I provided my assessment on the Women’s Olympic Tournament https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.519 shortly after the draw was announced. Here’s my analysis of the Men’s Draw and my predictions on who will advance from Group play and win the Gold Medal.

The 12 teams were drawn into 2 groups of 6 teams. Odds to win the Gold Medal are in parentheses and are from Betting Odds consolidation website Bestbetting.com http://eu.bestbetting.com/handball/olympics-2008/men's/winner

[b]Group A[/b]
France (2.75 to 1)
Croatia (6 to 1)
Spain (9 to 1)
Poland (17 to 1)
China (1000 to 1)
Brazil (1000 to 1)

[b]Group B[/b]
Denmark (3.5 to 1)
Germany (7 to 1)
Russia (50 to 1)
Iceland (66 to 1)
Egypt (1000 to 1)
South Korea (1000 to 1)

The format for competition is Group round robin, followed by knockout quarter finals, semifinals and final. With the top 4 teams qualifying from each group this means that 8 teams will make the “playoffs” while only 4 teams will be relegated to playing for 9th place.

[b]Group A:[/b] Looking strictly at the odds (and I agree with them) the European sides, France, Croatia, Spain and Poland should all advance. The only outside shot is that Brazil could upset Poland. Poland has not impressed in friendly competition having recently lost two games to South Korea. Friendly matches before the Olympics, however, have been notorious for meaning little and newsgroup sites indicate that Poland was fighting jetlag and backcourt star Bielecki didn’t play in either of these matches. Still this should give Brazil some hope for a surprise. In all likelihood the four European sides will simply be jockeying for seeding in the Quarterfinals.

Predicted order of finish: 1) France, 2) Croatia, 3) Poland, 4) Spain, 5) Brazil, 6) China

[b]Group B: [/b]As in Group A, the four European teams, Denmark, Germany, Russia and Iceland are big favorites to advance. Both Egypt and South Korea, however, do stand an outside chance of advancing. South Korea can take confidence in their two recent victories against Poland and Egypt as well as their performance in 2004 where they beat both Russia and Iceland. Egypt can also look back at their victory earlier this summer against Germany. Also, Russian and Iceland are the “weakest” European sides in the tournament, so if anyone is going to crash the European party in the quarterfinals, it will be Egypt or South Korea. I’ll go out on a limb and give the Koreans the surprise quarter final slot. Being an Asian team playing in Asia has got to help.

Predicted order of finish 1) Denmark, 2) Germany, 3) Iceland, 4) South Korea, 5) Russia, 6) Egypt

[b]A note on the format: [/b] As the tournament progresses it will probably be pretty clear which 8 teams will make the quarter finals. As a result this will place less meaning on some of the games in pool play. Even worse, if a top team like France or Croatia stumbles a bit in group play to 3rd place overall in their group, the teams in the other group might not be so excited to place 2nd and face that top team in the quarterfinals. Also as France will attest from their experience in Athens, running the table with a 5-0 record in Group play means zilch if you stumble in the quarter finals to a 2-3 Russian side. So in effect, the real tournament starts in the Quarterfinals. And with 5 games over 10 days, teams will ease up in the latter stages of group play to make sure they are well rested for the 8 team knockout tournament.

[b]Gold Medal Prediction: [/b] To anyone who has followed my predictions in the last few major tournaments it will be no surprise that I’m picking France to win it all. This prediction has come up short lately, but I’m sticking with it. It’s quite simple really. If you’ve got the best court player in the world, Nikola Karabatic, the best goalie in the world, Thierry Ohmeyer, and the best defensive court player in the world, Didier Dinart, then by God, you should win the Gold Medal. And, oh by the way, the Gilles brothers, Luc Abalo, Michel Guigou , etc. aren’t too shabby either. Adding to this, they will be looking to avenge Athens and their other recent defeats. Finally, China is the home team here, so they won’t have the home court advantage excuse either that they had in their loss to Germany at the World Championships. So here’s another prediction, if France doesn’t win the Gold Medal, Head Coach, Claude Onesta will be looking for new employment.

As far as the Silver and Bronze medal, I will go with Croatian taking the Silver and Denmark the bronze. Croatian success, however, will hinge on their starting 7 staying healthy.

Earlier Women’s Olympic Preview: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.519

The Australian Junior Women have faced stiff competition at the Junior Women’s World Championship in Macedonia. So far they haven’t come close to winning a game against the likes of Macedonia, Croatia, Brazil and South Korea. But to their credit they have put together one of the better web pages I’ve seen in regards to a team’s participation at a major tournament. The webpage is loaded with quality pictures and reporting on what the team is doing both on and off the court.

