The Associated Press (AP) has posted an article on the ever widening match fixing scandal in Europe. The article highlights several of the allegations and notes that the IHF is setting up an independent committee, under Playing Rules and Referees Commission Chair, Christer Ahl to review subject matches for evidence of foul play. The article also quotes German Bundesliga General Manager, Frank Bohmann, who doesn’t mince words in stating that, “There seems to be a massive corruption problem”.
The latest development in the German media is that there appears to be evidence of a money trail in regard to funds being transferred to a third party shortly before suspect matches.
Editor’s Note: As Handball is not followed closely in any English speaking country, the fact that the Associated Press (AP) has deemed the story as newsworthy is a notable development. Typically, the Associated Press will write one or two articles a year on the sport briefly highlighting the World Championship results. In an Olympic year there may be a few more written on selected topics, such as Iceland’s first ever silver medal.
Additionally, covering these developments continues to be a challenge. Most of the relevant articles are in German and contain a lot of nuance in terms of sources of information which are difficult to decipher through automatic translations.
International Herald Tribune (AP): “Handball federations investigating matches”: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/03/20/sports/HNB-Handball-Corruption.php
Copenhagen Post: “Handball refs turned down bribes”: http://www.cphpost.dk/sport/120-sport/45086-danish-handball-refs-bribed.html
EHF: “EHF Initiates Proceedings”: http://www.eurohandball.com/article/12196
Der Spiegel: “Dubious transfers debit THW Kiel” (German):
http://209.85.225.132/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.spiegel.de/sport/sonst/0,1518,614667,00.html&prev=_t&usg=ALkJrhg8XC_kg99RH5tT74hWhfpjRok_rw