AUDIO: Alberta Team Handball: Grass roots development firmly taking root

Posted on September 14, 2013 by John Ryan

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:43 — 9.5MB)

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Canadians from Alberta currently enrolled at the Aarhus Handball Academy in Denmark. Top row left to right: Kraig Fischer, Parker Love, Mackenzie Gleave, Tyler Southall, Lyndon Suvanto, Darryl Lakusta, Spencer O’Donnell and Mark Gordulic,
Bottom Row: Brenna Sanderson, Dusen Kristic and Janel Rogiani

Earlier this week I saw a post indicating that 11 players from Alberta, Canada had enrolled at the Aarhus Handball Academy in Denmark. I was surprised to see such a large number of players from Alberta trekking to Denmark to play team handball, so I contacted Alberta Team Handball, Executive Director/Technical Director Mike Nahmiash to find out more. Our conversation touched on a number of topics to include the Aarhus Handball Academy program; youth, junior and senior programs in Alberta; Canadian National Team plans and the possibility of a joint American-Canadian club league. Podcast length is 41 minutes

With thousands of athletes now playing at all levels (3rd grade to collegiate), Alberta Team Handball has come a long way in just a few short years. In fact, it could very well be true that with over a 100 high schools now playing boys and girls team handball as an officially sanctioned sport more handball is now being played in this corner of Canada then the rest of Canada and the U.S. combined.

Alberta Team Handball Federation: Link

List of Alberta players overseas: Link (This is the page that initially drew my attention)

Alberta player blogs: Link (Several players at Aarhus are blogging about their experience)

Aarhus Handball Academy: Link

Handball News Summary (13 September 2013)

Posted on September 13, 2013 by John Ryan

1) French League (LNH) press conference and club budgets. Prior to the start of the new season the LNH had a “State of the League” press conference. It was noted that the LNH is now the world’s 2nd best league and is gaining on the HBL. Also released were the budgets of the 14 clubs. No surprise that Paris’ 13.5M Euros leads the way and is nearly double #2 Montpellier.

LNH website (French): Link
Handnews.fr (French): Link

2) Liga Asobal takes unprecedented step in promoting sports betting. Several leagues and clubs have had agreements with sports betting companies. I’m pretty sure, however, this is the first time that league matches have been incorporated into a specific betting scheme prominently displayed on a league’s home page.
Liga Asobal Homepage (Spanish): Link
Liga Asobal Website article on Quinihandbal (Spanish): Link

3) Talant Dujshebaev on his Champions League career and future plans. He indicates that he will not coach any team until November at the earliest.
EHF Website: Link

4) Hombrados signs with German Club Wetzlar. 41 year old Spanish Goalkeeper Jose Hombrados joins Ivano Balic in Wetzlar
Handball-World (German): Link

Handball News Summary (12 September 2013)

Posted on September 12, 2013 by John Ryan

1) VIDEO: IHF President Hassan Moustafa discusses Argentinian Handball during his visit to Buenos Aires. He also indicates that Brazil’s debt related to their hosting of the 2011 Women’s World Championship might be partially recovered with that nation’s hosting of Beach Handball World’s Championships.
PATHF Website (Mostly English with some Spanish): Link

2) Argentinian International Diego Simonet and 3 others are now cleared to play for Montpellier. Previously, their contracts had exceeded overall budget restrictions imposed in France.
Mundo-Handball: Link

3) The Beach Handball community in Germany seeks more support from the German Federation.
Handball-World (German): Link

Handball News Summary (11 September 2013)

Posted on September 11, 2013 by John Ryan

1) Polish International, Marcin Lijewski, discusses returning to Poland to play with his new club Wisla Plock.
Gazeta.pl (Polish): Link

2) Spanish International, David Davis retires.
EHF Website (English): Link
(Side note: Of African descent and with an American sounding name, I was curious when I first saw him play several years ago as to the personal back story of this non-typical looking Spanish National Team player. There is, however, no USA connection. His ancestry is from Equatorial Guinea, Spain’s only former colony is Sub-Saharan Africa.)