All too often teams from developing handball nations participate in a major tournament with barely a word of their exploits being reported. While this may seem like a rather mundane task the importance of getting the word out is more important than you might think to the sports development. As the old saying goes, if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it still make a noise. The same can be said for a handball team that goes abroad. If a team goes abroad and nary a word is reported, does it increase the interest and support the development of the sport back home?

There might be only a few hundred people that care about Handball in Australia, but with the reach of the internet quality reporting just might add to that number. And who knows, perhaps there is some grade school athlete who will soon be introduced to the sport in Physical Education class. She’ll think, “kind of a cool sport, but what good is it?” She goes home, checks for more information on the internet and learns that in a few short years she could represent her country in a major tournament in Europe. From the pictures and text she makes the determination that this is something she wants to check into more. Conversely, if there is nothing or next to nothing posted, she never gives it a second thought. It’s these type of little things that can help build a program.

The Australian Junior Women will now play in a placement group with other teams that didn’t qualify for the main round. This should give them a chance to notch a victory or two. You can follow their exploits here: http://www.handballaustralia.org.au/Junior_Women.htm

For the uninitiated, time shifting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_shifting is basically a fancy name for recording TV shows to watch later. This is not an alien concept to most as pretty much everyone has owned a VCR and taped a show for later viewing. But what might seem a little bit more unusual is the
practice of "Extreme Time Shifting" which I have adopted based on living in virtual deserts in Europe and now North America.

First, my European experience which I gradually adopted over the course of 5 years living in France. While living there I had the opportunity to watch Handball and other European sports, but I still couldn’t break away entirely from American Football and Basketball (NBA and College). Through Satellite TV my American sports were available, but due to the 6 hour time difference the live broadcasts were often on at inconvenient times. While the idea of watching an episode of Seinfeld two days later was one I was used to, the idea of watching a sporting event after the fact was a little alien to me. Mostly, this was due to the fact that if I didn’t watch the game live, I was sure to find out the score from either the radio, the internet or someone talking around the water cooler the next day at work.

I eventually came to the realization, however, that I was now living in an environment where almost every media outlet and person I interacted with could care less about the NFL and the NBA. In other words, I was in almost total control of finding out the final score or not. I say almost, because staying oblivious of Super Bowl results was a challenge and Tony Parker’s progression as an NBA star resulted in one French colleague ruining a 7th and deciding playoff game for me with the statement of "too bad for Tony Parker, eh John?" But besides, these small setbacks, I really warmed to the convenience of watching whenever I wanted to. On top of that it’s very easy to get used to never watching commercials or free throws. A 2.5 hr NBA marathon game can be watched in less than an hour through fast forwarding.

Now that I’m living back in the U.S., where I can watch games live, I still find myself time shifting for reasons of convenience. With American sports, this time shifting is usually for only a few hours though. Basically, I’m simply waiting for quiet time after my daughters have gone to bed. Radio and simple interaction at work makes it fairly challenging to remain oblivious to the final score for American sports the next day. But now that I am living in an American desert, figuratively and literally, it’s entirely different story for my favorite European Sports. Hence the concept of Extreme Time Shifting.

In the dog days of July, your sport choices might be limited to watching golf, baseball or the paint dry. I, on the other hand have been reveling in the European Club Rugby finals, International Tests and the Tri-Nations. Never mind that some of these competitions weren’t viewed until a month after they were played, I’m an extreme time shifter. Because Rugby has little following here, the chances of somebody letting the cat out of the bag on the London Wasps – Leicester Final in the English Premiership are astronomically low. Where possible, I’ve also done the same thing with Handball matches web streamed on the computer. I say where possible, because some websites have put the final score next to the "play" button. This poor web design has resulted in me playing a silly game with a sheet of paper in front of the monitor screen hoping that I can find the play button without seeing the score first. (Note: if you purposely defocus your eyes so that you can’t read text, it will improve your chances of winning this game). Other sites, notably the German Bundesliga (HBL), have enough sense to never list the score.

So what’s the point of this article you might ask? Well, the point is that the Olympics with its schedule of 84 matches crammed into 16 days will hopefully present a great opportunity for you to try extreme time shifting. With Beijing being 6 hours ahead of Western Europe and 12 hours ahead of the Eastern United States much of the world will be busy at their day jobs while the matches are being played. Theoretically, fans will then be able to watch their favorite team or perhaps the best match of the day at their leisure during the evening. I say theoretically, because it’s not certain yet as to how NBC will deliver their online content. I’ve had some running dialogue with the NBC staff and they’ve indicated that some matches and highlights will be available on demand. (Whether "some matches" means 2 or 72 remains to be seen) Additionally, they indicate that the website will report on events as they happen, which could very well mean that when you pull up the NBC Handball webpage you could be greeted with a headline like “Brazil shocks Russia.”

