Following the recent 'ground-breaking' meeting between the EHF and the new entity representing the European top men's clubs, Forum for Club Handball (FCH) http://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.1039 , there was a clear expectation that it would become untenable for the IHF to refuse to formally invite the FCH (and the original, more narrow grouping, GCH) to relevant meetings. And now it has been announced that for a meeting on September 17 regarding issues such as the competition calendar and the compensation to clubs, the FCH President Tomaz Jersic and the GCH President Joan Marin have indeed been invited. This is a major step forward, albeit belatedly.

At the same time it is also becoming clear that the professional handball players in Germany will finally follow the example of their colleagues in several other countries; in the next couple of weeks, they will be founding a German Handball Players' Union. As noted by Jaume Fort, Head of the European Handball Players' Union, the inclusion of the German players is obviously an important development in the efforts to gain recognition for the players as a full partner in all discussions concerning their situation, such as precisely on the issue of the competition calendar. One can only hope that this will soon become a natural occurrence.