3) Russian International, Sergei Gorbok discusses his return to the HBL and financial problems at his old club, Chekovski Medvedi.
Handball-World (German): Link

4) Chilean International and Magdeburg Circle Runner, Marco Oneto, discusses internal problems with the Chilean national team.
Short summary of the interview at Mundo Handball (Spanish): Link
Audio interview at Handball de Primera (Spanish) : Link

Olympic host city selection: Looking backwards and forwards 4 years for USA Team Handball

Posted on September 10, 2013 by John Ryan

While the selection of host city for the Olympics is always of great interest to sports minded people around the world this time around the selection was only of passing interest to the U.S. This is because unlike the last two selections for the 2012 and 2016 Olympics the U.S. had no city competing to host. This is not to say there was no interest and the selection of Tokyo has implications for a 2024 bid. In particular, the selection of Tokyo means that a European city (potentially Paris hoping for a sentimental 100th anniversary selection) will be the likely competition. Whereas an Istanbul or Madrid selection for 2020 would have probably ruled out a repeat trip to Europe 4 years later and a 2024 selection campaign vs. Tokyo. This assumes quite a bit, and other 2024 possibilities include a bid from Qatar, South Africa and Toronto. Qatar or South Africa would mean the Olympics being hosted in a new region of the earth and Canada hasn’t hosted a summer Olympics since 1976.

Looking Back (2016 Host City Selection): The devastation of the Chicago loss

For USA Team Handball the possibility of home based Olympics has always been a big deal because it means automatic Olympic qualification and the exposure, increased funding and sponsorship opportunities that come along with it. Four years ago in 2009, the Federation was devastated by the non-selection of Chicago for the 2016 Games. Although it was never explicitly stated preliminary plans were already in place for a residency program and marketing campaign focused on the Chicago area.

After his departure in 2011 former USA Team Handball General Manager told me it was pretty much a given that he would have moved to Chicago to directly oversee operations there. With his Chicago based connections it’s probably safe to say that USA Team Handball’s financial situation would be in a lot better place today. Most likely we would also have residency programs fully established in Chicago and competitive National teams. I doubt that we would have qualified for the 2012 Olympics, but with some decent recruiting I suspect that qualification might have been possible for the 2013 World Championships. Perhaps we would even have TV exposure for those national team contests much like USA Rugby now has. But, as we all know Chicago wasn’t selected and coupled with the Great Recession and some questionable management decisions it was the start of the downward spiral that led to the end of the Esch-Pastorino era for USA Team Handball.

Today (2020 Host City Selection): Tokyo, not that it matters

This time around in 2013, the host city selection was essentially meaningless to U.S. Team Handball. Assuming no major changes is in the qualification process, the U.S. will simply need to win the Gold Medal at the 2019 PANAM Games. As an aside, next month the selection for those games will be made and the candidate cities Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela; Lima, Peru; La Punta, Argentina and Santiago, Chile. It’s tough to project out 6 years, but heading down to South America to win Gold will surely be a challenging prospect for Team USA.

Looking Forward (2024 Host City Selection): Automatic qualification for Team USA?

While this time around the host city selection didn’t mean anything it’s pretty easy to foresee the host selection in 2017 (for the 2024 Olympics) as a future pivotal event for USA Team Handball. In all likelihood the U.S. will have a city up for bid and on paper that city should be a very strong candidate for selection. By 2023 I’d like to think that our National Teams will have improved to the point that we can travel to a PANAM Games and compete for a Gold Medal, but there’s nothing like an automatic guaranteed spot. “Maybe, is replaced by “reality” and that will make it easier to secure funding via sponsorships years in advance of the games. Not to mention the increased media exposure that should facilitate recruiting.