To counteract this possibility during the Olympics, Team Handball News will be hiding results and event details behind generic titles like, “Match Day 1 Results.” And, depending on how NBC sets up their video on demand we will try to provide generic links to the streaming content as well. Also, if there are multiple viewing options, we might even suggest “A Match of the Day” to watch without saying why. That way you can truly be surprised when Brazil upsets Russia. And, who knows, if you really want to try extreme time shifting, maybe you’ll even end up watching the Gold Medal Games in October.

As expected, Bosnia & Herzegovina lost its appeal to the EHF to have the 2nd leg of its European Championship Qualification match between Hungary adjudicated in their favor. As reported earlier, the 2nd leg of the Bosnia – Hungary match was abruptly ended by the EHF Technical Delegate with 11 minutes remaining due to unruly fans throwing objects on the court. The EHF declared the match over at that point. As Hungary won the first match by 2 goals and was leading the 2nd leg by 3 goals, as well, it was highly unlikely that Bosnia could have overcome this 5 goal aggregate deficit. Not impossible, but unlikely. Bosnia was also fined 7,500 Euros and their next two EHF matches in Bosnia will be held in empty arenas. And most importantly, Hungary now officially claims the 24th and final spot at the World Championships in Croatia next January.

But here’s a couple items to ponder. First off, how about contrasting the actions of the EHF Delegate to this match, a Mr Ericsson from Sweden, with the IHF Delegate, Alexander Kozhukhov, for the Korea – Kuwait match at the Asian Olympic Qualification. You can argue whether Mr. Ericsson, took the right action to stop the match and whether he tried hard enough to get it restarted, but you can’t argue with the forceful action that he took compared to Mr Kozhukhov. It couldn’t have been easy for Mr. Ericsson to make that decision in front of 8,000 angry fans, but he made the decision. Contrast that to Mr Kozhukhov's inaction.

Secondly, what if the score had been reversed? In other words, what if Bosnia had been up by 3 goals and leading the aggregate by 1 goal? How would all of this had played out? Would Hungary have quickly left the floor? Would the Bosnian fans have policed themselves better? If it had gone to arbitration, how would have the EHF ruled? Would they have given the match to Hungary as a forfeit? All very interesting questions. If the EHF hasn’t pondered the answers to these questions, they’d be wise to.

You Tube Video of Swedish Delgate at Match: http://youtube.com/watch?v=RybgJ6cLijo (starts addressing the crowd at about 2:30)
EHF Statement: http://www.eurohandball.com/inc/print.asp?oid=11572
Earlier Handball News Article: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.516

Last March, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) held a hearing to resolve which nations would represent Asia at the 2008 Olympics. The case was brought to the CAS since the International Handball Federation (IHF) and the Asian Handball Federation (AHF) had reached an impasse as to which nations would represent Asia at the Olympic Games and in Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.

In December, 2007, the IHF had ruled that the AHF organized tournaments for the Women in Kazakhstan (August, 2007) and the Men in Japan (September, 2007) had been improperly influenced by biased officiating and therefore needed to be replayed. Replay tournaments were then conducted by the IHF in January 2008, but the results of those tournaments were not recognized by the AHF. To resolve the disagreement in a timely manner the IHF and AHF agreed to let the CAS decide on the case and a hearing was conducted in Switzerland on March 19.

The CAS ruling was a split decision with the AHF tournament being ruled valid for the Women, but invalid for the Men. As a result, the Kazakhstan Women’s Team qualified automatically for the Olympics while the South Korea Women were required to qualify via an Olympic Qualification Tournament (which they did successfully). On the Men’s side, South Korea received the automatic bid which had originally been awarded to Kuwait.

The results of this hearing were released in March, but details concerning the rationale for the ruling were not provided at that time. The official report now painstakingly makes clear why these decisions were made as well as the missteps the IHF took in addressing this controversy.

Full Report: http://www.tas-cas.org/d2wfiles/document/1139/5048/0/1483%20award%20internet.pdf

Here are some notable findings from the 41 page report:

[b]1) The extent of officiating bias (at least determined by the IHF) for the Kuwait – South Korea match was extensive and unprecedented.[/b] The report , written by the IHF Playing Rules and Referees Commission (PRC) members Christer Ahl, Manfred Prause and Ramon Gallego, is very candid and critical and essentially states that it is absolutely impossible for anyone who knows anything about handball to think that the Kuwait – South Korea match was fairly called. Here is an extract of the report:

“2.19 …..[u]The performance of the JOR referees, however, was of a totally different nature[/u]. The mistakes were excessive and one-sided but, more remarkable, [u]the majority of them were impossible to understand or explain[/u]. Inexperienced referees may have difficulties in maintain consistency in punishment or in 7-meter decisions, or they may have problems in judging correctly the balance between offensive or defensive fouls, but these were [u]not[/u] the issues here. Instead, the referees [u]saw fouls or infringements that obviously did not happen[/u], essentially ‘inventing’ decisions. The chronology accompanying this text give a long list of such decisions. In other words, it is clear the issue was not incompetence but [u]bias and specific intention (or instructions).[/u]

It is regrettably possible for highly experience referees who want to use bias in a match to do so without detection other than by alert experts. In the KUW-KOR match, however, [u]the referees made their mistakes in such ways[/u], and in such situations, that is understandable that the general public who watched the match ‘live’ or later on in video excerpts, [u]could not avoid noticing the unmistakable bias and the excess of clear mistakes[/u].

