The EHF has revealed the seeding and schedule for next year's Champions League. http://cms.eurohandball.com/PortalData/1/Resources/2_cl/3_download_pdf/MCL.pdf

A few notes:

– Notably next year's tournament will have two rounds of Group Play instead of one. The second round should be a real treat with the top 8 teams playing a double round robin. This will avoid a Ciudad Real – Portland San Antonio quarter final, as happened this year.

– The potential for a legitimate group of death exists with the 4th German side Gummersbach being placed in the 3rd pool. As clubs from the same nation can't meet in the first round of Group Play, however it is not a guarantee and a possible group of death would consist of 1 German, 1 Spanish club and a top club from another nation (Celje and Montpellier are two possibilities)

– The top 2 groups will contain some weaker sides. Notably, Ivry (FR) which surprised Montpellier this season will be a dramatically weaker side with the Abalo moving to Spain and Oskarsson switch to French side Nimes.

For this year, the great debate about whether the Bundesliga or the Liga Asobal is the better league has been settled decisively on the court. Kiel held off a late Flensburg rally yesterday to win 30-28 and secured their first ever Champions League title. As this was an all German finale it was preordained that a German club would win the most prestigious European title. In the other European Championships decided yesterday, German clubs took care of their Spanish counterparts. In the EHF Cup, Madgebourg beat Ademar Leon 31-28 to win the title with a 3 goal aggregate victory. In the Cup Winner’s Cup, Hamburg and Leon each won by 4 goals at home, but Hamburg took the title by virtue of having more goals scored in their away match. Korean veteran and all-time leading scorer in Bundesliga history, Kyung Shin Yoon, scored with 10 seconds remaining to make the score 33-37 and tie the total aggregate score 61-61.

This all German sweep, puts the EHF in somewhat of a bind for their annual European Cup European Club Championship, a weekend competition held in the fall featuring the three club champions and a wild card team. This friendly tournament benefits greatly when it features competition between clubs from several nations. With 3 of the participants being German clubs the matches could be a yawner for their likely German host. Look for Portland San Antonio or another Spanish club to get the wild card invite.

Note: The EHF Cup and the Cup Winner’s Cup are essentially consolation competitions for teams that either don’t qualify for the Champions League or are eliminated in the early rounds of the Champions League. The teams that typically make up the field are clubs that finished further down in the standings the previous year or won their nations cup tournament. The formula for which clubs participate in the Champions League and which clubs participate in the lesser tournaments varies from nation to nation.

Quietly, Eurosport has expanded the availability for viewers world-wide to watch live streaming of handball matches. This weekend, in particular, no fewer than 5 matches will be available for viewing. Those matches are

Friday, 23 March, 1945 CET Flensburg vs Valladolid (1st Leg, Men’s Champions League ½ Final)
Friday, 23 March, 2015 CET Hypo vs Aalborg (2nd Leg, Women’s Champions League ¼ Final)
Saturday, 24 March 1700 CET Sarajevo vs Hamburg (1st Leg, Men’s Cup Winners Cup, ½ Final)
Sunday, 25 March 1600 CET Portland San Antonio vs Kiel (1st Leg, Men’s Champions League ½ Final)
Sunday, 25 March 1615 CET Larvik vs Gyor (2nd Leg, Women’s Champions League ¼ Final)

The link for viewing the matches is: http://www.eurosport.com/handball/ In the right hand corner of the page is the video link. Wait, however, to click on this link until the match has started. Otherwise, you will probably get a blank screen.

Note: Daylight Savings Time starts in Europe on Sunday mornin. For Friday and Saturday’s matches there is a 5 hour time difference to the US East Coast. For Sunday’s matches the difference will be the standard 6 hours.

So do you think you know your Handball? Specifically, Men’s Champions League Handball? Here’s your chance to prove it. Predict the winners for the Quarter-Final knockout stage and the margin of victory (total goal aggregate for both games) for each of the 4 matchups.

How to Enter: Click here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=965453329135

Contest Scoring:
Correct Club: 5 points
Correct Club and margin of victory (8 points)

Prize: Winner receives a Kempa Handball Jersey courtesy of the International Sports and Academic Exchange (ISAE) https://teamhandballnews.com/page12.html

The Quarter-Final phase of the contest closes Friday, 23 February, prior to the start of the Flensburg-Barcelona match. The contest will continue through the Semis and Finals with accumulated points throughout.

