The tournament has already kicked off with the opening match between Croatia and South Korea, so, I’m a little bit late on this preview. Here are the answers to 10 burning questions:

1) Will Australia win a match? Not likely. Without Olympic backcourt veteran Darryl MacCormack Australia will really struggle this tournament. Their best chances will likely be against Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

2) Will any Cubans miss their flight back to Havana? Very likely. The possibility of defection is very high based on other recent International tournaments and quite frankly, I’m amazed that they are even making this trip.

3) How will the officials fare in the charged atmosphere? With mixed results. Certain matches in 2007 were a disaster in the minds of a lot of observers. Expect more complaints again, but there’s bound to be an improvement.

4) Will the Croatian crowd boo/whistle IHF President Moustafa? To be determined. I’m not sure how well the press is covering the IHF scandals of recent weeks. And perhaps the IHF President will wisely keep a low profile.

5) Will any non-European teams advance to the Main Round? Yes. Egypt will squeak through in Group D. Everybody else will be relegated to the little kid’s table (i.e., the President’s Cup)

6) How will the other former Yugoslavian teams fare? Macedonia and Serbia will both fail to make the Main Round. It will also be interesting to see what the atmosphere in the arenas will be like when Serbia plays.

7) Is Germany’s success in 2007 now a distant memory? Yes, and based on Spain’s recent shellacking in a friendly it could be a long tournament for the Germans. It’s also highly unlikely that they will benefit from friendly officiating in Croatia this time around.

8 ) How will Spain fare under their new coach? Spain’s performance in some Euro 2010 qualification matches left a lot to be desired as they had an unimpressive win vs. lowly Cyprus and suffered a loss to Ukraine. Their recent performance in friendly matches seems to indicate that they’ve righted the ship. I still doubt they have the firepower to knock off France or Croatia to make the Semifinals out of Group 1. (Miguel Garcia has a different view and you can read his predictions in the extended post.)

9) How much will France miss Bertrand Gille at Circle Runner? Not so much on offense, where Cedric Sorhaindo will emerge as a force along the 6 meter line. On defense, however, he will be definitely missed. I think France has enough weapons to make up for his departure though.

10) Will Croatia thrive at home or succumb to the added pressure? Yes, to both. Croatia will ride the wave of enthusiasm their fans will provide all the way to the final. Along the way there, they will only lose to France in the Main Round of competition. In the Semis they will then knock off Denmark before they fall to France again before a full house in Zagreb.

(Editor’s Note: As you might have guessed this was written before Croatia’s squeaker victory over South Korea.)

My entire predictions (as well as Bogdan Pasat’s and Miguel Garcia’s)are in the extended post.

[b]John Ryan's Predictions[/b]

Group A
1) France
2) Hungary
3) Romania
———-
4) Slovakia
5) Argentina
6) Australia

Group B
1) Spain
2) Croatia
3) Sweden
——-
4) South Korea
5) Cuba
6) Kuwait

Group C
1) Russia
2) Poland
3) Germany
—————
4) Tunisia
5) Macedonia
6) Algeria

Group D
1) Denmark
2) Norway
3) Egypt
————-
4) Serbia
5) Brazil
6) Saudi Arabia

Main Group 1
1) France
2) Croatia
————
3) Spain
4) Hungary
5) Sweden
6) Romania

Main Group 2
1) Denmark
2) Russia
—————
3) Poland
4) Norway
5) Egypt
6) Germany

3rd Place Denmark over Russia
1st Place France over Croatia

[b]Miguel Garcia's Predictions[/b]