It is also revealing that the first half of [u]the match had more than 20 wrong or strange decisions and that all of them were against Korea[/u]. This situation continued for the first part of the second half, until finally there was a tendency to more unbiased refereeing, which included some correct punishments against Kuwait. In fact, the referees showed in this way that they were capable of reasonable refereeing [u]when they wanted to!”[/u]

[b]Impact of the referee performance on the match result[/b]. The text above, and the chronology, should make it extremely clear that the [u]referee performance had an enormous influence on the result of the match[/u]. Again, the many mistakes were [i]essentially in one direction [/i]and they were often [u]major in nature[/u]: disallowing correct goals, giving the ball to the opponents without justification, punishing players in a totally erratic and inconsistent manner. In such a situation it is not meaningful and realistic to speculate in what would have been the result of the match if there had been neutral referees. The match would have had a different character. However, one could note that [u]the number of serious mistakes by a larger margin exceeds the difference in goals in the final result[/u] of the match. And one must also take into account the demoralizing impact on a team which sees itself being treated in this way. Clearly, [u]it is difficult to accept the validity of the outcome of the match[/u].”

[b]2) Alexander Kozhukhov, President of the IHF Commission of Organising and Competition (COC), failed to properly perform his duties as the IHF Technical Delegate at the Men’s AHF Tournament[/b]. The AHF and IHF responses give conflicting accounts of Mr Kozhukhov’s role in the whole affair. It’s fairly clear, however, that at best, he was a weak/“powerless” representative; at worst he was a duplicitous representative who only spoke out once the rest of the Handball World had found out what happened.

– Mr Kozhukhov’s participation in the appointment/selection of the Jordanian officials.

According to the AHF:

“3.24 … Mr Kozhukhov was present at the meeting of the Technical Committee prior to the Kuwait – Korean match and was therefore a party to that decision. He raised no objection to this appointment, neither at the pre-match meeting nor in his Tournament Report to the IHF following the Men’s Tournament.”

According to the IHF:

“4.21 .. He (Kozhukhov) already had objected to the choice of the referees from Jordan, but he was only one of the nine members during the technical meeting. All of the others were from the First Claimant.”

– Mr Kozhukhov objections to the official’s performance during the match and after the match both written and oral.

According to the AHF:

“3.12 …. At the daily meetings of the Men’s Tournament Technical Committee during the competition, both Mr. Kohukov and Mr. Khalf Al-Enezi monitored and evaluated the performances of the referees in the previous matches. No protests were raised and no irregularities were discussed.”

“3.11 Indeed, the IHF’s technical delegate, Mr. Kozhukhov stated in his report “on or around 10 September 2007” that “the standard of officiating at all of the matches was to be commended.”

According to the IHF:

“4.21 Mr. Kozhukov, the nominated supervisor, even felt forced to go three times (!) to the bench of the referees trying to advise the referees. But as he declared later, he had never ‘had the power in his hand’.”

“4.26 At the Council meeting [December 08, in Paris], the members engaged under Pt. 5.1 in an ‘intensive discussion’ regarding the Tournaments. Mr. Kozhukhov ‘explained the situation during the first match KOR – KUW.’ The IHF Response describes the meeting as follows:

‘He [Kohukhov] stressed that following his opinion the referees almost destroyed the Korean team in the first half. He mentioned that he felt as a ‘supervisor without power’ even when he tried to advise the referees to do a ‘good refereeing’.”

“4.32 Mr Kozhukhov, as supervisor, made a very ‘diplomatic’ report. His oral statements during the council and his behavior during the match in question show a very different point of view.”