One entry per person please

The following is an excerpt from the EHF website http://home.eurohandball.com/ehf_files/ehf_news/sr_SRBvisit/default.htm concerning a recent visit of the Serbian Handball Federation to the EHF:

“The position of Serbia on the participation of clubs in the European Cup, Challenge Cup competitions was also elaborated on following the cancellation of the match concerning the teams ZRK Kikinda -SRB and KH Vellaznimi Gjakove – KOS/SRB. Future matches of a similar constellation were discussed.”

Or in other words, Serbia’s refusal to let the Serbian club ZRK Kikinda to play the Kosovo Club Vellaznimi Gjakove was discussed as well as how to handle future Kosovo-Serbia matches. To further elaborate on geography and recent history, Kosovo is still technically part of Serbia. “Technically,” because since the 1999 war Kosovo has been under UN administration.
The Serbian Government position is that Kosovo should remain a part of Serbia, whereas a majority of the inhabitants of Kosovo want indepenence. Handball is in the middle of this dispute, because the EHF decided to allow a Kosovo team to participate in the Challenge Cup. The Serbian Government, however, wouldn’t allow the Serbian team to play the Kosovo team, resulting in the Kosovo club advancing in the tournament (due to forfeit) and the Serbian club paying a 7,500 Euro fine.

As fate would have it, yet another Serbian team, HC Naisa Nis, was drawn to the play the Kosovo team in the next round. This time, however, both matches of the competition will be played on a neutral floor in Hungary on 24 and 25 Feb.

Note: Thanks to Mark Hegedus of TimeOut Magazine www.timeoutmag.com for his contribution to this story

The remaining 8 teams found out who they were playing and who would have home court advantage in the 2nd leg for the ¼ finals in February/March.

CBM Valladolid vs. VfL Gummersbach
MKB Veszprém KC vs. THW Kiel
BM Ciudad Real vs. Portland San Antonio
SG Flensburg-Handewitt vs. FC Barcelona-Cifec

The second team listed gets the 2nd leg at home.

[b]- German clubs in Good Position[/b]: If you wanted a draw that would give you the best chance for all 3 German teams to advance you probably couldn’t have set it up much better. The German sides didn’t draw each other and also avoided the 2 best Spanish clubs.
[b]- Seeding (as in the lack of): [/b] The Champion’s League should give some very serious consideration to seeding the teams at each point during the competition. Portland San Antonio and Ciudad Real played each other last year in the final, are 1, 2 in the Spanish League and are arguably the 2 best teams in the competition. Does it really make sense for them to play each other now instead of in the finals? Other tournaments find a way do this, but I realize the challenges that are involved with national interests and bias.
[b]- Nation vs Nation: [/b]The Champion’s League doesn’t allow teams from the same nation to be put in the same group at the start of the competition. Why not also continue this through the other rounds? The opportunity to play outside of your National League and to represent your National League is one of the best aspects of this tournament. This would also have avoided the Portland San Antonio – Ciudad Real matchup.
[b]- 11 Week Wait: [/b]Two back to back weekends of great action and now an 11 week wait to 23 February 2007? I just don’t understand how they do things here in Europe. I realize that there’s the World Championships and National League competition, but there’s got to be a better format/schedule to be put in place.
– The good news is that there will be a major fix put in place next year with a second round of group play to replace the round of 16 and ¼ finals. It will be interesting to see whether they consider seeding and (Nation vs Nation) considerations

[b]Last Week’s Results[/b]
Vezprem (-4.5) vs Kolding Bet 100 on Veszprem at 1.80 (32-22) WIN 80
GOG Svendborg vs. Ciudad Real (-4.5) Bet 200 on Ciudad Real at 1.80 (28-33) WIN 160
Montpellier (-2.5) vs. Barcelona Bet 100 on Montpellier at 2.05 (28-25) WIN 105
Chambery vs. Kiel (-4.5) Bet 200 on Kiel at 1.72 (33-39) Win 144
Gain/Loss: +489 Euros

[b]Season[/b]
200 Euro Bets 7-5; +104
100 Euro Bets 8-4; +285
Current Bankroll: 1389 Euros (Started with a 1000)

4-0 last week, but before we start bragging too much we’ll acknowledge that Ciudad Real and Montpellier both were half goal wins that materialized in the last minute of each game. But we’ve had some games that bounced the other way earlier this year and as Napoleon once said, “I’d rather be lucky than good.”

