The arena in Sevilla, where the Danish fans will show their usual enthusiasm

In our recent podcast, John Ryan and I spent a few minutes on the upcoming World Championship, getting underway on January 11 in Spain. We had a few suggestions about possible success for Denmark and Poland, together with the notion that John is no longer as high on France as in the past. I also noted that several key injuries together with the some cases of post-Olympic retirement would undoubtedly have some impact.

But several friends, especially over in Europe, have used the New Year’s holiday to harass me about being a ‘coward’ by not offering some more specific suggestions for the outcome of the Championship. Yes, I know that some of you like to see my speculations, simply to be able to determine at the end that, yet again, my forecasts were a bit off the mark. So, I do not want to make you disappointed.

First, even more than in the past, I suspect that the preliminary groups will show a major contrast between some really solid teams and a whole bunch of teams that may be in the running for the ‘Round of 16’ but who really are not at the top level. So in each group it is mainly a matter of picking out the favorites and those who might be next in line.

In Group A, I think it is going to be almost impossible for France to fail to come out on top, and it is equally difficult to see the ‘new’ German team finish below second or third. I do not count on Argentina and Tunisia this time, so my only ‘dark horse’ here is Brazil. In Group B, Denmark seems to be the overwhelming favorite, whereas I do not expect great things from Iceland this time. So it should instead be interesting to see how a partly rebuilt Russian team will do. And let us see if Qatar, already looking ahead to hosting the next Championship in 2015, might be able to surprise FYRO Macedonia.

On the other half of the draw, I envisage a major fight for the first spot in Group C between Serbia and Poland. Some may think that Belarus and Slovenia will be in a battle for third place, but I could see the Koreans coming up with a surprise. Finally, in Group D, it can sometimes be a mixed blessing to be the home team, and perhaps Hungary could manage to win the group ahead of Spain. But I am also really curious about how the rejuvenated Croatian team, this time without Balic, will fare. Perhaps the Egyptians will turn out to be the best non-European team, but I do not have much of basis for that assertion.

So as you can see, I have been rather cautious, but I really do believe that it will in the end be a fight between ‘the usual suspects’. And perhaps I have been a bit less enthusiasm this time, as it will be the first time in 20 years that I am not involved, or at least present, for a men’s World Championship…

We wish Mads a full recovery and hope to see him soon on the court!

Last month, soon after Mads had lent his name to a campaign for cancer, ironically it was discovered that he had himself been hit by this illness, in the form of lymphoma. Courageously, Mads and his wife Marianne started dealing with this situation in an open way, using it to bring further attention to the need for public support for this often devastating illness. At first, the diagnosis gave reason for pessimism, but thankfully further examinations gradually turned this around, so that the prognosis is now considerably more optimistic. Mads has left the hospital and is undergoing chemotherapy.

Those who have followed Mads on the handball court, as I have had the opportunity to do, know that he has a great personality, always dealing with the players and coaches in a constructive manner, ready to handle hectic situations with a disarming smile. It is clear that he enjoys the task and that he is focused on supporting the teams on our sport in the process. It is fortunate that he has this attitude, because he will now need it to fight his illness in a positive spirit and with the same energy that he has always displayed in the handball matches. Being a cancer survivor myself, I know how much depends on contributing with everything that your own mental and physical capacity has to offer.

So when we are now finding ourselves in what for most of us is our main holiday season, normally in a happy mood together with family and a lot of expectations for the New Year that is awaiting us, I would ask you to join me in thinking about Mads and his family. If you know him, by all means contact him by mail or Facebook or whatever, as a way of showing him your support and wishing him a good recovery. And why not consider the idea of spending some money in the form of a contribution to the fight against this illness or for some other worthwhile cause; there is always someone or something that needs and deserves our support, when we are otherwise inclined just to think about ourselves.

Time to celebrate GOLD!

It must have been a nice situation for Montenegro to get their opportunity for revenge against Norway so soon after the Olympic final, which left some bad taste with controversy related to refereeing and bad luck. Today there was some of the same concern about tough decisions, but in the end it did not matter: Montenegro won the gold medals after a great surge at the very end!

The final started out just the way one ideally wants to see a final played: good technical quality with very few mistakes, a fast pace and good goalkeeping, accompanied with good refereeing, which all led to a game characterized by fair play and an absence of dirty methods. The Norwegians had some good periods, but Montenegro responded with determination and with nice attacking moves. The half-time result was 12-11 in favor or Montenegro.

