Group play for this year’s Champions League ended a couple of weeks ago. So what did we learn after 5 months, 10 rounds and 120 matches? In short, not a whole lot. In summary we learned the following:

– Chambery (France) proved that without Daniel Narcisse they are not a top 16 side.
– Kielce (Poland) and Constanta (Romania) are a little better than anticipated.
– KIF Kolding (Denmark) can play with the big dogs at home. (Draws vs. Kiel and Barcelona)

Wow, that’s a lot of games to find out so very little. But it’s nothing new for Group play in the Champions League as there have been very few surprises in recent years.

The EHF has been experimenting with the Champions League format in recent years. Previously group play was with 8 groups of 4 teams with 2 teams advancing from each group to the Round of 16. This year it was 4 groups of 6 teams with four teams advancing. This resulted in the 4 extra rounds, but the results were again all too predictable. The Round of 16 should prove a little more interesting, particularly with the #2 vs. #3 home and away matches. The #1 vs. #4 matchups are less likely to be interesting, although Kolding could surprise. More appealing will be the quarterfinals where Hamburg and Barcelona are likely to test the #1 seeds which are drawn against them. And the crème de la crème will be the Final Four where the top 4 teams will stage a final knock out tourney over 1 weekend in 1 location.

So what should be done to make the Champions League more interesting? Maybe it’s time to start thinking about scrapping Group play and home/away aggregate matches entirely. Why just have a Final Four? I say why not further copy the NCAA tournament and start with a field of 64?

For the Euros not familiar with America’s love affair with the NCAA basketball tournament a little education is in order. The NCAA basketball tournament is a single elimination knockout tournament played over 3 consecutive weekends by the basketball teams at American colleges and universities. 64 teams are selected through a combination of automatic and “at-large” bids and seeded 1-16 in four separate regions. The first weekend cuts the field from 64 to 16, the next weekend cuts it from 16 to 4 and the 3rd weekend is the Final Four. Unlike the more subdued crowds often associated with the NBA, collegiate crowds are more comparable to the atmosphere often seen at Handball matches in the Balkans. The first round matches, particularly the 16 vs. 1 seeds are often blowouts, but usually there are a few lower seeds that shock the favorites and become the darling of the tournament. Overall, the interest in terms of crowds and TV audience is massive with the month of March simply being renamed March Madness. Everywhere, even casual fans are filling out the 64 team brackets with their predictions of every game. Office betting pools abound with the secretary who knows nothing about basketball somehow always winning the contest.

So how would you adopt the NCAA format to European Handball? First off, you would make it “the end of season tournament” to be played after every national league’s season is over. The national leagues would wrap up on the 1st or 2nd weekend of May and then the tournament would take place the following 3 weekends. (As an example a would be tournament this year would start the 15th of May and conclude on the 29-30 May.) Participants would include every club champion in each European nation, perhaps with a reasonable cut off for 100% amateur leagues. (I don’t think we want to see England’s Great Dane vs. Ciudad Real.) Additionally, about 30 “at large” bids which would be awarded to the most deserving clubs in the top leagues. A fair distribution would probably have about 7 clubs from Germany and Spain, 3 or 4 from France, Denmark and Hungary and perhaps a few extra clubs from the Balkans, Poland and Romania. In terms of venues, neutral sites would be the most fair, but that would have to be weighed with locations that could assure good crowds. Top seeds could also be awarded with the right to host. The first weekend would have 8 sites, the 2nd weekend would have 4 sites and the last weekend would, of course, have 1 site just like Cologne this year. Also, depending on associated costs the sites could have staggered dates of competition for TV. (i.e. some sites could play Friday/Saturday or Sunday/Monday so that more games could be aired at different times.)

Of course, some of the same controversies that have plagued the NCAA tournament would be exacerbated in an International event. The NCAA tournament field is seeded by a committee and every year there are complaints that this team shouldn’t have made the field or this team didn’t deserve such an easy bracket. If Americans show strong allegiance to their college conferences it certainly can be said that Europeans would be even more parochial when it comes to defending their national leagues. The EHF would probably have to establish a ranking system that awarded national leagues a certain number of spots and then teams would have to be randomly assigned via some sort of drawing.