[b]This Week's Picks[/b]

Odds courtesy of StanJames: www.stanjames.com

Thursday, 7 December
19:00 THW Kiel vs Chambery (37-27)

Friday, 8 December
19:15 SG Flensburg-(-5.5) vs Celje (+.5.5) 1.85 1.85

Saturday, 9 December
16:15 KIF Kolding (-1.5) vs MKB Veszprém KC (+1.5) 1.85 1.85
16:15 Portland San Anto (-10.5) vs RK Gold Club Kozina (+10.5) 1.85 1.85
16:15 BM Ciudad Real (-7.5) vs GOG Svedberg (+7.5) 1.85 1.85
16:30 FC Barcelona-Cifec (-5.5) vs Montpellier HB (+5.5) 1.85 1.85
19:30 VfL Gummersbach (-5.5) vs Chehovskie Med… (+5.5) 1.85 1.85

Sunday, 10 December
17:00 CBM Valladolid (-7.5) vs SC Pick Szeged (+7.5) 1.85 1.85

[b]Flensburg vs. Celje[/b]
Celje goalie Gorazd Skof is probably still recovering from the pounding he received from Flensburg shooters last weekend. Sometimes a goalie gets hot and sometimes a goalie is turned into a hero by pathetic, inaccurate shooting. In my opinion the latter happened in leg 1. And every missed shot not only caused Flensburg to lose a point, but also resulted in a Koscharov fast break goal- a 2 point penalty. I look for Flensburg to find the back of the net early and often in this match as they push to overcome the 10 goal deficit.
BET: 200 Euros on Flensburg (-5.5 goals at 1.85)

[b]Kolding – Veszprem[/b]
With a 10 goal win in leg 1, Veszprem is in the driver’s seat to reach the quarterfinals. They are an experienced team and they will know how to play with the goal aggregate: slowly, not trying to miss many balls and they will select their shots to avoid quick fastbreaks by Kolding. All this being said, Kolding can and should win this match on their home court. We expected a handicap line of 4 or 5 goals and were pleasantly surprised to see 1.5 goals at StanJames.com. This narrow margin is well within Kolding‘s reach.
BET: 200 Euros on Kolding (-1.5 goals at 1.85)

[b]Barcelona vs. Montpellier[/b]
Montpellier held serve at Rene Bougnol, but playing at Barcelona will present a far greater challenge. With an ailing backcourt, Burdet out and Sioud and Hmam still not 100% they needed 10 goals from wing/wannabe playmaker center back Michel Guigou last weekend. Scoring from their set offense will be even more difficult at Palau Blaugrana. Last weekend, Barcelona actually controlled the game pretty well. They let Montpellier get a 3 goal lead in the last few minutes, but other teams have fared far worse in Montpellier. If they play just a little bit better than they did in the first leg they will win this match at home by 6 goals or more
BET: 100 Euros on Barcelona (-5.5 goals at 1.85)

[b]CBM Valladolid vs SC Pick Szeged[/b]
Interesting match between 2 totally different styles: speed, fastbreak and tremendous offensive power for Valladolid, against calm and rough Pick Szeged defense. Valladolid is coming off a a good win on Wednesday at Granollers, always a difficult court; after all Barcelona lost there recently. The draw in Hungary was a good result for the Spanish team and all they need to do is win by 1 on their own court. Pick Szeged showed that they capable of playing with Valladolid last weekend. Valladolid, will win but not by 8 goals.
BET: 100 Euros on Pick Szeged (+7.5 at 1.85)

The European Women’s Handball Championships are underway in Sweden. 16 Teams will battle it out for the title over the next 10 days. In addition to several news articles the official website http://www.euro06.com/ features video highlights from each match that you can download on your computer and/or video IPOD. As they are downloaded files the video quality is a little bit better than what you might see with streaming video. The highlights I’ve seen last about 3 minutes each and feature English language commentary.