Kozhukhov’s brief report following the tournament:

“3.11 (also in sections 7.44 and 7.45 of the report)… “It might also be commended rather good officiating of all matches (except the first match KOR-KUW, of which the referees were from JOR, and whom, to my opinion, in the first half of the match had given priority t the KUW team. After the talk with the referees during the interval between the halves where I was assisted by Mr. K. Al Enezi, the referees were rather proper with officiating in the second half of the match, but the team of KOR nevertheless could not beat the result in their own favour. They could manage to win only one goal back. Further on the referees from JOR had not been used for officiating.” (But according to the AHF, this report was not received by the AHF until almost 4 months later on 06 January 2008)

It’s difficult to fully sort out what objections were raised and when those objections were made, but one can certainly infer that Mr. Kozhukhov could have and should have spoken more forcefully at the Technical Committee Meetings. Something along the lines of, “Hey, were videotaping these matches; If you think that the IHF is going to stand idly by and accept this you’re wrong,” might have been particularly effective. Additionally, setting aside the debate as to when the AHF received the “brief report” after the tournament, it clearly could have and should have been more explicit concerning what had happened. Finally, having witnessed such a travesty, Mr. Kozhukhov should have been the one to raise the issue to the IHF and the one seeking a just resolution. Instead it appears that he was a reluctant participant in this controversy.

[b]3) The IHF President, Dr Hassan Moustafa, appears to have circumnavigated the IHF administrative staff and the Playing Rules and Referees Commission (PRC) attempts to appoint the German referee pair via personal conversations with the AHF President, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad of Kuwait.[/b]

According to the AHF, Dr Moustafa told the AHF president that they could select their own officials:

“3.1 The AHF submitted in its brief dated 18 February 2008 that the IHF had never previously sought to appoint referees to AHF organized tournaments. To the contrary, at the AHF’s 16th Ordinary Congress on 18 April 2007 the President of the IHF, Dr. Hassan Moustafa, had given the AHF’s President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad, an ‘express and clear assurance’ that the IHF had no right (or would not be exercising any right) to appoint referees or technical delegates (only supervisors) to the Men’s and Women’s Tournaments and that the Tournaments ‘remained the responsibility’ of the AHF”

Then, the AHF notes that the IHF sent a letter contradicting Dr Moustafa’s personal assurances by stating that the German referees would officiate the Kuwait – Korea match:

“3.3 The AHF further submits that on 20 August 2007, the IHF again requested the names of the referees for the Tournaments, but also announced to the AHF, contrary to Dr Moustafa’s assurances at the 16th Ordinary Congress, that it had ‘concluded’ that two German referees, Messrs. Lemme and Ullrich, would officiate at the opening match between Kuwait and South Korea..”

Then, according to the IHF’s strangely worded response submitted for arbitration, Dr Moustafa withdrew the IHF’s appointment of the German officials:

“4.15 In describing its delegation of organizational authority to the AHF, however, the IHF concedes that, following its ‘nominations and appointments’ of representatives and referees, ‘a huge discussion about the validity of these nominations and appointments’ ensued. IHF submits in its Response:

‘… During these discussions the President of the Respondent (Dr Moustafa) admitted himself that the early appointment of the referees (Mr Lemme and Ulrich for the first match in the men’s tournament) was a step too far. For this reason he withdrew this appointment regarding the first match. For the women’s tournament he also accepted a change of the representatives: Instead of the first nominated Mrs. Nillson he agreed – after a discussion with the President of the First Claimant (Shiekh Ahmad Al-Fahd) – to a delegation with Mr Bader al Theyab.’”

Although, it’s not explicitly stated these “discussions” likely took place on 20 August, after the IHF had requested the referee appointments for the 2nd time. Apparently, these “discussions” also took place without the knowledge of Mr Christer Ahl, the Chair of the PRC. The AHF indicates that he was aware and part of the decision to nominate the Jordanian referees:

“3.4 The AHF responded on the same day, 20 August 2007, to the IHF letter. It apologized for not having previously named the Asian referees and stated that the referees for the tournaments had been “decided” by Mr. Tawakoli, President of the AHF’s PRC and Mr. Ahl, President of the IHF PRC.”

This claim is vehemently denied by Mr. Ahl:

“7.57 …Mr Ahl vehemently refuted the allegation before the Panel that he was told on the telephone by Mr Tawakoli on or about 20 August 2007 that the Jordanians had been nominated to officiate."

In totality, it’s fairly clear that Dr Moustafa engineered the decision to remove any mandate from the IHF to have a neutral and experienced officiating crew for the pivotal Korea – Kuwait match. It’s also pretty clear that he didn’t bother to consult with the IHF’s Playing Rules and Referees Commission on this decision. And finally, it’s pretty hard to come up with any justifiable reason for this course of action.

[b]4) Since there was no overwhelming statistical evidence or video with supporting critical commentary of the Women’s Tournament in Kazakhstan it was difficult to make a solid case that the tournament was unfairly officiated.[/b] From the CAS report:

“7.63 Not only is the analysis of the Women’s Tournament between 25-29 August 2007, similar to the “Conclusions of Analysis” submitted for the Men’s Tournament missing in the submissions of IHF, but the statistical evidence regarding the referee’ calls and the results of the matches themselves do not speak overwhelmingly (as is the case in the Men’s Tournament) for the presence of manipulation and/or bias. If a conscious or unconscious manipulation of the results took place in Almaty, it requires a stretch of the imagination to perceive how this could have taken place when the determination of the qualifying team was based upon only a marginal goal difference.”