In the second half, the trend continued where the successful early shooting by the Norwegians had become more hesitant, of course partly affected by the good form of Montenegrin goalie Barjaktarovic. But gradually, the Norwegians regained their composure, while at the same time the Montenegrins just perhaps were beginning to show tired legs and tired shooting arms, following the tough battle yesterday in the semifinal. Also, just as in the Olympic final, Norway escaped some of the 2-min penalties that Montenegro received, possibly because the methods of the Norwegians were a little less obvious. Understandably, coach Azdic was not too happy. And not surprisingly, the game was tied after 60 minutes, 24-24, following a Norwegian equalizer with just seconds to go.

The first overtime period was characterized by tentative shooting. However, mistakes by the Norwegians led to a 27-24 and 28-25 lead for Montenegro. But then came, to put it mildly, a disputed referee decision whereby Katarina Bulatovic was sent off for 2 minutes, accused of interfering with the throw-off after scoring a goal. This proved to be costly, and the Norwegians forced a second overtime by getting to 28-28. During that final overtime period, it seemed that the individual marking of Knezevic who had been the most successful shooter, and the sense that Bulatovic was a bit too tired, might decide the game in Norway’s favor. But in the end, it was the Norwegians who committed the costly mistakes and turnovers, so that in the last couple of minutes Montenegro could pull away and win by 34-31.

It should be added that Hungary won the bronze medal match after a considerable drama. At the end of the regular playing time, the game was tied at 33-33. Overtime periods tend to be tense and have relatively less goals scored. Here Serbia was ahead 37-36 at the half-way mark, but Hungary turned it around with some quick goals towards the end and managed to pull out a 41-38 win. So no medals for the home team, but their participation in the medal round contributed to a nice atmosphere with large crowds, after a disappointing spectator situation earlier in the competition.

Iranian women’s team, ‘brilliant’ against the real novices but too weak against other opponents.

With somewhat less media attention, Asia has carried out its women’s championship parallel to that of Europe. The event took place in Indonesia, and had a very large participation, including by some novice countries such as the home team and Kuwait. As expected, the top teams from East Asia dominated and obtained the three to places which qualify for the 2013 World Championships.

South Korea were impressive, beating China in the final with 40-22, after having beaten Kazakhstan by the score of 34-21 in the semifinal. Japan narrowly defeated Kazakhstan by 21-20 to capture the bronze and the remaining qualifying position, after having lost 25-28 to China in the semifinal. Kazakhstan had already lost earlier against Japan in the group play, just like China had lost against South Korea but with a much smaller margin. These four teams were totally dominant in group play, although the eventual 5th and 6th place teams, North Korea and Uzbekistan had shown a reasonable capacity.

Below those teams, Taipei and India had a ‘pivotal’ situation, being clobbered by the better teams but being able to take out their frustrations on the weaker teams at the bottom of the standings. Iran finished in 9th place, having lost four of their group games with the average score of 19-36. But their 53-4 win against Indonesia caused Iranian media to resort to euphoric statements about their team’s brilliant performance. Indeed, everything is relative! Kuwait, which of course has had a strong men’s team for many years, had their women’s team finish second from the bottom among the twelve teams. Their average result in group play was 4-62, so they obviously have a long way to go. So while it is nice to see a broadened participation, the enormous difference between top and bottom may be just a bit too much to be healthy and helpful.

Exhaustion, injuries and shortened careers are already major concerns; what should we now expect to happen!?

One proposal has been to reduce the ‘big events’ from five to four in each four-year cycle. We currently have World Championships every two years and European Championships every two years. But in addition, just like in 2012, we also have the Olympic Games. So one of the ideas has been to reduce the World and Continental Championships to three each in every eight-year period. Not much progress has been made, as both the IHF and especially the EHF have wanted to protect their respective big events.

But now we suddenly have a new situation that pulls us in the opposite direction. Africa, Asia and Pan-America have had continental ‘Games’ under the auspices of the Olympic movement for a very long time. For a lot of sports, these are really major events, and they also include handball. And now we have just had the announcement from the association for European Olympic Committees (EOC) that Europe wants to join all the other continents in organizing such continental Games. Just what handball did not need, it seems. If nothing else were to change, we would then move from five to six big events, rather than from five to four!