With the apparent decision to start a residency program at Auburn University in the near future it would appear that USA Team Handball will not be repeating the all the eggs in the basket Chicago strategy. On the one hand this would seem to be a prudent course of action. U.S. selection is by no means guaranteed and to keep the old sayings flowing, “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” But, on the other hand the potential of setting up shop in one of the potential candidate cities (Dallas, San Francisco, L.A., Boston, Philadelphia and others) has some appeal that Auburn, Alabama might struggle to match.

The competition to be the USA candidate city is sure to be fierce and the USOC has indicated that it will winnow the field to 2-3 cities this winter then make its decision later in 2014 in order to give that city plenty of time to market itself to the IOC. It remains to be seen whether that marketing will pay off with a U.S. selection, but rest assured around 4 years from now the entire USA Team Handball community will be on pins and needles waiting to hear newly elected IOC President Thomas Bach announce where the 2024 Olympics will be.

IOC selection of Tokyo for 2020 Olympics provides opportunity for Japanese handball

Posted on September 9, 2013 by John Ryan

Tokyo delegation reacts to winning 2020 Olympics. What will it mean for Japanese Handball?

The IOC selection of Tokyo to host the 2020 Olympics is big news. There aren’t a whole lot of events in the world where so many future plans hinge on a truly unknown outcome. To the sports minded citizens of Turkey and Spain the disappointment is grand, while in Japan there is great joy. There just simply can be no “in between” feeling for the nations involved.

And in terms of the Team Handball programs in those countries it’s roughly the same story. Perhaps for the Spanish national teams it’s no big deal. It’s hard to project 7 years out, but Spain will likely be in the mix for qualification without the guaranteed slot that Olympic hosting provides. For Turkish Team Handball, however, it could have been a significant boon to their national teams to have participated in their first ever Olympics. Neither the Turkish Men’s or Women’s programs have ever qualified for the World or European Championships, but at times they’ve shown some competitiveness. In particular, I remember the Women’s team drawing France several years ago in a June Playoff event only to lose on aggregate in the 2nd leg. In all likelihood an Istanbul Olympics would have given the sport a boost similar to what Greece received before and after the 2004 Olympics. And who knows perhaps with good planning and a little luck maybe it would have led to sustained growth for the sport in that country.

For Japan it clearly is a chance for resurgence as the Women’s national team hasn’t been the Olympics since their sole appearance in 1976 and the Men’s national team, while it has been to the Olympics 5 times, it hasn’t qualified since 1988. It’s also probably not lost on Japanese Handball that it’s no coincidence that the 1988 Seoul Olympics also marked a turning point in Asian handball to Korean domination that has now lasted a quarter of a century. Undoubtedly, the industrious Japanese are probably contemplating right now just how they might duplicate the success that the Koreans had in Seoul.

Certainly, the possibility exists and unlike the recent British effort to build off of their 2012 opportunity, the Japanese will not be starting from scratch. At times the women have been competitive with the Koreans and they’ve been to the World Championships several times. The men’s program has been less successful, but they can point to Daisuke Miyazaki, a talented center back who scored 104 goals during his one season in the Liga Asobal. Miyazaki will be 39 come 2020, but perhaps the Japanese Federation will find a couple of more players to take his place in the meantime. One such player may be 27 year old Ryota Tanimura who joined Berlin Fuchse and will be playing for the club’s 3 division team. Interestingly, Berlin coach Dagur Sigurdsson played 3 years in Japan and still has ties with his former club there. Perhaps the former Austrian National Team coach might be a candidate to take over the Japanese program? Regardless, with 7 years to plan and develop it will be interesting to see if Japanese handball can take advantage of their Olympic opportunity.