There surely would be other challenges to be resolved, but the plusses would outweigh the negatives. Here are some of the advantages to a 64 Team Tournament:

[u]It builds momentum[/u]: Playing the tournament over 3 consecutive weeks would avoid the current start and stop nature of the Champions League. Fans won’t have to wait for the next big game and would be less likely to lose interest.

[u]Rewards current season performance[/u]: One of the stranger aspects (at least to this American) of the current European Championship format is that entry into the competition is now based on last year’s performance. Why base a competition on last year’s results when due to transfers the teams could be totally different? Instead this format would reward teams that do well in the current season.

[u]Increased prestige[/u]: As the sole end of season tournament it will become the focus of clubs and fans. With the current format some clubs are conflicted with their national competitions. With nothing else going on this event will take prioirity

[u]Greater chance of upsets[/u]: As a couple of clubs proved during group play it’s possible for a lower rung team to beat (or at least scare) a good team once. It’s less likely though to happen over two games or over the course of a ten game round robin. The better team will still usually win, but it will only be a matter of time before some team from the Balkans celebrates while the big bad Bundesliga team goes home with their season being over. That’s drama and it will happen.

[u]Settle arguments[/u]: Another interesting aspect would be the opportunity to at least partially settle arguments about the relative strength of the different national leagues. This could be accomplished by placing the multiple German and Spanish sides in different sections of the bracket so that teams from the same nation can’t play each other until the quarter finals. Theoretically, you could have a final 8 with 7 Spanish sides. Unlikely perhaps, but should it happen I don’t think anybody would argue against any other league being better.

[u]Fewer games for top players[/u]: The fewer games would also have the added benefit of at least partially resolving the “too many games” issue impacting the world’s top players. Some of the weekends that would be freed up could also be used to encourage more cross nation club competition. You could even stage a couple Bundesliga – Liga Asobal showdown weekends that could be used to determine which league was entitled to more bids in the tourney. France and Denmark could also have a mini-competition to decide who’s third best.

[u]Financial considerations[/u]: Some might argue that this format would be less profitable as the clubs would have fewer games and fewer games at home. While there would be fewer games, the financial success of the NCAA tournament should give club executives at least reason to consider the possibility of an alternative. What kind of financial success are we talking about? Well, the current TV broadcasting contract alone was for $6 billion over 11 years. Yes that’s billion with a “b”. Contrast that to the average annual operating budget (perhaps $5 Million for the top clubs) in Europe. I have no idea what the current TV contract is for the Champions League, but I’m guessing it’s quite a bit South of 6 billion dollars. If you could replicate even a tenth of the revenue it would be an overwhelming financial success.

And if you could get even a hundredth of the interest the NCAA tournament has in the U.S. it would be a major promotional victory for the sport.

Wikipedia: NCAA Tournament: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Men%27s_Division_I_Basketball_Championship
Sports Business Journal (7 Dec 09): NCAA, TV talk about bigger men’s tourney: http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/64263

The results are in for the Slate Magazine “Hang Up and Listen” Podcast competition to get selected as a guest co-host. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago listeners were invited to send in their stories about how they’ve converted podcast newbies to check out the Slate sportscast. I didn’t win, but I got an extended shout out as co-hosts Mike Pesca and Stefan Fatsis expressed outrage at my being snubbed by the selection committee. For you Euro readers out there the reference is related to the NCAA basketball tournament field of 64 teams that is discussed at length in the show’s first segment. Every year there are always a few teams that are upset that they didn't make the cut.

Thanks to everyone who sent in their conversion stories. Maybe I’ll find an NIT tournament Podcast that I can participate in.

THN (17 Feb 10): Check out a free podcast and promote handball: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.956
Slate ‘Hang Up and Listen’ podcast page: http://www.slate.com/id/2243238/
‘Hang Up and Listen’ Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/hangupandlisten
This week’s Hang Up and Listen Podcast: http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/media.slate.com/media/slate/Podcasts/Sports/SG10031501_HUAL.mp3 (I’m mentioned around the 22:45 minute mark)

As a resident of Las Vegas I am very pleased that USA Team Handball has chosen my adopted home town as the site for this year’s National Championship tournament (21-23 May). Some might even theorize that a leading Handball proselytizer such as I consider myself to be may have been lobbying behind the scenes for Sin City. No, I played no such role although I have indicated to USA Team Handball a willingness to help out and will try and get a local team entered in the tourney.

