http://www.usatoday.com/sports/cycling/2006-08-02-landis-lawyer_x.htm

Howard Jacobs, the lawyer hired by cyclist Floyd Landis to address his positive doping tests at the Tour de France, was also the principal attorney hired by the USOC during the USA Team Handball decertification process http://www.usoc.org/43922.htm . I’ll go out on limb here, but my guess is that this case will be a little more challenging for Mr. Jacobs.

This past Saturday the draw for the Champions League took place. The EHF Champions League website has the full details and some reactions from the teams http://championsleague.eurohandball.com/new.asp?page=20071071X,1217 Beyond the typical standard lines from the team officials, here’s my analysis of the draw.

General comments:

The Objective: For each group the top 2 teams will advance out of the Group Phase and into a “Sweet 16” home and away aggregate knock out competition. Advancing out of the Group Phase is, of course, the first goal. The second goal is to finish first in your group, and thus avoid the other group winners in the round of 16.

The Top and Bottom Halves- Two Distinct Tiers: Last year the top two performance rows for the Champions League went a perfect 16 for 16 to advance out of the Group Phase. While this hasn’t always there is a definite trend established. Additionally, no team from Germany or Spain has ever failed to advance.

The Impact of German and Spanish Dominance:

The top row of teams does not represent the best 8 teams. As the German and Spanish leagues are the best leagues in the world, their 2nd and 3rd place teams are often better than the Champion from France, Denmark, Hungary, Slovenia, and Croatia. This isn’t always true (Montpellier and Celje have won titles), but it is usually true. As a result of this inequity, some groups have a top half which is significantly better than some of the other groups. Both of the strong teams, of course, will advance, but the 2nd place team will be a tough round of 16 match up for a first place group finisher. Conversely, it’s also possible that 2 of the weaker teams can end up meeting each other.

The Impact of Player Transfers: Originally, I took a look at the groups and assessed them based on last year’s results. However, when I compare my original assessment with the odds at Centrebet.com some of the teams that played decently last year in Group play are given virtually no chance of advancing. It’s pretty tough to follow all the club teams in the myriad national leagues, but the logical explanation is that these teams that did well last year have lost some key players to richer clubs.

Odds in parentheses are to win the Champions League as of 31 July 2006 (courtesy of Centrebet.com www.centrebet.com)

Group A:
HUN MKB Veszprém KC (20-1)
ESP Portland San Antonio (11-1)
SVK MSK Povazska Bystrica (1000-1)
BIH RK "Bosna" Sarajevo (1000-1)

As luck would have it, the draw produced a rematch of one of last year’s semifinals. Portland San Antonio and Veszprem will battle it out for first and the Slovakian and Bosnia clubs have little chance of beating either of these two teams

Group B
ESP BM Ciudad Real (2-1)
HUN SC Pick Szeged (100-1)
SUI Kadetten Schaffhausen (1000-1)
NED HV KRAS/Volendam or BLR Brest HC Meshkov

Look for the defending champion to go undefeated in Group play and for Pick to take second place. Kadetten Shaffhausen will put up a good fight on it’s home floor, but is still a long shot to advance.

Group C
DEN KIF Kolding Elite A/S (150-1)
FRA Chambery Savoie HB (33-1)
POL Wisla Plock S.A. (1000-1)
TUR Milli Piyango SK or SRB Crvena Zvezda Beograd (150-1)

Easily the weakest of the 8 groups and according to the odds makers the most evenly matched. Chambery is favored, but I saw them play several times last year and they are not a dominating team only sneaking into the #2 French spot on the last weekend of the year. Jackson Richardson is a legend, but is clearly in the twilight of his career. Kolding, the Danish Champ is shown little respect by the oddsmakers. Perhaps, they were hit hard in the offseason by transfers. Wisla Plock beat Kiel last year, so they should feel confident that they can win their matches at home against Kolding and Chambery. The odds makers give Belgrade the most respect of any 4th tier team. They are likely a young squad full of players looking for a better contract next year. Bottom Line: This Group is wide open.

Group D
CRO RK Zagreb (17-1)
GER Flensburg-Handewitt (8-1)
RUS Chehovskie Medvedi (66-1)
MKD RK Metalurg Skopje or POR ABC de Braga-Andebol SAD (1000-1)

Flensburg and Zagreb should advance, but the Russian squad, which won the lower level Cupwinners Cup last year has a decent shot at placing 2nd.

Group E
GER THW Kiel (5-1)
DEN Svendborg TGI Gudme (150-1)
CZE HC Banik OKD Karvina (150-1)
ROU C.S. HCM Constanta (1000-1) or ITA Pallamano Conversano.IT

Kiel is clearly the big favorite here. With the recent addition of former Montpellier goalie Thierry Omeyer, they now have the 2 best French players on their squad. Will French youth start wearing Kiel jerseys like they wear Tony Parker San Antonio Spur jerseys– Not likely- but at 5-1, I think they are a good bet to win it all. According to the oddsmakers, Danish Svendborg and Czech Karvina will battle for 2nd in this group.

Group F
SLO Celje Pivovarna Lasko (20-1)
GER VfL Gummersbach (20-1)
ISL Fram Reykjavik(1000-1)
LUX H.C. Berchem or NOR Sandefjord TIF(500-1)

Gummersbach and Celje are the clear favorites here. Reykjavik and Sandefjord will battle for 3rd.