Handball News Summary (5 September 2013)

Posted on September 6, 2013 by John Ryan

1) German Bundesliga clubs overwhelming reject a management proposal to add playoffs. Handball-World (German): Link

2) A French National Commission won’t approve the contracts of 4 Montpellier players. Contracts for Diego Simonet, Wissem Hmam, Arnaud Sifferet and Antoine Gutfreund exceed Montpellier’s authorized budget. Handnews.fr (French): Link

3) New French power house, Paris St. Germain is not happy with its LNH schedule. At issues is a quick turnaround between French League matches and Champions League matches. Sports.fr (French): Link

4) An update on which nations formally submitted bids for 2019 Men’s and Womens Handball World Championships. Inside the Games: Link

5) The Netherlands Handball Federation appeals EHF fines and suspension. The EHF Court of Handball imposed a 550,000 Euro fine and 3 year competition suspension for backing out of their host responsibilities for the 2012 European Women’s Championship. EHF Website: Link

6) Retiring German referees, Ralf Damian and Frank Wenz reflect on their career. The highlight their officiating at the 2010 USA National Championships in Las Vegas as one of their most memorable events.: Handball-World (German): Link

Handball News Summary (4 September 2013)

Posted on September 4, 2013 by John Ryan

1) The German Bundesliga is considering revamping the format for both the National Club Cup (DHB Pokal) and the HBL. There’s even talk of adding playoffs. Martin Kloth, DPA, reports on an interview with HBL Managing Director, Frank Bohmann

Suedkurier.de (Martin Kloth, DPA): “Playoff ideas: Club Handball modernized”: Link

2) Handball-World’s Christian Ciemalla sums up some of the issues with the HBL adding playoffs: “Playoffs are back on the table: HBL provides clubs with their plans tomorrow”: Link

3) Bjoern Pazen, writing for DPA, highlights the poor attendance at the recent IHF Super Globe in Qatar

Suedkurier.de: “Sandwich and free admission: Qatar is vying for viewers”: Link

Editor’s Note: The Handball News Summary is a new feature that we will be experimenting with over the next couple of weeks. The intent of the Handball News Summary will be to highlight some of the key news developments in the Handball world. In terms of experimenting we’re not certain yet as to how frequently we will post a news summary and how significant a news event will need to be in order to make the summary. If you would like to have an article considered for inclusion email us at editors@teamhandballnews.com

A couple of key points

1) We will always try to link and give credit to the original source of the news. Perhaps in some instances we might not realize that another site has simply taken the material from another website and claimed it as it’s own, but we’ll do our best.

2) The news items will often be in a language other than English. A number of websites such as Google Translate, Babelfish and Bing Translate provide workable translations. (Of course, we could simply do an automatic translation, not even bother to clean up the garbled English and then claim the news item as our own creation, but we’ll leave that to other websites.)

Handball News Summary (3 September 2013)

Posted on September 3, 2013 by John Ryan

1) Swedish International, Oscar Carlen, retires. Carlen, once a rising star, has had multiple knee surgeries and therefore has decided to end his career at the age of 25.

(Source: ystadsallehanda.se) (Swedish)

Summary story: Link

Commentary by Jan Ohlsson: “Could have been one of the world’s best players”: Link

2) Nikola Karabatic likes idea of an NBA style handball league. He isn’t so sure, however, if the French and German leagues would like it. Interview with El Periodical (Spanish): Link (Subscription required for full article)

3) Champions League qualification for Group Play is now complete. Summary of the key matches from this past weekend at the EHF Champions League site: Link

A couple of key points

VIDEO/AUDIO Wisla Plock vs. Montpellier

Posted on September 2, 2013 by John Ryan

Wisla Plock’s Muhamed Toromanović taking a shot vs Montpellier.

France’s Montpellier and Poland’s Wisla Plock battled it out over two games to see which side would earn the right to play in the Champions League this season. Montpellier won the first match at home, 29-27 this past Thursday. On Sunday they traveled to Poland for the second leg. The video for the match is courtesy of ehfTV and my audio commentary is in the MP3 files below.

The first half segment has a synchronization count at 3:00 on the ehfTV clock in the lower left hand of the screen. Start the video and pause it at 3:00. Then open the MP3 file and when I start my synchronization count unpause the video.