In reality, I’ve actually been more of a proponent for combining our National Championships with this summer’s Poland v. Germany friendly in Chicago on July 17th. Last year I lobbied hard to have the National Championships combined with the French club Final Four in Miami. My logic then, as now, is that if your community is not very large it’s better to have two marquee events at the same time and the same place. It’s doubtful as to whether the extra 500 or so fans would have made much of a difference attendance wise in Miami, but it still would have been great for the younger players to see high level handball first hand. While a July Nationals was 2 months later than normal, I would have preferred to combine the events. But apparently, I was in the minority as the community spoke up, the Federation listened, and now we have Vegas.

And it’s a good choice, in my opinion. Even if the economy has hit our city hard, there’s still no other place in the country (arguably the world) that can provide better hospitality and accommodations at reasonable prices. Air fares are relatively low and lodging deals are the best they’ve been in years. Factor in the Gaming (aka Gambling), dining options and the high quality shows the city offers and few people need an excuse to come visit.

Team Handball, certainly isn’t the only sport that recognizes this. Two NCAA basketball conferences (MWC, WCC) already stage their post season tourneys here and a 3rd (WAC) will join the party next year. The National Finals Rodeo invades the town every year and you’ve never seen more cowboy hats outside the state of Texas. Not my cup of tea, but this past February I enjoyed another minor sports invasion as the Rugby 7’s World circuit came to town. You’ve never seen more Commonwealth members (Brits, South Africans, Kiwis and Aussies) and Pacific Islanders outside those home countries.

Which leads me to conclude that perhaps this is only the first major Team Handball event to be staged in Las Vegas. If Kiwis and Brits can come watch rugby here in the desert, why not Handball. It’s only a matter of time before we see a European Handball invasion. I’m thinking an EHF Final Four, say in May 2012. Maybe we’ll schedule Nationals in Vegas again, so everybody can attend both events.

THN (15 Oct 08): U.S. National Championships in Miami: Just Make it So: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.61
Las Vegas Review Journal (15 Feb 10): Rugby a passion play for U.S. team: http://www.lvrj.com/sports/rugby-a-passion-play-for-us-team-84371792.html

The New York Times has a story that highlights how Google translate has improved dramatically in the past few years. I’ve mentioned this in passing several times and this article explains how Google’s computing power has made it possible. In turn, it has made finding out what’s going on in the Handball world significantly easier. As little as a year ago translating an article from Arabic or Danish was either a time consuming process or impossible. Now, it can be done with a click of a button. While automatic translation can’t yet substitute for a human translation by a native speaker, it’s surely the next best thing.

New York Times (9 Mar 10): Google’s Computing Power Refines Translation Tool: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/technology/09translate.html?hpw

New York Times (9 Mar 10): Putting Google to the Test in Translation: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/03/09/technology/20100309-translate.html?ref=technology

The Canadian and American press made a big fuss over the failure of the Canadian Olympic Committee’s “Own the Podium” Campaign to win the most medals at the winter Olympics in Vancouver. Canada’s ambitious campaign spent $117 Million over 5 years, but while the Canadians did better than they have before they still came up short to the Americans and Germans. Meanwhile, the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) is absolutely giddy with the success they’ve had in winning the medals race at the Winter Olympics for the first time since 1932. The U.S. didn’t spend as much as the Canadians, but the $58M over 4 years was still a 55% increase over the previous Olympics.

So what’s the Handball connection? The connection relates to the potential lessons learned that these Olympic Committee’s might take in terms of resource allocation. First, let’s look at the Canadians. They spent a fortune in their quest for medals and the results were arguably not worth the investment. And at the same time they were spending this $117M on winter sports, Canadian National Handball athletes have been paying their own way to competitions in South America and Europe. So, maybe one lesson that could be learned is that if winning isn’t guaranteed maybe it makes more sense to throw a few bones towards all sports. I can’t speak for the Canadian Federation, but I bet they would have been pleased with a measly $2M spread out over 5 years. It beats practically nothing anyway.