Group G
ESP FC Barcelona-Cifec (4-1)
SLO RK Gold Club Kozina (1000-1)
SWE Hammarby IF HB (500-1)
GRE Panellinios AC Athens or CYP SPE Strovolos Nicosia

Barcelona should waltz through this group. The oddsmakers show absolutely no respect to the #2 Slovenian team Kozina. They will battle Swedish champ Hammarby for 2nd place.

Group H
FRA Montpellier HB (17-1)
ESP CBM Valladolid (17-1)
UKR Portovik Yuzhny (1000-1)
AUS A1 Bregenz HB (1000-1) or EST "Viking Malt" Panevezys

Montpellier and Valladolid will battle it out for the top seed. The Ukranian and Austrian Champs will battle it out for 3rd. Last year Bregenz showed they could play spoiler, though, knocking Madgeburg out of first place with a victory on the last weekend.

As reported previously, https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?extend.77 USA Rugby was undergoing some serious upheaval similar to USA Team Handball debacle. USA Rugby, however, has apparently looked over the abyss and decided to step back away from it. Indeed their old Board of Directors, recently agreed to vote themselves out of a job and seat a new, slimmed down Board of Directors primarily consisting of “Independent Candidates.” http://www.usarugby.org/cgi-bin/02/press/displayFullAnnouncement.pl?announcementId=394 Where have I heard of that before?

And this new Board has apparently been met with approval by the skeptical rank and file according to blog and forum commentary. http://www.gainline.us/gainline/2006/07/roberts_wacker_.html Not too surprising, if you look at the new director credentials, which include some pretty strong marketing and advertising expertise. They won’t necessarily solve all of USA Rugby’s budgetary and sponsorship problems overnight, but you’d like to think that if anyone can steer Rugby in the US to the next level, this Board can. Who knows, maybe 3 years from now some of these Board members, flush with all their success in turning USA Rugby around, will be looking for a new challenge in another developing sport.

A side note to all this is the International Rugby Board’s (IRB) active engagement with USA Rugby. The IRB is the Rugby equivalent to the IHF, and they have invested significant funding to develop Rugby in Canada and the USA. (Were not talking a few hundred balls here, we’re talking millions of dollars.) In fact, because of their significant investment the IRB has essentially taken over day to day management of USA Rugby on an interim basis, including the appointment of an interim coach. This in some ways parallel’s the USOC’s current oversight of Handball. While I would like to see the IHF engaged with American Handball development in a similar fashion, I’m guessing that the IHF’s funding profile is nowhere near the IRB’s. As the IRB World Cup is the 3rd most watched and attended world sporting competition (after the Soccer World Cup and the Olympics) they likely have a lot more money to throw around. But, you can be sure they are not throwing that money around idly. They obviously see the huge potential of the USA market and are hopeful that they can entice some portion of it to become rugby fans.

This NPR interview http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5563401 highlights how the “Long Tail” is changing the way media business is conducted. The old premise that 20% percent of your content makes 80% of your sales is no longer valid as niche markets become more and more important. Of course, team handball is one of those niche markets that could never crack into the crowded TV schedule. As more channels become available and broadband continues to improve in terms of quality and availability it’s only a matter of time until the niche Handball market is finally served.

For the past 3 years the Condors in Atlanta have had an active Summer League for Team Handball. News, standings, and statistics are available at this link: http://condorhandball.com/news.php?extend.249

This league consists of 60 players on 6 teams. Each team’s roster was determined via a blind draft based on player ability. As a result each team is a mixture of veteran players and newcomers to the sport, thus providing a better learning atmosphere for those newcomers. And as the website boasts over half the players are under 21 years old. According to Mike Hurdle, this influx of newcomers can be attributed to clinics that have been conducted by former National Team player and coach Darrick Heath.

Commentary: Many Handball enthusiasts, and in particular, people who are new to the sport in the USA, have often wondered how somebody like Mike Hurdle ever got elected President of USA Team Handball. Certainly, I have been critical of many of the actions that Mike took as President and also feel that he bears a substantial amount of responsibility for the resulting decertification of the USATH.

An outside observer, with a precursory review of media articles and the decertification information posted on our website would most likely scratch their head and ask, “How on earth did this clown ever get elected?”
https://teamhandballnews.com/comment.php?comment.news.3

One principle reason why Mike was elected is that he and the Condor Organization have been doing much more than just talking about developing Team Handball. Many people involved in the sport recognized this and liked the idea of having a President someone who had also demonstrated with time and energy a commitment to developing the sport at the grass roots level. This is not to say that the Condors are the only ones who have been working hard to develop the sport in the US. But, the reality is that no other Club in the US has successfully and for an extended period of time developed a multi-faceted program with youth teams, senior teams and a city league. All too often, there is more talk than action. Players all too often retire from the National Teams, never to be seen again. Let alone spend the time and energy it takes to help existing clubs or establish new ones.

In simple terms, if the sport is to develop in the US, we need more Bird Leagues and more younger players picking up the sport. Bottom line- if you’d like to see Team Handball develop in the US, maybe it’s time to start thinking about what you can do to help develop the sport.

(Disclaimer: I played and practiced with the Condors when they were based in California (87-91) and routinely participated on Condor teams in tournaments in the 90’s and 00’s)
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