Group A
1. France
2. Hungary
3. Slovakia
4. Romania
5. Argentina
6. Australia

Group B
1. Croatia
2. Spain
3. Sweden
4. South Korea
5. Cuba
6. Kuwait

Group C
1. Poland
2. Russia
3. Germany
4. Tunisia
5. Macedonia
6. Algeria

Group D
1. Denmark
2. Norway
3. Egypt
4. Serbia
5. Brazil
6. Saudi Arabia

Group I
1. Croatia
2. Spain
3. France
4. Sweden
5. Hungary
6. Slovakia

Group II
1. Denmark
2. Poland
3. Russia
4. Germany
5. Norway
6. Egypt

Semifinals:
CROATIA – Poland
Denmark – SPAIN

Bronze: DENMARK
Silver: SPAIN
Gold: CROATIA

Croatia has been preparing this World Championship for the last couple of years, they managed to brought superstar Ivano Balic home to meet most of his teammates in RK Zagreb and head coach Lino Cervar, and I believe the atmosphere in Zagreb will be terrific for their opponents and for the referees. You will surprise that I picked Spain as a runner up, but they have the best coach in handball history, Valero Rivera, in the bench now, and a very talented and hungry generation and they are very optimistic after the 28-17 victory over Germany last weekend. I could have picked Denmark as runner up as well, since that hypotetical Denmark-Spain semifinal would be totally tight, impossible to decide who would win. Denmark still keeps the same team for the last 5 years, they have the strongest defense and one of the most perfect fastbreak game. And for the 4th place I have picked Poland, pretty much because they have a quite accessible bracket, since the Germany they will face is not the Great World Champion Germany from 2 years ago, Russia has been going downhill nonstop in the last championships and they are a mystery without Maximov. From the other side of the bracket, I think France will be missing Bertrand Gille loss too much in their matches against Spain and Croatia, and Sweden is not still ready to come back to the medals fight, especially in this side of the bracket.

[b]Bogdan Pasat's Picks[/b]

Group A:
FRA
ARG
ROM
SLK
HUN
AUS

Group B:
CRO
COR
SPA
SWE
KUW
CUB

Group C:
RUS
GER
POL
TUN
MAC
ALG

Group D:
DEN
SRB
EGY
BRA
NOR
SAR

Group I:
FRA – CRO – SPA – COR – ARG – ROM

Group II:
DEN – GER – RUS – SRB – POL – EGY

3rd Place: GER
2nd Place: CRO
1st Place: FRA

Denmark is my “sleeper team”

This past weekend the Computer Electronics Show (CES) took place in Las Vegas and one of the big themes of the convention was web TV and how in the near future everyone will seamlessly watch internet video on their TV in the their living room.

We’re certainly not there yet in terms of Team Handball, but slow and steady progress is being made. Did, I say slow? Yes, and by slow, I mean less than optimum transmission speeds for a fast paced sport like Handball. The IHF website announcement concerning their WebTV platform for the upcoming World Championship states: “All videos will be delivered in highest streaming quality” but this is not an accurate statement. In fact, the speed will only be .7 Megabits per second (Mbs), the same speed that was provided in 2007.

What is somewhat frustrating is that the provider of the web streaming broadcasts for the upcoming World Championships, Sportfive, has a proven capability to provide a more high quality product. This product is the HBL.TV platform www.hbl.tv which shows hundreds of German Bundesliga games at 1.5 Mbs. The quality is outstanding and once you have watched an hbl.tv game on your computer it’s difficult to accept the lower quality that .700 Mbs provides. I contacted Sportfive for an explanation for the “half speed” and they indicated that the worldwide simultaneous demand can’t support that many bits going out at the same time and doing so would risk some viewers getting shut out There’s some logic to that argument, but my engineering sense is that it could be overcome with the right equipment and the right network setup. Looks like we’ll have to wait till 2011 for a better picture.

I’m also a little miffed that the price has jumped to 29.99 Euros for this year’s complete package. This is a 10 Euro increase from what was charged for the 2007 WC package, with apparently no accompanying increase in quality. Hey, but we’re handball fans, many of living in dead zones where there are no other options. We’re simply going to open our wallets and pay.

IHF Announcement on Web Streaming: http://www.ihf.info/front_content.php?idcat=57&idart=1608
Handballworldcup.tv: www.handballworldcup.tv
My 2007 web streaming review: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.242 (note, how happy I was with .700 Mbs just two years ago)
Handball on TV in the U.S.?: Yes: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.392

[b]A Note on ESPN 360:[/b] USA Team Handball and ESPN 360 will likely be providing more information in the coming days of which matches will be available with this platform. I’m not on expert on ESPN360, but I think it will only be an option for a limited number of households in the U.S. (College students and overseas military take heart, ESPN360 is free for .edu and .mil addresses.) I’m guessing that the quality of the web stream is similar handballworldcup.tv, but would definitely like any feedback from a regular ESPN360 watcher. Email me at john.ryan@teamhandballnews.com or simply post your experience in the forum section.