For the 2nd half my synchronization count starts at 48:30

Wisla Plock vs. Montpellier Video: Link

Go, Diego, Go! Argentinian Diego Simonet has a grand debut with new club Montpellier

Posted on August 30, 2013 by John Ryan

Go, Diego, Go! (With the tousled hair, there’s a bit of resemblance to Dora the Explorer’s lesser known cousin)

Yesterday, France’s Montpellier shook off an 11-15 halftime deficit to defeat Poland’s Wisla Plock 29-27 in the first leg of a two leg aggregate qualification match. Playing the major role in that turn around was Montpellier newcomer, Diego Simonet who scored 7 goals and set up several others with his court awareness and quickness.

Diego Simonet is a familiar name for Pan American Handball followers as he is one of the 3 Simonet brothers (Sebastian and Pablo are the other two) that play for Argentina. Yesterday, courtesy of ehfTV, however, was the first time I had the opportunity to see him play a full match with a quality web stream. And based on just this one match observation, I’m actually contemplating as to whether already at age 23 he might just be the best player to ever come out of Argentina.

Probably too soon to tell, but based on his career progression so far it might not be too long before it becomes obvious. In 2007 he was a key member of Argentina’s surprising 4th Place finish at the Youth World Championships and Argentina followed that up 2 years later with a respectable 6th place finish at the Junior World Championships. His performances in those events surely played a role in his signing a contract with the Spain’s Torrevieja from 2009-2011, then with France’s Ivry from 2011-2013. And, then top side Montpellier, apparently liking what they saw the previous two years, signed him to a contract this season. He’s also been a key part of Argentina’s recent success in Senior events, leading the team in goals and assists at both the 2012 Olympics and 2013 World Championships.

It remains to be seen what his future career holds, but certainly, the fans in Montpellier have welcomed his with open arms, already echoing the arena with chants of “Di–e–goooo, Di–e–goooo.” Sunday’s match will be in less friendly confines as Wisla Plock will seek to turn the tables and qualify for the Champions League with a 3 goal victory. This match will also be show on ehfTV with a start time of 1600 CET or 1000, US Eastern Time.

Highlights of his performance yesterday against Wisla Plock: Link

Full match video of Thursday’s 1st leg: Link

Live Video (Sunday’s 2nd leg): Link

Mundo Handball article: Link

USA Team Handball Board of Directors Election: A rare opportunity to cast a vote that could make a real difference in the outcome

Posted on August 29, 2013 by John Ryan

Board of Director Candidates Jennie Choi, Atilla Agoston and Craig Rot

I’m a huge fan of podcasts for a number of reasons. One of those reasons is that since I started loading them onto my MP3 player is that I now can totally avoid listening to the seemingly never ending radio commercials while I’m driving. Another is the wide variety of content. I listen to a lot of sports related podcasts, but I also like the news and some offbeat shows that think outside of the box. One of my favorites in the latter category is the Freakonomics podcast. Last year during election season they looked at voting and the bitter reality that the odds of your one vote mattering in a major election as incredibly remote. Here’s the podcast and an earlier article in the NY Times covering the topic.

The basic gist is that with so many people voting in most elections the odds that any election will be freakishly close are extremely slim. And reflecting back on all the times I’ve voted on something in my lifetime, the only time my one individual vote ever came really close to mattering was the 2004 USA Team Handball Board of Directors elections vote where Mike Hurdle edged Bob Djokovich by a small margin of votes. (I think around 400 members voted with Hurdle winning by like 3 or 5 votes, but my memory is sketchy.)

This time around the Board of Directors election is much less contentious, but the possibility of a close vote remains. If you care about Team Handball in the United States and who will be making the key decisions like how much funding should be allocated towards National Team and how much should go toward youth programs and other grass roots efforts this is your chance to make your voice heard.