For American Team Handball, U.S. winter Olympic success is a mixed bag. On the one hand USA Team Handball can take heart in the success of another sport where the U.S. has historically done poorly: Nordic Combined. Prior to Vancouver, the U.S. had never won a medal in this sport and until recently they never were even competitive. This time around, however, they owned the podium, winning 4 medals out of 9. News reports highlighted how increased support from the USOC has paid dividends as athletes received better coaching and financial support allowing them to continue competing into their late 20s. So the rallying cry could be “Hey, if they can do it, we can too.”

Unfortunately, though, I’m guessing that following in that sport’s success might be pretty difficult. I won’t pretend to be an expert on Nordic Combined, but I’m guessing there are not thousands and thousands of ski jumping/cross country skiing enthusiasts worldwide and most likely there are even fewer full time athletes training in this sport. With a smaller talent pool to beat all you’ve got to do is find a few talented athletes willing to put in the time and then provide them enough funding to allow them to do so. Trying to use the exact same formula for Team Handball is not practical due to the greater number of participants world-wide along with the higher degree of professionalization in the sport. There are elements of the Nordic Combined model that might be relevant, but success in Team Handball will require much broader grass roots development and greater assistance from outside entities like clubs and federations in Europe. Translation: It would require a lot more funding to replicate the Nordic Combined success.

Which is the problematic (for USA Team Handball, anyway) lesson learned that the U.S. Olympic Committee might take from this. Namely, concentrate your limited resources strategically in sporting disciplines where it will lead to the most medals for the U.S. The new CEO for the USOC, Scott Blackmun, indicated as much when he told the Associated Press: “Our job is to allocate the resources to the NGBs based on where we think they're going to have the greatest impact."

Adding to the degree of difficulty it will take to field a competitive Team Handball side is the “one medal and one medal only” handicap that all Olympic team sports have. Simply because some sports reporter for some newspaper years ago decided to do a tally of medals won and chose a format with only 1 medal being tallied for team sports, team sports will never have the potential “impact” that multi-discipline sports have.

One can almost envision the internal discussion that have either taken place or will surely take place at the USOC. “You mean it will cost x million dollars for us to just get competitive, let alone win a medal, and all we can get is one medal each for the men and women’s team. Why bother?”

The retort is that the Olympics are about a lot more than country medal counts in newspaper sidebars. This is not to say that winning isn’t important; it’s just that this over-riding emphasis on return on investment might need a little balancing out.

LA Times (22 Feb 10): So much for Own the Podium: US is a juggernaut at Vancouver Olympics: http://www.latimes.com/sports/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-oly-medals-race,0,3318655.story
Colorado Springs Independent (25 Feb 10): Canadian invasion: How Team USA has turned hope into history at an eminently satisfying Vancouver Winter Games: http://www.csindy.com/colorado/canadian-invasion/Content?oid=1633747
Montreal Gazette (23 Feb 10) These are the Americans' Games, we're sad to report: http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/2010wintergames/These+Americans+Games+report/2602174/story.html
ABC News: USOC Leaders Stuck With Plan During Time of Crisis: http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=9897847
Wikipedia: Nordic Combined at the 2010 Olympics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_combined_at_the_2010_Winter_Olympics

The European Handball Federation (EHF) has issued an official statement regarding what it calls “IHF Matters.” The vaguely worded statement unfortunately says little and gives the impression that the press is manufacturing problems that don’t really exist.

The EHF starts out with the following sentence: “Since the publication in Der Spiegel of articles concerning the President of the IHF, the EHF has been asked for its position concerning the accusations expressed in the German magazine.”

There are a couple of problems with this statement. First off, it neglects to mention what any of the so called accusations are. This might not seem like a big deal to those who follow Handball closely and have read the Der Spiegel article in German, but there is still a sizable following that either can’t read German or haven’t seen a translation. So in short, the EHF press statement talks about accusations without stating what they are. Which leads to the second problem: Namely, that we’re not talking about idle accusations here. If you read the translations of the Der Spiegel articles you’ll find that for the most part they are rather specific and arguably factual in their presentation.

The first article focused on the 600,000 Euro personal services contract that IHF President Moustafa signed with TV distributor, Sportfive. As you recall, Sportfive, by coincidence, also won the TV rights for the IHF Championships. Der Spiegel and others have noted the inherent conflict of interest, but even Mr. Moustafa has not denied the existence of the contract.