[b]Introduction[/b]

As I’ve pointed out before, it’s probably pretty safe to say that I’m the number one American fan of French professional club handball. Hey, there aren’t too many American handball fans to begin with and who else has spent 5 years recently living in France watching around 100 matches on TV. So, of course, I think it’s awesome that Cristian Zaharia somehow convinced the Ligue National de Handball (LNH) to move the Final Four of their Coupe de la Ligue tournament across the ocean to Miami. This is an unprecedented development and hopefully other professional clubs and leagues in Europe will follow the lead and make legitimate attempts to market the sport in the U.S.

So with that being said ,everyone should take note that this commentary isn’t about the tournament itself, it’s about national sports federations and and the basic concept of sanctioning. It’s also about underlying relationships, possible agendas and the basic concept of “playing nice.” And finally, and perhaps most importantly, it’s about knowing which battles are worth fighting and which aren’t.

[b]National Sport Federations and the Concept of Sanctioning (Part 1)[/b]

As reported earlier, USA Team Handball has major issues with the announcement establishing a new Handball federation, the American Team Handball Federation and the Miami Tournament organizers failure to request sanction for the tournament with USA Team Handball

USA Team Handball notice on Miami Tournament: http://www.usateamhandball.org/news/index.html?article_id=94

So let’s start with some official definitions:

[i]Federation[/i], according to the Merriam Webster online dictionary is defined as:
1: an encompassing political or societal entity formed by uniting smaller or more localized entities: as
a: a federal government
b: a union of organizations

[i]Sanction[/i], according to Merriam-Webster is defined as:
1 : to make valid or binding usually by a formal procedure (as ratification)
2 : to give effective or authoritative approval or consent to

I would argue, however, when it comes to sports these dictionary definitions don’t tell the full story. For instance, in a sporting context, the term Federation has almost a universal applicability to organizations that organize sports at the National and International level. Even organizations that don’t have the word Federation in their title, often refer to themselves as Federations. USA Team Handball is one example and so is the International Rugby Board (IRB). In almost all instances these organization are non-profit and focused on sports development and the organization of national and international competition. The only examples I could find of professional sports entities using the word Federation were the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). And, rest assured most professional sporting organizations would not want the word Federation in their title. As Frank Deford, astutely points out in #3 of his 4 guiding principles of sports organizations: “Any sports organization that has the word "federation" in its title is probably a mess.”

List of International Sports Federations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_sport_federations
Frank Deford commentary on Federations: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93995199

The point of this diatribe is that names and what an organization decides to call itself are important. By establishing a new sister organization, and calling it the American Team Handball Federation (ATHF), the Miami tournament organizers were being a little provocative. Despite protestations from the ATHF about their “for profit” focus it’s very difficult to not see the apparent conflict of interest with another Federation with the words “America” and “Team Handball” in it.

To then further indicate that this new organization was “sanctioning” the Miami tournament was really provocative. So let’s take a look at the word sanction. Merriam-Webster’s 2nd definition, “to give effective or authoritative approval or consent to” is a fairly good definition in my opinion. The key question, though, is what exactly makes an organization authoritative? For instance, what prevents Team Handball News from issuing a press release sanctioning the Miami Tournament? Does it really mean anything to sanction something?

I think the answer to this question depends on the organization doing the sanctioning. In the case of Team Handball News sanctioning, it would mean nothing. And as the ATHF is simply a fledgling organization with one press release and a couple of interviews on our website, it means essentially nothing for them to sanction an event either. Even a USA Team Handball sanctioning has very little meaning. For domestic team only events, the USA Team Handball Competition Rulebook http://usateamhandball.org.ismmedia.com/ISM3/std-content/repos/Top/News/USATH%20Rule%20Book%202008-2009.pdf states “for all intents and purposes, a sanction is a confirmation that insurance applies.” (Article VII, Section 4) And while one of the main expectations of sanctioning is that the Federation will provide assistance (e.g. officials) there is no commitment to provide this.

For competitions with an International club, slightly different rules are laid out in the competition rulebook in Article VIII. Most notably, Section 1 which states:

“Section 1- Eligibility
Any organization (LOC) or person wishing to promote a match involving one or more foreign teams [u][b]must[/b][/u] first apply to USA Team Handball to receive sanctioning for such a match. Once the application process has been completed, USATH shall promptly review such requests. USATH shall grant such sanction unless it determines that holding or sponsoring the international competition would be detrimental to the best interest of the sport.”

