highlight another current weakness: the standard and the quantity of the top level referees in the continent have gone downhill in recent time. So as there now will suddenly be increased demands, there is a major challenge for the new Referee Chief, Salvio Sedrez, to move quickly to strengthen the troops. On the other hand, for the longer term, if one has some patience, the intensified competition level should also in itself help improve the refereeing, as it provides the necessary basis for growth.

During the weekend, PATHF organized the combination of an Extraordinary Congress and a Regular Congress in Panama City. The event was attended by 23 of the 26 PATHF member federations. This included nine of the ten from South America, all the six Central American members, five from the Caribbean region (CUB, DOM,HAI, MEX and PUR) and then the Northern trio Canada, Greenland and USA.

The proceedings were characterized by harmony and a good meeting of minds on all the major issues. This was particularly remarkable inasmuch as the agenda included the revision of the Statutes, the Competition Regulations, and the introduction of a first-ever regulation for a Disciplinary and Ethics Tribunal. I will come back to these issues in a separate article.

But, apart from the elections, the ‘hot topic’ was the revamping of the overall competition structure, especially as regards the system for qualifying to the different categories of PanAmerican Championships. The reality has been that only a small proportion of the PATHF federations have participated regularly in the Championships or in the qualifying leading up to them. Clearly, an effort needs to be made to encourage or ‘force’ more competition, especially on a regional basis among teams of relatively equal strength. This is the key to raising the level across the continent. I will came back to the details of the new system in a couple of days.

For the moment, I will just comment on the election results. The big change was that, after 16 years, there was a consensus that new leadership through a new President was needed, and the unanimous choice was the former Vice President Mario Moccia (ARG). In this team on the Executive Committee, we also have Julio Noveri (URU) as 1st Vice President and Rafael Sepulveda (PUR) as 2nd VP with special responsibilities for development. Hector Fernandez (CHI) moved over to the position of Secretary, making room for Carlos Ferrea (ARG) as Treasurer. Mario Garcia de la Torre (MEX) remains as Representative to the IHF.

The Council has six additional members, including four Regional Vice Presidents: Brian Hayes (CAN – North), Jose Duval (DOM – Caribbean), Carlos Morales (GUA – Central) and Geraldo Paniagua (PAR-South). The two other members are Carlos Gonzales (CUB – Pres. of the Competition Committee and Salvio Sedrez (BRA – Pres. of the Referees Committee).

A new important arrangement is the establishment of an Office with a General Manager function connected to the President; this will be occupied by Miguel Zaworotny (ARG). Finally, the brand new, independent Tribunal for Disciplinary and Ethics matters also had a President named. My ‘modesty’ prevents me from indicating who was placed in that position…