The second article focused on the conversion of Mr. Moustafa to a paid employee and the increase in payments to IHF Council members. Most notably, a 1,567 % increase in remuneration for Mr. Moustafa and an average increase of 400% to other council members. The validity of this information may not be known to you and me, but the EHF leadership knows, because they also happen to be members of the IHF Council, the very body that approved the hiring and the honorarium increases.

This leads to the silliness of the second paragraph which seeks to give the impression that there is a massive firewall between the IHF and its preeminent continental federation. For the record, the EHF President, Tor Lian, sits on the IHF council with the title, VP Europe. The EHF VP, Jean Brihault, sits on the IHF Council with the title, Representative Europe.

The statement goes on to indicate that the EHF has received a statement from the IHF President explaining his professional situation and business contracts, as well as a letter from the IOC Ethics Committee President stating his position on the Sportfive personal services contract. However, the EHF fails to take note that the IOC President, Jacque Rogge, has spoken out and indicated that he “would not tolerate such behavior.” The EHF then notes that the IHF has agreed to its request for an audit of the financial situation and dealings of the IHF and its leadership.

Finally, the statement closes by saying that the EHF members of the IHF Council (Lian and Brihault) “sincerely hope that the press will then be in position to report the performances of the players and the teams and that the growing support of the media for this fast developing sport will be confirmed and increased.”

[b]To which I say it’s my sincere hope that Messrs Lian and Brihault quit hiding and speak out.[/b] Let me state it more clearly. Gentlemen, you don’t need an audit to better understand the situation. You’re also smart enough to know that an audit won’t uncover much of anything as Mr. Moustafa has shown that he knows how to cover his tracks. Nope. You already have more than enough information to form an opinion and take a stand. So, I submit to you the following questions:

1) Do you think Mr. Moustafa’s contract with Sportfive was appropriate or do you think it was an inherent conflict of interest? If not appropriate, are you going to do anything about it?

2) Do you think Mr. Moustafa’s hiring as an IHF employee and his remuneration increase from 30,000 Swiss Franc to 500,000 Swiss Francs is appropriate? If not, are you going to do anything about it?

3) How much of a raise did each of you get and do you think maybe that money would be better spent on world-wide handball development?

[b]Answer those questions honestly, then take some appropriate actions and guess what: The press will have nothing else to focus on but this great sport’s players, teams and performances.[/b]

EHF (25 Feb 10): EHF statement on IHF matters: http://www.eurohandball.com/article/012925/EHF+statement+on+IHF+matters
THN (25 Feb 10): IHF Payments to President and Council Members – outrageous or not?: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.968
THN (10 Feb 10): IOC President Rogge comments on Moustafa's contract with Sportfive: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.948
THN (28 Jan 10): Conflict of Interest – or worse !?: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.933
THN (23 Jan 10): IHF President Moustafa had lucrative private contract with IHF’s TV partner: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.930

Uber Handball fan, Stefan Fatsis gave yet another shout out to Team Handball on the latest episode of Slate’s Hang up and Listen podcast. That’s back to back episodes. Here’s the exchange at the 14:00 minute mark:

Mike Pesca: Curling is interesting because fans of obscure sports always say, ‘Well, if they just gave people exposure to us we’d convert people into fans’ and I have to say…

Stefan Fatsis: Team Handball (interjecting)

Mike Pesca: I think that might be true for me with like biathlon or Nordic combined, but man, not with curling. I watch a lot of curling and I’m like this is a boring sport. I want less curling.

I wholeheartedly concur with Mr. Pesca and I can only fantasize about the possibility of Team Handball getting the kind of extra exposure that Curling is currently getting in the U.S. simply by virtue of being played on ice. In the meantime I guess we’ll have to settle for a half-second shout out on the best weekly sports podcast.

22 Feb 2010 Podcast: http://media.slate.com/media/slate/Podcasts/Daily/daily1.xml (Topics: USA-Canada Ice Hockey match, NBC Olympics Coverage, Tiger Woods and NBA salary cap shenanigans)

Slate Hang Up and Listen Webpage: http://www.slate.com/id/2243238/

And a reminder: If I’ve convinced you to check out their podcast, please drop me a line at john.ryan@teamhandballnews. com and I'll add you to my conversion story for the contest to be a guest contributor