In other words according to the rulebook, no organization can stage Handball event in the U.S. without sanctioning from USA Team Handball. And if you read the rest of Article VII, it’s all about fees to be paid to USA Team Handball for gate receipts and applications. Setting aside the possible rationale for this new section (I’ll comment on that later), I find it highly unlikely that a USA Team Handball competition rulebook has any authority over anyone outside of USA Team Handball members.

That being said I would guess that there are international protocols that apply. For instance, when the NBA staged matches in Paris I would be surprised if there wasn’t some type of coordination and approval process that took place with the French Basketball Federation. And it wouldn’t surprise me if there weren’t some types of fees that applied. Most likely there are some official agreements or regulations that cover national jurisdictions in FIBA’s regulations. Perhaps the same applies for the IHF as well, but beyond regulations covering player transfers I couldn’t find anything relating to cross country relations on the IHF website.

In terms of applicable Handball situations, British Handball arranged an exhibition match between two foreign clubs. As this was arranged by the Federation itself obviously there were no real sanctioning issues. In the forum section of our website one reader highlighted how the Danish Federation was able to stop a German Bundesliga match from taking place on Danish soil. I’m not sure how this was resolved, but one can speculate that the Danish Federation had some leverage due to the number of Danish athletes playing in the Bundesliga.

Whether USA Team Handball has sound legal footing and/or some leverage to force sanctioning is to be determined. Notably, USA Team Handball has been quiet as to what further consequences they might take should the tournament not be sanctioned. As an untapped market the U.S. might have some leverage in terms of its potential to help tap that market in the future. More likely, the best leverage that USA Team Handball might have is simply the threat to make things difficult through legal action. Of course, the Miami organizers and the LNH could decide to call their bluff. How this plays out in the planned meeting in Croatia remains to be seen.

But, how did we get here in the first place? And are them some hidden agendas that are actually behind this confrontation? Stay tuned for part 2.

Coming up:
Part 2: Underlying Relationships, Possible Agendas and Playing Nice
Part 3: Some Battles aren’t Worth Fighting

USA Team Handball has posted a notice on their website concerning the French Coupe de la Ligue tournament. USA Team Handball’s position is that the French Professional League and the Miami organizers need to request sanctioning from USA Team Handball and dissolve the recently formed American Team Handball Federation (ATHF).

I am seeking more information from both parties and will post new information as I get it. More informal discourse is available, as always, for everyone in the forum section of the website.

USA Team Handball Notice: http://www.usateamhandball.org/news/index.html?article_id=94
ATHF Press Release (29 Nov 2008): https://teamhandballnews.com/docs/ATHF.pdf

As the new USA Federation scours the country in search of new players they might want to avoid a try-out at Princeton University. Or at least they might want to send the school a copy of the official rulebook first. According to the rules recently posted on the Princeton Intramural website the following unique “Ivy League” Handball rules apply:

II. a. Teams consist of 5 field players and a goalie for a total of 6 players.
III. e. Players may take 2 steps with the ball after gaining possession.
III. m. Each team can have at most one defender (stopper) who will be allowed inside the shooting arc, but not inside the goalie box. If there are 2 defenders in the zone at one time, the offensive team will receive a penalty shot. (I’m guessing they didn’t bother to draw a 6 meter line and are using a basketball 3 point line.)

And my personal favorite….

III. n. This is a non-contact sport.

Princeton University Team Handball Rules: http://www.princeton.edu/campusrec/intramural/rules/Team-Handball-Rules.pdf

Addendum: Christer Ahl, the Chair of the IHF Referee’s Committee informs me that real Handball has been played at Princeton University. In fact, in 1976 he officiated a friendly match between the USA and Romania in Princeton’s Jadwin Gymnasium prior to the Montreal Olympics. He assures me that it was indeed a full contact match.

I’ve noted previously how Champions League matches in the former Yugoslavia generally have a burning cauldron atmosphere. https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.615 The Women’s European Championships which are about to conclude in Macedonia have been no exception, especially when the home side faced former countrymen Serbia or Croatia. The Macedonians were able to beat those rivals, but lost to Russia, Germany and Sweden. Here are several youtube videos which showcase the atmosphere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc6T7jQbEQw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_0J1XNiXzc&feature=related

It seems hardly a week goes by that there isn’t a cryptic announcement on the EHF webpage announcing that a player is being suspended for one match as punishment for an “action of serious unsportsmanlike conduct” in the waning seconds of a recent match.