[b]5) The IHF’s choice of technical delegate for the Women’s Tournament was of questionable neutrality and weakened their position.[/b]
“7.12 … With regards to the Women’s Tournament, the IHF originally named Ms. Nilsson as supervisor, but for reasons which remain unknown to the Panel, agreed to replace her with Mr Al-Theyab, a member of the IHF Council and also Treasurer of the AHF.”

Not surprisingly Mr Al-Theyab’s report on the tournament didn’t highlight any problems:

“3.8 AHF submits that even the IHF’s own technical delegate, Mr Al-Theyab, provided a written report to the IHF on 2 September 2007 in which he stated that ‘the championship was successful on all levels’, that there ‘were no protests mentioned or presented during the championships’ and that ‘the level of referees was good during the championships’.”

[b]6) Representatives from Japan (Head Coach, Bert Bouwer, Federation Exec Director Semei Gamo and player Hitomi Sakugawa) took the highly unusual step of testifying that their victory against South Korea was tainted. [/b] The arbitration panel, however, did not buy their testimony:

“7.64 The Panel places little credence on the testimonies of the witnesses Bouwers, Gamo and Ms Sakugawa. The Panel finds it difficult to follow (and hold credible) a coordinated line of testimony of all three witnesses which states, on the one hand, yes, we were happy to have won against the Koreans, but, at the same time, sad that the better team, namely the Koreans, lost against us.”

[b]7) In its attempt to address the controversy the IHF failed to follow basic principles of due process.[/b] As detailed in the CAS report the IHF failed to properly notify the AHF that the IHF Council meeting held in December 2007 would discuss the AHF tournaments and potentially decide to rule on whether they were valid or not. And even if the AHF had shown up, they really wouldn’t have had the opportunity to make their case, even if it was a weak one. As the CAS report summed up:

“7.26 …The Council, not incorrectly, perceived its responsibility similar to that of a court. It sought to provide a forum for an open discussion and evaluation of the charges raised over the previous weeks to be followed by an appropriate decision and the resolution of appropriate measures to redress the grievance and “protect the image of the sport”. However, the Council overlooked the fact that that, just as in any court of law, when sanctions are to be imposed, rules of procedure must be observed and fundamental principles of natural justice must be applied. [b]In this regards, the IHF Council failed and failed badly[/b].”

[b]8) Two key IHF players in this controversy, The President, Dr Moustafa and Executive Committee Member Mr Kozhukov were no shows at the arbitration hearing: [/b]

“5.6 The witnesses Mr. Kozhukhov and Dr. Moustafa, although named as witness by the IHF, did not appear at the hearing and no testimony was offered.”

Clearly, candid testimony from these two individuals would have cleared up a lot of conflicting information contained in the arbitration report. What else could possibly have been more important than for these two IHF leaders to represent the IHF at this hearing? A cynical observer might be inclined to conclude that Dr. Moustafa and Mr. Kozhukhov probably assessed that some pointed questions from a neutral court wouldn’t be a very pleasant experience and decided to stay away.

[b]9) Contrary to statements on the IHF website, the IOC’s potential involvement was a major concern (at least to some members of the IHF Council anyway):[/b]

“4.26 … The IHF Response describes the meeting as follow:…’After watching the video some members called it the most scandalous situation that they have ever seen, some even said it was obvious the referees were obsessed with finding ways of destroying the Korean team… But most of the Council members stressed that this matter was not between KOR and KUW on the men’s side, nor between IHF and Asia, but that it was a matter of the reputation and the credibility of the handball sport around the world, especially also of the credibility towards the IOC."

[b]Closing Commentary: [/b] In the end it appears that justice was for the most part served. Both the South Korean Men and Women will be at the Olympics this summer. They were the best teams and in a fair competition they would have both won their respective tournaments 19 times out of 20. The Kazakh women will also be in Beijing and their participation is probably not warranted. By “winning” the outright Asia bid, they forced the Korean women to win a spot via an Olympic Qualification Tournament. And if the Korean women hadn’t participated it’s a safe bet that a European team (perhaps Spain) would have earned that spot.

Aside from the teams and the players, the IHF and AHF leadership have been exposed as ineffective at best, corrupt at worst. It‘s hard to fully assess the overall damage that this has done to Handball. One can hope that a well run and compelling Olympic tournament will make this tawdry escapade fade into memory.

But let’s hope that this event doesn’t fade entirely from everyone’s memory. In 2009, the IHF will have an election for new Board Representation.