The first European Games will be held in June of 2015 in Azerbaijan, a country that has made noises in recent years about wanting to host the Olympic Games. One might think that this really would cause major concern among European clubs, federations and the EHF. But the reality is of course that once such an event comes into existence, it is almost unthinkable for a major sport to indicate that they do not want to take part. And for many sports, particularly most of the individual sports, the situation is very different from that of handball. Here the athletes are typically not under the pressure of overload, especially as the participants in individual sports are freer to dictate their own overall schedule.

So it is understandable that the official reaction from the EHF is cautiously positive. President Brihault has indicated that European handball and its various stakeholders support participation, and there are no specific comments about negative aspects. It seems that handball would prefer to take part from the outset and then perhaps evaluate both the benefits and status of this new event and the practical impact for handball and its top players. There has, however, been some speculation in the media that, perhaps, it would be better for handball to turn it into an ‘under-23’ or ‘under-21’ competition, although there must be doubts about the willingness on the part of the EOC to accept that approach.

The experience in the other continents does not provide much guidance. Here the existence of the continental Games every four years has rarely been an issue in terms of overload for handball players. The reality is that the proportion of players on the top national teams in those countries who also play for an elite club team, meaning in Europe, is much smaller, so there is not a serious conflict. Instead, because of the varying timing of the continental Games, the concern has more been one of securing the release for players on European club teams, when the continental Games come at a time that does not really fit with the European club calendar.

It will be interesting to see how the reactions might change as we get closer to June 2015. And there is also a suspicion that the new event might become an argument or create some leverage in the IHF vs. EHF debate about a possible cut-back of the existing big events. The IHF cannot very well complain about the emergence of such an event in the only continent where it has been missing, and it is not the EHF that has caused the situation to arise. But it might create a situation where a reduction becomes more inevitable than ever, and the IHF might argue that, after adding a European event, the obvious first thing that must happen is to remove another European event.

However, it might also create a certain appearance of symmetry, with one global and one European Olympic event, together with the two World and two European Championships. Perhaps this is what would make it look natural to cut one of each of these two types of events. Because at least personally, I have a hard time seeing that it is a tenable situation to have six such events in every four-year cycle.

Your guess is as good as mine…

And I really do believe that my heading is justified. While I think this is going to be an event where most of the traditional contenders will do well, many of them are in some kind of transition, with the loss of key players or the arrival of a new coach. So I think there could be as many as ten teams having a good chance for a medal, and that you could not really talk about a surprise if any of those ten teams go to the final. But at the same time, I will be a coward and predict that Norway and France will qualify from one half of the draw, while Hungary and Romania are my best bets from the other side.

You have heard me argue that I do not really like the tournament format with four groups of four, where only one team in each group misses out on the main round. Many times this makes for a rather boring first stage in some groups, and it even leaves some room for tactics and manipulations in the third round of the groups, when some teams can afford to speculate about what result suits them best.

But at least I see some intriguing match-ups in each of the groups. While I see Norway as the favorite in group A, I wonder if the home court/crowd advantage can help Serbia overachieve, just like they did on the men’s side. It would also be nice to see if the Czech team could get to the main round, after so many years of weak showings. In group B, I see Denmark-Sweden on the first day as the key game, with a probably edge for the young Danish team. And the loser of this game may find it tough to keep FYRO Macedonia behind them. While I have already said that I see France going through to the final four, mostly on account of their physical style, I do not think they are unbeatable.

Germany’s return to the top level is causing speculation in a positive direction, while I see some experts predicting a decline for Spain this time. I think this leaves some room for an experienced Hungarian team to get off to a good start. Iceland will find it tough to win a game in group D. We have here, like several times in recent years, a Russia-Montenegro encounter; moreover with a new coach for Russia and an interesting psychological situation for Montenegro. Will the Olympic silver now lead to a letdown or will it stimulate them to a further surprise? But I think the time is now right for Romania.

Finally, the EHF has nominated six women’s couples among the twelve referee pairs. There are also six rather experienced men’s couples. In the Olympic Games we often had the sense that several of the men’s couples had major difficulties in finding the right approach to the women’s games. Let us see now if the women’s couples, despite their generally more limited experience, are better at finding the right touch for this women’s event. Good luck to all of them! Our top women’s teams deserve first-class support from the referees.

Old habits and attitudes need to change — also in the IHF !