And, if you’re having trouble making up your mind check out my 30 minute interviews with each of the candidates. There are no smoking guns in the interviews, but they’ll certainly give you some insight as to what their priorities are and perhaps most importantly give you an idea as to how they would serve and function as a member of the Board of Directors.

Jennie Choi: Link
Atilla Agoston: Link
Craig Rot: Link

As a final note, keep in mind that these 3 candidates are vying for 2 seats on the Board and that voters are required to rank the candidates in order of preference. The candidate you select as your #1 choice will get 3 points; the candidate you select as your #2 choice will get 2 points; and your #3 choice will get 1 vote. And the 2 candidates with the most points will be selected to serve. So while you personally may have a clear #1 choice it could be that your decision between #2 and #3 could be the real difference maker.

For more information on how to cast your ballot check the Federation website: Link

The Dramatic Decline of the Liga Asobal

Posted on August 28, 2013 by John Ryan

Player Exodus: Where 11 of 16 players from Spain’s 2013 World Championship Team will play their club handball this season
José Manuel Sierra, Paris (France)
Antonio García, Paris (France)
Alberto Entrerríos, Nantes (France)
Jorge Maqueda, Nantes (France)
Valero Rivera, Nantes (France)
Ángel Montoro, Toulouse (France)
Joan Cañellas, Hamburg (Germany)
Gedeón Guardiola. Rhein-Neckar (Germany
Julen Aguinagalde, Kielce (Poland)
Carlos Ruesga, Veszprem (Hungary)
Albert Rocas, Kolding (Denmark)
5 players (Arpad Sterbik, víctor Tomás, Dani Sarmiento, Viran Morros and Aitor Ariño) will remain in Spain and play for Barcelona.

The Spanish National Team player exodus and Barca’s domination definitively show how this once mighty league has fallen on hard times.

The Great Recession has pretty much impacted in the entire world, but in Spain the crisis has been felt particularly hard. Property value that once soared to record heights tumbled precipitously leading in turn to banking problems and soaring unemployment. While a major sport like soccer has been able to weather the storm, handball clubs have had more trouble. The first warning signs were reports of some of the bottom tier teams in the Liga Asobal not being able to make payroll. This led to many 2nd tier professional players from other European countries deciding that they were better off playing elsewhere. Only the two top clubs, Ciudad Real and Barcelona, were able to keep their top players, but then Ciudad Real started to show cracks in its finances with a sudden relocation/merger with Atletico Madrid in an attempt to stave off bankruptcy. A move that merely postponed that reality to 2013.

Long Odds

With Madrid Atletico’s demise the Liga Asobal has gone from a marginally interesting two horse race between Madrid and Barcelonal to a ridiculously one sided coronation for Barca. How ridiculous? Well, the current odds of Barca not winning the Liga Asobal are 200-1. Online sports books have even posted odds for second place since the mere thought of another side winning seems too remote of a possibility. Yes, Barcelona is a great side and they are even the top favorite to win the Champions League, but barring a betting scandal (certainly a possibility with one recent roster addition) the only item of possible interest in the Liga Asobal is whether they will run the table with an undefeated season. And, I haven’t seen the odds on that, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they aren’t something like 1-10.

For several years the Liga Asobal had been regarded along with Germany’s HBL as one of the two top professional leagues in the world. One just had to look at the club rosters and point to the who’s who list of top players from other countries to see that the league was loaded with talent. Jackson Richardson, Jerome Fernandez and Didier Dinart from France; Ivano Balic, Mirza Dzomba and Igor Vori from Croatia; Tomas Svensson and Jonas Kallman from Sweden; Olafur Stefansson from Iceland; Mikkel Hansen from Denmark; Kiril Lazarov from Macedonia, Lazlo Nagy from Hungary and many more. And surely Talant Dushebajev and his son Alex would not be Spanish citizens if not for the opportunities Spain provided for a talented handball player. Yes, for many years, with few exceptions, the top players of the world had two options if the wanted to maximize their salary potential: play in either Spain or Germany.