What does this mean and why does it seem to happen so often?

In almost every case what has happened is that a defensive player has grabbed or practically tackled an offensive player to prevent the offensive team from scoring. The player gets a red card, but about 5 seconds of time expires and the defense gets a chance to get better organized.

While unsportsmanlike it is unquestionably a great strategy. Two recent matches in the EHF Cup highlight just how effective the strategy can be. All rounds of the EHF Cup use two game (home and away) aggregate scoring to determine who advances to the next round. The 3rd Round was just completed and of the 16 aggregate series were played there were a lot of blowouts, but 3 matches came down to the waning seconds. And you guessed it, 2 of those 3 matches had a serious unsportsmanlike conduct in the waning seconds.

Zarja Kaspija Astrakhan/ RUS beat HC Meshkov Brest/ BLR 60-59 on aggregate and J.D.Arrate/ESP and HC Kolubara Lazarevac/SRB drew at 52 goals all (Arrate advanced on the away goal tiebreaker). And both of these teams fouled in the waning seconds to preserve their lead. The EHF has punished the offending players, both of whom will be unavailable for the first game in the next round. But…. those teams are playing in the next round. Does it take a rocket scientist to realize that maybe, just maybe, the punishment isn’t sufficient enough to deter this from happening again and again? Heck it’s even occurring in matches with little impact as evidenced by Greek side ASE Doukas fouling simply to preserve a tie vs. HC Bosna Sarajevo in a meaningless group play match.

As I’ve indicated previously https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.579 if you really want to solve this problem, the solution is to award a 7 meter throw for actions of serious unsportsmanlike conduct during the last minute of matches.

Suspension of Astrakhan player : http://www.eurohandball.com/article/11974
Suspension of Arrate Player: http://www.eurohandball.com/article/11973
Suspension of ASE Doukas player: http://www.eurohandball.com/article/011952/Suspension+of+ASE+Doukas+player

Video of ASE Doukas player foul: http://www.ehftv.com/ec/cl/men/video/000267 (The foul takes place in the last 30 seconds of the video)

Got a handball related question? Send me an email at john.ryan@teamhandballnews.com and I'll consider it for a future write-up.

This Danish news report http://blog.tv2.dk/maria.thuesen.tv2/entry282591.html of their National team touring the “sites” in Skopje, Macedonia has stirred up some negative feelings in the host nation as it appears to focus on the stereotypes of Eastern Europe. The embedded video is certainly not a travelogue and I’m guessing the neutral crowd might have a side to root against now.

The google translation of the text is:

“A capital bathed in vintersol. Skopje is the capital of this year's European championships in kvindehåndbold. The Danish players arrived three days before their first match, which is Wednesday against France.

Today, therefore, the team spent the morning on a walk through both the old and new town. It was the meeting with street traders, poverty and dirt.

It is a country that has everything you have of ideas about an Eastern European country. Drop-up buildings, dirty and starving dogs running around the streets, people begging and prices of food and drink is so low that you feel very privileged as a Dane.

But it was a nice weather that gave the city the most beautiful sheen."

Questions about dues (the amount being charged and whether you are getting your money’s worth) have been around as long as I’ve been involved in Handball. And it’s certainly not an issue unique to handball as I’ve read and heard podcasts about complaints related to a substantial increase in USA Rugby dues a couple of years ago.

Historically, the primary reason why the vast majority of Handball players paid dues was that it was the annual pass through cost that had to be paid in order to take part in the National Championships. This was evident every year, by the check in process for athletes at Nationals where a substantial number of checks for annual membership were written on the spot. As sanctioning became a part of regional tournaments (Carolina, West Point) this membership process was added to those tournaments as well.

This actually makes a lot of sense from a simple transaction point of view. When you want to go to a movie, you pay your $9 and you enter the theater. Likewise, when you wanted to play in a handball tournament, you paid a fee to play in the tournament. The difference here is the annual membership aspect. You don’t have to join a theater federation for the right to enter movie theaters on an annual basis. If this was somehow instituted nationwide, I wouldn’t be a happy camper, but I would probably grit my teeth and pay the annual fee.