The EHF, just like FIFA and UEFA in football, allows not just discussions but actual negotiations on these issues with the other stakeholders. By contrast, the IHF has consistently dictated the conditions for player release, compensation and insurance on a ‘take it or leave it’ basis in relation to IHF events such as World Championships. Increasingly, this authoritarian approach has led to great dissatisfaction among the representatives of leagues, clubs and players. It is not seen as an acceptable recognition of the fundamental asset that players and clubs constitute in the world of handball.

Moreover, it fits in with an attitude demonstrated by the IHF in recent attempts to revise the IHF By-Laws, which reflect the apparent desire by the IHF President to impose duties and obligations but deny rights and privileges on the part of the stakeholders in handball. The pivotal role in dealing with this problem is played by the national federations in Europe. Of course, to some extent the federations might be seen as competition for influence with the leagues and clubs, and they may therefore fail to question the obsolete IHF practices. But one would really like to believe that the national federations which, in aggregate, are the ones, who have the formal political influence on the IHF regime, should better understand that the IHF’s position is really untenable.

As an example of the absurd length to which the IHF is prepared to go in order to maintain unilateral control, it should be noted that not just does the IHF refuse to recognize and have a dialog with the FCH; in a clear attempt to ‘divide and conquer’, the IHF has announced to clubs that they must deal with the IHF on an individual basis, because otherwise they cannot even count on the compensation that the IHF arrogantly determines without any form of negotiation. In other words, clubs who would want to stick together and be represented by the FCH in any such meetings will automatically lose the right to compensation. Instead, they would have to tolerate that the IHF hand-picks a small number of national federations and clubs as participants in the meetings where the IHF decisions are conveyed.

Frankly, it is embarrassing to see such methods continue to exist in our sport and, again, it is equally disturbing to see that the national federations do not force the IHF to change its approach.

Side by side, for now, but perhaps one day the star gets moved!?

However, one should keep in mind that this referendum does not in any way guarantee that statehood is just around the corner. Many Puerto Ricans would see statehood as something that would help the local economy, as it would undoubtedly make them ‘takers’, to use the terminology that came up in the recent U.S. election, meaning that they could expect economic benefits that would exceed their aggregate federal tax burden. But this may be precisely what would make the members of the U.S. Congress hesitate about voting with the two-thirds majority in favor, in this precarious moment for the U.S economy. The initiative would have to come from President Obama, who has generally spoken favorably about statehood, but also for him would it be a big step to take up this initiative right now.

So it may be a bit premature to discuss statehood despite the results of the Puerto Rican referendum. But it may still be fun and thought-provoking what it could mean in an admittedly peripheral area, namely the impact on the state of handball if Puerto Rico were to become fully integrated with the rest of the U.S.! Puerto Rico has participated independently in handball as in all other sports with national teams, and they have their own sports structure and Olympic Committee. In some sports the Puerto Ricans would be ‘dwarfed’ in the case of an integration, but that would not be the case in handball.

While traditionally U.S.A. had the upper hand, this is typically not the case today. Despite its relatively much smaller population, but to some extent due to the advantages of its ‘compact and manageable’ size, Puerto Rican handball has been holding its own in comparison with U.S.A handball in PanAmerican competition. Their federation has been well-organized and has had substantial clout in their Olympic Committee. They have had good coaches (sometimes with Cuban support) and astute administrators. They have good, dedicated handball facilities, and their youth program has been impressive in relation to its size. And they have an IHF referee couple, which is more than USA handball can boast with at this point in time. So quite conceivably, the Puerto Rican handball could become ‘the tail wagging the dog’ as the expression goes.

In other words, it could become a rather interesting debate about how integration would influence the development of handball over the short term and for the longer term! Clearly, there would be a sudden influx of good quality players, although the integration would not necessarily be an easy one. This could lead to a sudden boost in the context of the competitiveness of the national teams at different levels. But what would it mean for the longer term? Would it serve to encourage the growth of handball in the other 50 states or would it perhaps in some way cause handball to become even more of a ‘niche’ sport? And what about development in Puerto Rico when moving from being a country with a proud national team of its own to being a component of USA handball and its national teams? Is it conceivable that some of the excitement around handball in Puerto Rico could diminish rather than being enhanced? (This is of course a broader question that would affect all types of sports).