You can either download the files or subscribe to their feed using this link: http://www.euro06.com/media_podcast.asp

[b]Picks from Round 6 of Group Play (Results)[/b]
Celje vs Gummersbach (+3.5) Bet 200 on Ciudad Real at 1.85 (31-29) WIN 170
Kadetten Schaufa vs. Szeged (+1.5) Bet 100 on Szeged at 1.85 (22-23) WIN 85
Medvedi (-3.5) vs. Flensburg Bet 100 on Medvedi at 1.85 (33-27) WIN 85
Montepellier (-4.5) vs. Valladolid Bet 200 on Montpellier at 1.90 (29-29) LOSE 200
Gain/Loss: +140 Euros

[b]Season[/b]
200 Euro Bets 5-5; -200
100 Euro Bets 6-4; +100
Current Bankroll: 900 Euros (Started with a 1000)

A 3-1 performance to finish off pool play, but we're still down a 100 Euros for the season. Hopefully some strong plays will put me and Miguel on the plus side this weekend.

[b]This Week's Picks[/b]

Odds courtesy of Nordicbet: www.nordicbet.com

Saturday, 2 December (All times CET)
14:45 Chehovski Medvedi – VfL Gummersbach H(0.00 – 3.50) 1.95 1.75
16:10 Fotex KC Veszprém – KIF Kolding H(0.00 – 4.50) 1.80 1.90
18:00 Celje Pivovarna Lasko – SG Flensburg-Handewitt H(0.00 – 2.50) 1.95 1.75

Sunday, 3 December
13:00 SC Pick Szeged – BM. Valladolid H(0.00 – 1.50) 2.00 1.72
16:00 RK Gold Club Kozina – Portland San Antonio H(4.50 – 0.00) 2.00 1.72
16:20 GOG Svendborg TGI – Ciudad Real H(4.50 – 0.00) 1.90 1.80
17:00 Montpellier HB – FC Barcelona H(0.00 – 2.50) 2.05 1.68

Monday, 4 December
20:00 Chambery Savoie – THW Kiel H(4.50 – 0.00) 2.00 1.72

[b]Veszprem vs. Kolding[/b]
Kolding’s first loss of the season in the Danish league at midweek and injuries to Sebastian Seifert and Boris Schnuchel are not good signs for the Danish Champion. Add to the fact that their 5-0-1 mark in group play was primarily due to drawing the weakest group. Meanwhile Veszprem trounced fellow Hungarian Champions League entrant Pick Szeged by 12 goals in their recent clash. Logic dictates that if they can do it to Pick they can do the same to Kolding. Maybe not 12 goals, but 6 or 7 and that’s enough.
BET: 100 Euros on Veszprem (-4.5 goals at 1.80)

[b]GOG Svendborg TGI – Ciudad Real [/b]
They meet again in the Round of 16, 2 years after Ciudad Real trounced them 29-45 on their home floor. Ciudad Real has injury problems now with Rutenka, Fis and Zorman, but their bench is very deep. Recently, they didn’t have any problem defeating Altea, a similar GOG Svendborg level team, 22-29. Meanwhile GOG Svendborg has lost two games in Denmark. This will be a very easy double victory in both games for Ciudad Real.
BET: 200 Euros on Ciudad Real (-4.5 goals at 1.80)

[b]Montpellier vs. Barcelona[/b]
Barcelona had a terrible defeat at Portland San Antonio last week. Key players such as Romero, Nagy or Garcia are not playing well and their goalies Barrufet ,and especially Losert are having a terrible season so far. Montpellier hasn't lost a european competition home game since they lost to Kiel in 1999 and while they have been erratic this season they are a tough team at home. It also appears that Wissem Hmam is fully recovered from his hand injury. Although we are taking Montpellier in the first leg our expectation is that the second leg at Palau Blaugrana will yield an aggregate victory for Barcelona.
BET: 100 Euros on Montpellier (-2.5 goals at 2.05)

[b]Chambery vs. Kiel[/b]
Kiel is missing Karabatic, but they simply have way too many weapons to have much trouble with Chambery. Chambery has been erratic all year and has lost several games against weaker opposition. They will have to bring their “A” game to have any chance of keeping the score close. And I put the odds of them bringing their A game at about 10%. Bank on Kiel to turn this one into a yawner early.
BET: 200 Euros on Kiel (-4.5 goals at 1.72)

Last Friday, 25 November 2006, a new and important acronym was added to the Team Handball vernacular- the GCH. The GCH or Group Club Handball was formally established at a meeting in Dusseldorf, Germany. The GCH is modeled after soccer’s G14 of elite clubs and seeks to represent the interests of the major European clubs. The 14 “self anointed” clubs are:

Kiel (Germany)
Flensburg (Germany)
Madgeburg (Germany)
Lemgo (Germany)
Ciudad Real (Spain)
Portland San Antonio (Spain)
Barcelona (Spain)
Ademar Leon (Spain)
Montpellier (France)
Celje (Slovenia)
Kolding (Denmark)
Veszprem (Hungary)
Zagreb (Croatia)
Medvedi (Russia)

This membership was principally based upon having won a European Cup since 2000, but new members may be added in the future based on performance. Additionally, Kolding, Veszprem and Zagreb were added based on the prominent role those countries have in
the handball world.