With Federation membership, many have viewed it as simply another cost for playing. This is not to say that membership had no value. Nationals was generally a well run tournament. Regional tournaments like Carolina and West Point benefited from the Federation’s help with providing some officials. The old federation also provided assistance for new clubs such as funding support for equipment purchases.

So why does USA Handball (and other sports for that matter) have an annual membership fee? Well, it does provide revenue for the Federation’s bottom line. I would argue, however, that this is not and should never be the main reason for dues. The reason being is that if you raise the cost of the annual membership to the point where it becomes a significant funding stream you risk individuals balking at the cost.

Membership dues should be viewed instead as a way of fostering a sense of community and ownership. In other words, the Federation is no longer viewed as an outside entity in which you have no say. Instead individuals start to view the Federation as “my Federation”.

The new Federation is trying to create that community and one of their latest actions in this area is their new Myspace page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/The-Official-USA-Team-Handball-Page/34445241956

Where the new Federation may have dropped the ball is the price point for membership. Is $60/year too much to ask for? Perhaps it is, especially from the context of a new organization with no historical track record. Perhaps a $30/year price point would have been better, with the drop in revenue being made up by higher fees for sanctioned tournaments.

If an individual is not participating in any sanctioned events like Nationals (easily the most substantial benefit) I can’t blame that individual for perhaps deciding his money would be better spent on buying equipment or gym time for his club. And the same can be said for club registration. The Federation has also lowered the cost for new clubs to $200, but unless your club plays in a sanctioned tournament that money might be better spent elsewhere, especially, if your club is new and has a lot of start up expenses.

It’s a free country, of course, individuals and clubs can decide for themselves. As for me, I’m signing up for a one year membership. Club wise, though, for the Vegas Scorpions it’s up in the air and will depend on our schedule.

Have an opinion? Continue the discussion and read other views in the forum: https://teamhandballnews.com/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?597

Here’s some further analysis from Steve Pastorino’s second report from Brazil: http://www.usateamhandball.org/news/index.html?article_id=62

[i]“President Manoel Luiz Oliveira (BRA) has the thankless task of organizing this region on a shoestring budget. Fortunately for him, the Brazilian federation and professional league are a joint operation – allowing him to leverage the National Team, all Club teams and grass roots programs for sponsorship, television rights, host cities for events (like the congress we're attending) and growth. It's safe to say that Brazil's domestic and international success underwrites much of the Pan Am federation's activities.”[/i]

– As one who has often been critical of PATHF’s lack of transparency and poor coordination, let me give credit where credit is due. Brazil carrying the weight for the rest of PATHF is to be commended.

[i]“Dr. Moustafa, originally from Egypt, is here campaigning for re-election as president of IHF.”[/i]

– The election will be next June at the IHF Congress in Egypt. One country, one vote, so a vote from Guatemala is as good as a vote from the U.S., Sweden or Germany. Surely, the Europeans will propose an alternate candidate. It remains to be seen as to whether the fallout from the Asian Olympic Qualification fiasco will doom his candidacy.

[i]“Brazil will host the 3rd Men’s Club Championships beginning May 19, 2009 – an event in which the USA will look to field a team for the first time ever.”[/i]

– It will be interesting to see if the U.S. does in fact send a team as there will be a number of financial and logistical hurdles to overcome. For instance if the U.S. National Champion is sent the timing of the National Champions (first week in May) doesn’t support the tight turnaround. Funding to send a team to Brazil isn’t cheap either and it’s unlikely that any club would pay for this trip entirely on their own.

[i]“The USA plans to field teams in Men’s & Women’s U18 competition, as this event shall serve as the qualifying event for the 2010 Youth Olympics.”[/i]

– This is a step in the right direction for the U.S., but fielding competitive teams for these competitions could be challenging in under a year’s time. Additionally, the IOC has placed strict limit on the number of participants. The U.S. will only be allowed to send two teams out of all the team sports. http://www.gazette.com/sports/olympic_42409___article.html/athletes_springs.html So even should the U.S. qualify, there will likely be some conficts with Basketball and other Olympic sports.

Finally, while I appreciate the U.S. General Manager posting his informal notes, I’d still like to see the PATHF use their own website to spread the news to the entire hemisphere.

