In a letter sent to all National Federation, Handball legend Jackson Richardson decries the actions of President Moustafa and endorses Jean Kaiser for President. Joining Richardson in signing were former German National Team Player, Erhard Wunderlich and Zlatko Portner, who played for the former Yugoslavia. The complete text of the letter is below.
To all national presidents, secretary generals and functionaries,
To all national and internationalplayers, trainers and referees
Basel, May 2009
The signing athletes in connection with the IHF congress 2009 and in connection with the linked discussions want to make the following statements:
– the current president of the IHF, Dr. Hassan Moustafa, as well as the current treasurer of the IHF, Miguel Roca Mas, feel put out to entitled criticism.
– concerning the financial transactions, there is in many cases still no sufficient transparency. Hence, we demand a neutral financial control, combined with a publication duty, as it is usual in general for economic companies and federations
– apparently there is also not enough transparency concerning the IHF funds spent for the presidents personal matters, in connection with the expenses compensations without documents of proof
– the research of "Spiegel Online“, a famous paper in Germany, about the whereabouts of 1.6 millions CHF, supposed to be on an account in France, remains to date without exact clarification.
– President Moustafa apparently takes decisions without consulting the council. This could possibly be looked as not statuts-compliant, among other things the exclusion of Oceania’s eligible Mr. V. Winitana from participating in the councils meeting in
Herzogenaurach, or even to act as secretary general. The secretary general elected by the congress, is apparently forbidden by the president itself, to enter his own office
– the value of the athlete's commission, installed by decision of the congress does not have, until today within the IHF its recognition. Until today no meeting took place because the president of IHF did not give his permission. The president communicates exclusively with the federations
– there are still no insurances for the athletes and the promised equalization of the time schedule of the events, has not yet occurred. This all leads to a huge overloading of the players, with dangerous health consequences. This entails that the federations and their clubs have to deal with financial losses, as well as long-chronological health failures of their players
– the behaviour in the matter of anti-doping regulations of the WADA endangers the handball sport to loose its Olympic status, maybe even for 2016
– the president, as well as the treasurer currently intervened in the referees nominations during the Olympics in Bejing (statements from the legacy of passed away Alexander Kozhukhov)
– the president of the IHF has promised during a press conference, which took place in the office of the IHF in Basel in February, 2009, a full transparency concerning all the reproaches against him. The carrying out is missing till today.
All these points prevent massively an improvement of the high-class standard, which we see as absolutely necessary, namely in the national federations, as well as in the continental areas. We, the athletes, simply form the basis for the exercise of our sport and to its marketing world wide.
In view of these lacks of transparency and the worldwide discussions linked to it, we would like to request all responsible officials of the handball sport, on the next IHF congress, which takes place from the 4th to the 7th of June, 2009 in Cairo, to express to
Jean Kaiser candidate for president
their trust and vote for him, so that the handball sport can enter a new, clean and prosperous era.
With our signatures we stand for „ clean handball “!
Jackson Richardson
World Handball Player, 1995
Erhard Wunderlich
German century Handballer
Zlatko Portner
World Champion with Yugoslavia, 1986