In the U.S., we have often debated whether it would be more realistic to ‘jump start’ handball development by concentrating mostly on a few geographic areas rather than focusing on nationwide growth all at once. With the addition of a 51st state, it seems that this issue would be given a sudden, practical test. It would also be interesting to see what the reactions would be among our Caribbean and Central American neighbors. They would obviously have reason to speculate about the impact of joint U.S./Puerto Rican resources on the opportunity to be successful in advancing from the region in qualifying events for PanAmerican Championships and beyond.

Given that the statehood question is not likely to have an imminent resolution, I will put on the brakes on my speculation at this point. The scenario may never come about, or it may be something for a distant future when the circumstances may have changed substantially. But apart from intriguing speculation, it just might suggest to us that it would be prudent to do some modest amount of preparatory thinking about the implications, just in case…. And it is also interesting to see that, at this very moment, there is some excitement about the notion of the possible independence of Catalonia from Spain, precisely as it pertains to sports, given the dominant role of FC Barcelona in football, handball and other sports and the large number of individual star athletes from the region!

Michael V. Knudsen of Flensburg and Denmark; who or what prevents him from playing in the World Championship?

But now we have had a sudden signal that clubs and players may become fed up with the status quo and the lack of serious action on the part of those who have the main role in determining the calendar and thus the workload. With two different versions being presented, it became clear that Michael Knudsen from Flensburg and Denmark had been ruled out from participation in the World Championship next January. It had nothing to do with injuries. Rather, it was suggested (supposedly according to statements from Knudsen) that Flensburg had forced him to accept such a clause as a condition for having his contract extended. By contrast, Flensburg insisted that the decision was really initiated by the wishes of the player himself.

The news caused an outrage in Denmark, because Knudsen is a key player. It was also noted, on the one hand, that such a contract clause is not permitted under IHF regulations and, on the other hand, Knudsen was criticized for showing up at a Danish training camp if he was not going to be a team member in January. It would not be the first time that a player had been formally prevented from his/her club to participate in a World Championship. But it could really trigger a major debate about who has the prerogatives, the club or the national federation. It should be recognized that the players are really caught in between. They do not want to be forced to abandon their national team, if they do not have their own reasons for staying out. But, of course, they do not want to spoil the relations with their employer, the club, so it would always be possible to come up with a plausible explanation that nobody could formally criticize.

Essentially the issue is linked to two basic conflicts: first, it has been argued for a long time that it is just too much to have more than one major international championship per year. So in a sense it is the participation of handball in the Olympic Games that becomes the trigger. But as nobody suggests that this should be changed, then it is the pattern of having either a World Championship or a European Championship every year that is the crux. Compromises have been sought but with no result so far. The EHF does not really want to budge, and the IHF must protect the interests of all the other continents. The second issue is that, added together, games in the national leagues, the EHF Champions League and for the national teams simply add up to being a bit too much. (When one talks about the national team, this includes not just the Championships but the qualifying events leading up to them).

Martin Heuberger, the men’s national team coach in Germany, suggested recently that it would be fair and necessary to ‘shave off’ some portion of each of the three workloads. Of course, one could suggest that the top nations could have their burden reduced by entering at a later stage in the qualifying events, as compared with the model that is being played precisely this weekend. And, as I have done before, one could argue that the current Champions League model causes too many ‘unnecessary’ games for the participants. Or one could suggest, as Heuberger did, that the number of teams in the German Bundesliga should be reduced. Every year, essentially the same teams gain the top positions and then also play in the Champions League or the EHF Cup, while several other teams are clearly at a lower level. But Heuberger got the reaction from his own Federation that “it would really be difficult to deprive some teams of the chance to play in Bundesliga, and even the top teams want the extra income from a couple of additional home games”. Clearly, one could argue ‘forever’ how the reduction should best be achieved.

But the reality that most people overlook, when they propose one solution or the other as ‘the obvious one’, is that the situation is far from similar in all the top handball countries in Europe. The one thing that most of them have in common is that they attach a lot of importance to their national team, but even that may vary from country to country. In some countries there is relatively more interest in the EHF Champions League, and handball fans rally around the team that represents their country. But so far, it is much more common that the fans really care about their own club and everything else becomes secondary. However, that is very much related to the third dimension: many countries have a national league that, year after year, creates a strong interest on account of many evenly matched teams. But other countries, even some of the very best, have only one or possibly two dominating teams, so the league becomes unimportant. And then we have the unique case of Germany, who ‘has it all’. The Bundesliga has strong traditions, also among the smaller clubs, the national team is a matter of real pride, and they have at least six-seven teams in the EHF competitions.