Everyone once in a while (more often than I’d like) I see a handball article that makes me shake my head in utter disbelief. The recent post on the IHF webpage, “AHF President Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad al-Sabah receives doctorate from Nippon Sports Science University of Tokyo” http://www.ihf.info/front_content.php?idcat=57&idart=1600 is one such article.

The article further explains that he received the award for his outstanding contribution to the Development of the Olympic Movement and Asian Sports and [b]especially for his efforts in promoting [/b]sports science, [b]fair play[/b], world peace and the fight against doping in Sport.

Say what? This is the same individual who was primarily responsible for arguably the biggest scandal in Olympic Qualifying history. And we’re not talking just “handball history”, but Olympic Qualifying history for all sports. Not to rehash all the gory detail, but in short, Kuwait (where the Sheikh’s from) beat South Korea in a pivotal match with officiating so obviously biased that a replay tournament had to be restaged. The Sheikh also wasn’t an idle bystander in this controversy, but an active participant as evidenced by phone calls to the IHF President which resulted in the unqualified and biased Jordanian officials being assigned to the pivotal match as well as his stonewalling and challenging the eventual IHF reversal.

If you want more details just read this summary of the official arbitration court report:
https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.535

And don’t take just my opinion read what Bahrain and South Korea thought
Bahrain Handball Official Speaks Out Strongly Against Asian Federation: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.448
Korean Times Calls for AHF President to Resign: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.384

I’m all for moving on and letting bygones be bygones, but giving Sheikh al-Sabah an award for promoting fair play is simply beyond belief. What’s even more remarkable is it being awarded in Japan, where the controversial match was staged. Where normally reserved Japanese fans through objects on the court to protest on behalf of their rivals, the South Koreans. Just what on God’s green earth could possibly possess a Japanese University to make such a undeserved gesture?

The answer, of course, is the 2016 Olympic Games and Tokyo’s desire to host it. Sheikh al-Sabah is not only one of the 116 IOC voters that will vote on host city as head of the Olympic Council of Asia he had reportedly previously threatened https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.446 to derail Tokyo’s bid due to the Japanese Handball Federation’s participation in the replay tournament.

There was a plethora of news from the recent Pan American Team Handball Federation Congress held in Brazil. I’ve been busy catching up on all of the EHF Champions League games this past weekend, so I haven’t prioritized time to comment on Pan American activities. (By the by, last weekend was one of the best ever in my opinion with 4 of the 5 key matches coming right down to the wire. My only complaint is the ehfTV www.ehftv.com video stream quality. If they were 1,500 kbs I would be in fat city.)

Fortunately, USA General Manager, Steve Pastorino, had a couple of informative write-ups on the Congress. In his first article http://www.usateamhandball.org/news/index.html?article_id=61 a key paragraph diplomatically mentions some past PATHF shortcomings:

“Some major shortcomings of the past four years were acknowledged as well, such as PATHF’s inconsistency in managing a federation website, disciplinary inequities relative to incidents involving Brazil, Argentina and Canada, as well as the handling of issues of Greenland, Cuba, and Chile related to global competitions. More time will be spent on these topics in the following days.”

Here’s some further explanation of the paragraph’s contents

– inconsistency in managing a federation website: The PATHF website has often been down and only has been sporadically updated

– disciplinary inequities relative to incidents involving Brazil, Argentina and Canada: Brazil and Argentina had a game ending brawl at the PANAM Games which resulted in only minor penalties. Meanwhile Canadian coach Stefan Rusimov was suspended for two years for a spitting incident.

Brazil – Argentina Brawl: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.360
Canadian Coach incident: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.533

– as well as the handling of issues of Greenland, Cuba, and Chile related to global competitions:

The PATHF’s handling of Greenland’s membership status was mishandled in a number of ways. First, it could be argued that their PATHF membership should never have been downgraded in the first place. But when their membership was downgraded it was not communicated to Greenland in a timely manner, preventing them from appealing and attempting to qualify for the World PANAM Championships.

Commentary: Why the recent downgrading of Greenland’s membership is wrong: https://teamhandballnews.com/news312.html
Greenland PATHF Membership still unresolved: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.500

In regards to Cuba and Chile the PATHF apparently mistakenly informed Chile that they would take Cuba’s place at the Men’s 2009 World Championships. https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.614 Cuba, in fact, is still planning on participating.