The Spanish Exodus

Now outside of Barca there’s only a smattering of foreign players in the Liga Asobal. And many of these foreign players are actually lesser known talents from Latin America. Even more telling is the exodus of Spanish National Team players to other leagues in Europe. Previously, it was somewhat of a novelty to see a Spaniard playing anywhere else but Spain. Now with Madrid’s demise it’s commonplace. The map above highlights where 11 members of Spain’s January World Championship team are now playing professionally. And this doesn’t include other notable players like Berlin’s Iker Romero and several 2nd tier players who’ve also left Spain in search of greener pastures.

Tax breaks and subsidies

When I first started following professional club handball 10 years ago I was puzzled as to why Spain rivaled Germany as the world’s top league. The primary confusion for this American was simply a glance into the stands at the occasional Champions League match I saw played there and at a 30 minute weekly Liga Asobal highlight show. With a few notable exceptions there were always more empty seats than fans in the stands. A sharp contrast to the typical HBL match where the attendance was much stronger. And even the typical match in France seemed to have more fans. How do these Spanish Clubs pay higher salaries if they’re bringing in less revenue this Capitalist American wondered?

Insight into this answer came from another sport, basketball, where my club in France, Levallois had a professional team in the 2nd division. As often is the case in Europe, there were usually a couple of Americans playing for the club and their salary was often a significant part of the club payroll. One season an American playing for the club decided that he wanted more money, in the middle of the season, no less. Being an uninformed American I assumed my club had two basic choices: 1) They could bow to the demand and pay him more; or 2) They could refuse the demand (after all, he signed the contract) and have a somewhat disgruntled player for the rest of the season. But, this was France and the tax structure offered a 3rd choice: They could pay his salary for the rest of the season and send him away; recoup the tax money on his remaining salary; and then use that money to hire another American for the remainder of the season. And this is what my club did; Successfully, I might add as they moved up into the 1st division that season.

Further research and discussion with my teammates brought up a sore spot in regards to Spain. The amount that Spanish sports clubs have to pay in taxes is a pittance compared to other countries. And in some instances cities even provided substantial funds to clubs in the form of subsidies. These tax breaks and subsidies were the primary reasons why Spanish clubs are were able to pay better salaries despite less revenue being brought in. The chickens, however, have come home to roost as the financial crisis has resulted in a general collapse in municipal revenues and subsidies have dried up. Further causing pain has been a decrease in fan discretionary spending causing significant revenue declines. A double whammy if you will.

Barca Survives (or should I say thrive?)

So while the rest of the Liga Asobal crumbles around it Barca is still a shining beacon for Spanish Club Handball. Arguably, they are the best team in the world. How do they do it? It’s certainly not due to an adoring fan base. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen a Champions League match with the stands of the Palau Blaugrana half full (or worse) for an attractive match against a top club. No, Barcelona Handball survives, or more accurately thrives, on the shoulders of Barcelona Football. With a net worth of $1 Billion dollars the club can afford to throw a few millions at its handball club. Why, it chooses to do so is less clear. Perhaps it simply relishes the “mother club” aspect and the prestige of being the best in Europe in multiple sports. The fact that it is an association with 170,000 members also surely has something to do with it. It’s one thing for an individual owner to say, “I’m not going to keep spending money on this minor sport if it runs a net deficit year after year” and another thing for a collective to make such a decision.

The recession, however has even hit Barca football and the team has been running a debt in recent years. Perhaps belt tightening will even hit Barca handball soon. With the further weakening of its competition in the Liga Asobal, Barca could drop 3 or 4 name players and still run away with the title. And they would still be competitive in the Champions League, just not a dominant player.

Who knows what the future will bring? All I can say is that if anybody told me 5 years ago there would be more Spanish National Team players in France (then the reverse) in 2013 I wouldn’t have believed them.

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Author Archives: John Ryan