As many of our readers are likely to be aware, if counted 'per capita', Iceland has the highest number of handball players of any country in the world. Handball is almost a religion for the Icelandic people. And in their frosty – although sometimes fiery – climate, it is not strange that they still rely very heavily on an active and vivid relationship with their old Viking Gods.

The Icelandic people have a strong sense of right and wrong. They are never hesitant about speaking up and letting the rest of the world know what they think. So when they heard about the proposed changes in the IHF Statutes they realized that something drastic needed to be done. The Viking Gods, with Thor as the main responsible, needed to be called into action.

By now you are beginning to sense where this is going… Thor shrewdly figured that a small eruption of the volcano at Eyjafjallajokull would do the trick. With a good deal of accuracy it should be possible to direct the resulting cloud of ashes to a position exactly over Italy, as a way of preventing the planned IHF Congress from taking place in Rome this coming weekend. At the most, the cloud would extend from Basel in the north to Cairo in the southeast.

But apparently something went badly wrong in the calibrations. Thor is known to be a bit heavy-handed and prone to be using more power than is needed. But it may also have something to do with his temper, and his reactions after reading the proposed changes in the Statutes. In any case, most of Europe is now under a cloud, somewhat to the embarrassment of the Icelandic. What started out as totally justifiable and well-targeted took on totally unexpected proportions and created a misery for far too many.

However, when the truth about the origin of the whole situation is now becoming known to the general public, I am sure that they will be forgiving and conclude that it was well-intended and for a very worthy cause. At least the IHF Congress has been 'postponed'…