So one of the reasons for reluctance in other countries to change things is that they primarily see the problem as one that is caused by the German situation. This has been quite clear from media comments and views expressed by fans. They are upset if a German club ‘interferes’ with the participation of a player on the national team in country X. And they do not have much sympathy for the ‘dilemma of the German clubs’. On the contrary, it reminds them that Bundesliga dilutes the quality of the leagues in many other countries. Perhaps the most interesting and astute comment I saw in recent time was along the following lines: ‘the problem is caused by Germany, where they have teams and players for an absolute elite league but still insist on adding many comparatively mediocre clubs that really belong in a lower league’. I can appreciate these arguments; and at least the strong divergence of views within Europe (and even more if one adds the top other countries in other continents) will make it really tough for the IHF and the EHF to achieve serious change.

desperately trying to find something uplifting…

First just a small update on Karabatic and Montpellier: while the team is doing rather poorly without their currently ineligible players, Karabatic has just been out on a ‘crying tour’ in the media, swearing to his innocence and complaining that he is prevented from doing his job of playing handball. In the meantime, the authorities have suddenly realized that, just as I mentioned earlier, it is awfully difficult to prove that a team lost on purpose; and now they have also discovered that the wording of the regulations in the French federation and league is such that it (stupidly) only refers to on-line betting and not to placing money with a bookmaker! But French sports fans have also expressed their views. In a recent survey, almost 50% indicated that the players should be banned for life(!) if they were to be found guilty. Last time I used the image above my article to show the Karabatic brothers in their uniforms with ‘brother’ on the chest. The latest is now that the ‘brother’ company has announced that they no longer wish to have their ‘brother’ printers and sewing machines associated with a team and a pair of brothers who may not be so good for their image. So the sponsoring has been cancelled!

Turning to the financial worries in Spanish handball, there are almost daily reports about how fragile the situation is for the clubs in the top league. Some of the clubs that were given a chance to step in for others who had been forced out are participating on a ‘semi-amateur’ basis, and almost all the other clubs (except Barcelona and Atletico Madrid) are in a tough situation. Players are concerned about their situation and look for opportunities elsewhere, and there are frequent complaints from the fans that the quality of the league has dropped off substantially. What a moment to be gearing up to be the host of the men’s World Championship in just a few months!

Germany is supposedly the stronghold both for handball and in terms of the overall financial situation. But below the surface there are issues. Anecdotes from the grassroots level, confirmed by academic studies, suggest that handball is finding it increasingly difficult to recruit children into our sport, as the tradition for handball is no longer as strong as it used to be, in part due to influence of immigration. Just like in the USA, immigrants do not typically bring a handball background, and they do not find it normal to look for activities through clubs. At the federation level, an important study is underway regarding the need for changes in structure, strategies and management. And in the meantime, the national team coach, Martin Heuberger is heard pleading for an easing of the burden on the top players. He talks about reducing the teams in the Bundesliga, fewer German teams in the EHF Champions league, and fewer games for the national team. But more games and more participation is what yields income, so what gives? Moreover, for the EURO 2014, the EHF is using a qualifying system that seems very appropriate in terms of ensuring fairness, but this also means more games for the top teams…

Apropos the Champions League, many of the expected top teams are struggling with the consequences of key injuries, one critical aspect in the debate about the intensity of the competition schedule. And there have been comments, in line with those I presented a year ago, that the format of the group play is not really ideal. Last year it became too predictable and boring, essentially with the excitement limited to the fight for fourth place in each group, while the top teams had to play a lot of mostly meaningless games. Perhaps there is a bit more turbulence this year, with some surprising results. Savehof’s win against Madrid yesterday was one example. And some teams have had the luck of benefitting from the absence of AG Copenhagen and the miseries of Montpellier. For instance, please do not try to tell me that the group topped by Kielce and Metallurg is really competitive. I have seen enough on-line broadcasts to know better. The consolation is that there are several individual games that are exciting to watch even if the final result is not so critical. But I agree with those who argue that a format with four groups of six teams does not make much sense (except for the ‘political’ reason of permitting 24 participants). But a long, long group play followed by a sudden knock-out stage does not seem logical…