Video of Korean News Report (w/ English Subtitles): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-908556008345758262
Earlier Team Handball News Story: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.422

The past week has seen the Men’s and Women’s Draws for the Olympic Games and Beijing as well as the Draw for the 2009 Men’s World Championships in Croatia. Here’s my analysis of the Women’s draw. In upcoming days I’ll take a look a the Men, both for the Olympics and the World Championships.

The 12 teams were drawn into 2 groups of 6 teams. Odds to win the Gold Medal are in parentheses and are from canbet.com

[b]Group A[/b]
Norway (2.5 to 1)
Romania (4.5 to 1)
France (40 to 1)
China (200 to 1)
Angola (100 to 1)
Kazakhstan (1000 to 1)

[b]Group B[/b]
Russia (1.25 to 1)
Germany (15 to 1)
Hungary (10 to 1)
South Korea (16 to 1)
Sweden (100 to 1)
Brazil (250 to 1)

The format for competition is Group round robin, followed by knockout quarter finals, semifinals and final. With the top 4 teams qualifying from each group this means that 8 teams will make the “playoffs” while only 4 teams will be relegated to playing for 9th place. With the knockout format, its important to note that a 5-0 record in group play doesn’t mean a thing if that 2-3 record 4th seed from the other Group beats you in the knockout quarterfinal.

[b]Group A: [/b] Looking strictly at the odds (and I agree with them except the odds for Angola, which should be much lower) this Group looks pretty straight forward in that Norway, Romania, France and Angola are very likely to advance. Kazakhstan, which qualified under dubious circumstances stands no chance and host China has not impressed in recent competition. At home, however, they will have a long shot chance to surprise France and maybe Angola. Norway and Romania should battle it out for 1st, while France and Angola will battle for 3rd. Because of the strength of Group B, however, it probably won’t make much difference to the teams as to whether they finish 1st, 2nd or 3rd. 4th place, however, is a different story as that team, in all likelihood will face the daunting prospect of beating Russia in the quarterfinals.

Predicted order of finish: 1) Norway, 2) Romania, 3) Angola, 4) France, 5) China, 6) Kazakhstan

[b]Group B: [/b] This Group will be more competitive with all 6 teams having realistic chances to advance in my opinion. I agree that the four favorites are Russia, Germany, Hungary and South Korea, but it’s well within possibility for Sweden or Brazil to beat any team in Group B, excepting Russia. The 250-1 odds for Brazil, in particular, are way out of whack.

Predicted order of finish 1) Russia, 2) Hungary, 3) South Korea, 4) Germany, 5) Brazil, 6) Sweden

As far as who will win, I'll timidly predict a repeat of the Women’s World Championships with Russia beating Norway for the title, again. In terms of a surprise team, I’ll go with Angola making it to the semifinals. They showed that they could play and beat European teams in Germany. There’s no reason to not think they can do even better against the European sides this time around, who will not have the advantage of playing just a few hours from home.

Here are some highlights from the recent summit meeting in St Louis from my perspective. As my notes aren’t official and will contain some commentary they should not be considered the official word. The new USA Team Handball Federation has indicated that they will be publishing official minutes of the meeting.

[b]Ground Rules and Expectations: [/b] Dieter Esch highlighted that there would be no major Board decisions at the meeting and that the focus would be for everyone to have a clear cut understanding of the Federation’s goals going forward. Past events would be discussed only in the context of learning for the future.

[b]US Team Handball Mission Statement:[/b] It was agreed that a good, clear cut mission statement was needed. A mission statement which emphasized development of the sport, but also included a reference to winning medals in International competition was discussed. The text of the proposed mission statement should be in the minutes.

Realistic long term goals for USA Handball were discussed. Qualifying for the 2012 Olympics was viewed as an unlikely prospect and qualifying (if Chicago is not selected to host) for 2016 was viewed as challenging, but feasible. Teams would also be competitive, but long shots to medal. It was also assessed that it would likely be easier for a Women’s team to be competitive.

[b]New Federation Organization and Structure: [/b]

[b]National Board:[/b] The board will consist of 9 members. 7 board members of the board will have business backgrounds and will contribute $50,000 to the Federation. 5 of those 7 board members have been identified (3 were in attendance, Dieter Esch, Brad Krassner and William O’Brien). The remaining 2 board members will be athletes.

[b]National Staff:[/b] At different points in the meeting National Staff positions were discussed. Steve Pastorino, who has 16 years of sports management experience with minor league baseball and the Major Soccer League (MLS) has already been hired as the General Manager. Other positions that were mentioned were a deputy position focused on working with the Regional Directors/Coaches(technical directors), a Women’s National Team Manager and a Men’s National Team Manager.