GCH leaders, in interviews have emphasized their desire to work with the EHF and IHF on a number of different issues and that their mode of operations would be “cooperation instead of confrontation.” There are a number of different issues where the GCH will likely play a major role in the near future. Those issues include:

– The EHF’s proposed 4 year cycle for the World Championship
– The total number of games top players are expected to play for club and national team competitions
– The IHF’s proposed World League of Clubs
– The EHF’s future plans for the Champions League (both in terms of marketing and structure)

Sources: (in German)
http://www.handballwoche.de/nncs/handballwoche/2006/11/22/4968200000.html
http://www.handballwoche.de/nncs/handball/2006/11/25/4992400000.html

The EHF-IHF impasse over IHF plans for a new qualification format for the World Championships and a World League appears to not be heading towards a peaceful resolution. At the EHF Presidents meeting in Vienna last week 47 EHF members agreed to propose 12 motions at the next IHF Congress in April 2007. Foremost, the EHF is proposing that the IHF be restructured and that an Extraordinary Congress be held 3 months later to hold new elections. These motions raise the stakes significantly for the IHF leadership as they are essentially a threat to vote them out of office halfway into their 4 year term.
http://home.eurohandball.com/ehf_files/ehf_news/NEWS2006/159_1911.pdf

According to Article 14 of the IHF By-laws http://www.ihf.info/upload/PDF-Download/Regulations/01_-_Bylaws.pdf only a simple majority is required to request an Extraordinary Congress. The IHF has 160 members, so the EHF with 47 members can not reach a majority alone. Hence their recent meetings with the Asian and African Federations to develop a consensus majority voting block.

Additionally, the EHF is also proposing to hold the World Championships only once every four years. The proposed sequence of events would be

2012 Olympics
2013 Continental Championships
2014 World Championships
2015 Continental Championships

As far as when this change would take place, the EHF article does not go into detail. The 2009 World Championships have already been awarded (Croatia- Men, China- Women), but they could probably be moved to 2010. Additionally, the EHF has already awarded their 2010 European championships. As the Continental Championships would move to odd years a transition, in which there is either a short 1 year or long 3 year gap would have to be decided upon

Previous reports on this issue:
13 September 2006: EHF Sues IHF Over New World Championship Qualification Tournaments https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.145
26 October 2006: EHF/IHF Impasse and the Proposed World League https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.177

So do you think you know your Handball? Specifically, Champions League Handball? Here’s your chance to prove it. Predict the winners for the Round of 16 knockout stage and the margin of victory (total goal aggregate for both games) for each of the 8 matchups.

[b]How to Enter: [/b] Click here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=107952898636

[b]Contest Scoring:[/b]
Correct Club: 5 points
Correct Club and margin of victory (10 points)

[b]Prizes:[/b] Right now, just simply bragging rights. We are, however, looking for a sponsor. If interested please let us know.

One entry per email address please

Here’s some very quick analysis on the Draw. We will provide more detail soon.

[b]Most Compelling:[/b] These two matchups should provide the most drama. Both Veszprem and Montpellier are more than capable of knocking out the higher seed.

Montpellier vs Barcelona
Veszprem vs Kolding

[b]Could be Interesting: [/b] The top seeds will be favored, but the second seeds have a legitimate chance to advance. They will need to get a good victory at home in the first match and then hold back the flood waters in the return match.

Pick Szeged vs Valladolid
Celje vs Flensburg
Chehovskie Medvedi vs Gummersbach

[b]Least Suspenseful: [/b] It would take a massive upset for the two Spanish sides and Kiel to get knocked out

Gold Club Kozina vs Portland San Antonio
GOG Svendborg vs Ciudad Real
Chambery vs Kiel