Regular readers to this site have seen my previous references to Rugby and how I think that in some respects, USA Handball should try to model it’s development after USA Rugby. No analogy works 100%, but again Rugby has shown a path that hopefully USA Handball will one day follow. This example is 23 year old rugby star Takudzwa (Zee) Ngwenya. Originally from Zimbabwe, Ngwenya emigrated to the USA five years ago. In that five years he has gone from playing high school rugby in Plano, Texas, to amateur club rugby in Dallas, to the US National Team. And playing for the US National Team last year he was the bright spot of a 0-4 performance, with his try against South Africa being selected the “try (the rugby equivalent of a touchdown) of the year” by the International Rugby Board. This try, his overall performance, and his raw speed led to a contract to a professional contract with Biarritz in the French Top 14 League. And he’s not an afterthought at Biarritz, one of the top club teams in the world, where he is currently tied for first for most tries in the French League.

An equivalent trajectory in Handball terms would be Chavez HS in Houston, to the Houston Stars, to the US National Team, to HSV Hamburg in the German Bundesliga. The US has had a few Handball players play for European clubs, but usually for lower division clubs. Darrick Heath, who is arguably the most talented USA Handball player ever, followed a similar path to Ngwenya. He first started playing the sport in 1988 and 5 years later his strong performance on a winless USA Team at the 1993 World Championships led to a professional contract in Hungary.

But, while these paths were similar, the huge difference was that Darrick was 28 years old when he signed a contract and Zee today is only 23 years old with his best years still ahead of him. In fact, he’s still very much considered a work in progress as he is still learning the game and adjusting to competing on a weekly basis at the elite level. And the same was true with Darrick, but at the same time he was becoming a more experienced player he was also soon to start a long slow decline in physical athletic ability. I say long and slow, because even at age 43 he can still play– just ask the Canadians who played against him last year for PANAM Games qualification.

The big “what if?” that I’ve often pondered is what if Darrick had started playing Handball at age 17 instead of 23and then signed that first contract at age 22 instead of 28. How phenomenal of a player would he have been and what if the USA had had several other players also starting their professional careers at around age 22?

I’m not alone in this pondering. Some would even take it further to say that we need to find those talents at age 12 or even younger. It’s a tough sell, however, to get young kids excited to play a sport they’ve never seen when other sports with far more exposure and financial resources are also looking for athletes. But there are a few handball programs out there making inroads towards youth development. Houston, Chicago and Atlanta all have had decent youth programs. In fact Darrick Heath has been an integral part in the development of the Atlanta programs.

Starting these programs is clearly a challenge, but Rugby has clearly broken the code somewhat with several high school programs popping up in different parts of the country. A program, Play Rugby USA, has been established to encourage and provide support to schools interested in starting rugby. While USA Rugby still gets the bulk of their players from late starters (players often start playing in college) these youth programs have sprinkled in more seasoned players into those clubs. Instead of every Freshman starting from scratch a good number of them already understand the basics of the game.

While I don’t think we are ever going to see thousands of star athletes in the U.S. put down their basketballs and footballs for handballs when they are in the 12-18 age range, I do think it should be possible to expose thousands of youths to the sport. Maybe some spring time leagues with the carrot of participating on an under-19 Team USA will even draw in some really talented athletes taking a break from their primary sport. Then, if for whatever reason, their basketball, football or some other sport career doesn’t pan out like they thought it would they might immediately consider that Handball game they really excelled at. They’ll join a club and with the basics already down they might quickly develop into a good player.

To sum up, the path to national team success lies in finding the Handball Zee Ngwenya’s out there, exposing them to the sport and convincing them to make handball their chosen specialty. And to be really successful the finding, exposing and convincing will have to start as at young of age as possible.

Wikipedia Article on Takudzwa Ngwenya: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takudzwa_Ngwenya
Video of Ngwenya award winning try: http://rugbydump.blogspot.com/2007/10/takudzwa-ngwenya-smokes-bryan-habana.html
1993 Sports Illustrated profile of Darrick Heath: http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1138385/2/index.htm
Play Rugby USA article: http://www.americanrugbynews.com/artman/publish/Coaching_column/The_Play_Rugby_USA_model.shtml
Article on Wash DC youth Rugby club: http://www.washingtonrugbyclub.org/mainart/youth/hyde_school_rugby.htm
Play USA Rugby website: http://www.playrugbyusa.com/