[b]Regional Boards:[/b] There will be 5 regional boards and they will be charged with the developing the sport in their region. These boards will have 7 members. 2 members will have business backgrounds and will contribute $30,000 each. The other 5 members will have handball experience.

[b]Regional Staffs:[/b] Each region will also have two full time staff members, a regional director and a coach/technical director. Several potential candidates were identified and the Federation committed to advertise openly for these positions.

[b]Comment: [/b]I’m a little skeptical about the regional boards/staffs as handball is not very well developed in these regions and the hired personnel will have to spend a considerable amount of time traveling in order to promote the sport and do their job right. With these salaries and travel costs, I’m skeptical that the income will match the expenses to fully sustain 5 regional boards. Just my opinion and I will certainly be happy if I’m proven wrong.

[b]Clubs:[/b] The attendees discussed the desired structure for clubs in the USA. It was noted that clubs should have an organizational structure, 501 (c) status, a certified coach, paid up dues. Additionally, to be recognized by the Federation the club would be required to play in 2 sanctioned events each year. Finally it was desired that the clubs field both Men’s and Women’s team as well as junior and youth teams.

There was also substantial discussion on whether there should be both club and individual dues. In principle, it was agreed that all club members should also pay individual dues.

[b]Grassroots development: [/b] The main focal point for grassroots development in the regions will be each region’s coach/technical director. It was agreed that more referee training was also needed and that any USA refs that were IHF certified would be expected to support referee development on the local level.

[b]National Teams[/b]

Mr Esch noted that the current state of the USA national teams was somewhat fragmented and can‘t be fixed overnight. The new Federation will consider the establishment of National Team Center, similar to the program that was at Cortland, NY and the Atlanta DITC. The current Federation funding priorities, however, would require potential training sites to contribute substantial funding. It was noted that Delaware has expressed interest and that Penn St was also a possibility. Dennis Berkholtz suggested that Chicago as an Olympic bid city should also be considered

[b]Women’s National Team: [/b] In the near term the USA Women are eligible to compete in the PATHF Div 1 Championship, 25-29 November in Monterrey, Mexico. The top two teams from this event will then qualify for the Women’s PATHF Championship in Spring 2009. The top 3 from the PATHF Championship will then qualify for the 2011 World Championships. Mr Esch indicated that the NGB did not plan to fund participation for the upcoming tournament in Mexico, but that he would support self funding if the players were able to organize a team for participation.

[b]Men’s National Team:[/b] The next scheduled qualifying event for the Men will be the Div 1 Championship in November 2009. If the Men place 1st or 2nd they would then qualify for the PATHF Championship in Summer 2010, which in turn will serve as qualification for the World Championships in 2011. As there are 16 months to prepare for the Division 1 championship, the Federation tentatively plans to participate and will also consider bidding to host the tournament in the USA.

[b]Commentary: [/b]It's never easy to make decisions which weigh spending money now on National Teams vs spending on development, especially when you consider the players that get short changed. I don't much like the fact that the USA is not competing next week in Brazil and that the Women won't be fully funded for Mexico later this year. I also understand, however, that this is a situation that the new Federation has inherited. And I take comfort with the statement that Mr Esch made concerning that in the future the Federation will have no one to point the finger to, but ourselves.

[b]USA Team Handball Foundation: [/b] Foundation Board Member, Mark Noble, briefed the status of the USA Team Handball Foundation. The Foundation is an independent organization totally separate from the Handball Federation and was established from profits made during the 1984 Olympic Games. Depending on yearly income the Foundation has between $0 and $35,000 that it can award in grants. In the past requests have been funneled through the Federation. Board Members include Rick Hurst (Chair), Cathy Dean, Rod Oshita, Tom Fitzgerald and Mark Noble.

[b]Commentary: [/b] I made the point that while I personally know most of the members on the Foundation Board and trust that they are fairly awarding the funding, more transparency would help avoid any misperceptions that others might have. I’ve offered to help set up a very simple website that explains what the Foundation’s mission is and how individuals can apply for grants.

[b]Marketing, Promotion, Fundraising and Communication: [/b] It was agreed that the Federation should get their website up and running as soon as possible. Substantial discussion also took place regarding the importance of getting Handball matches on TV. Mr. Esch indicated that the Federation would take an active role in trying to make handball on TV a reality in the USA. Dawn Lewis, who will be providing commentary for NBC during the Olympics provided a top level overview of NBC’s broadcasting plans. The total number of games that will be televised has not been finalized, but Handball fans should be pleased with the expanded offerings that will likely be provided.

[b]Professional Handball:[/b] Dennis Berkholtz gave a top level overview of the planned Professional League he is trying to establish in the USA. More details will be provided at a later date.

[b]Commentary:[/b] I have been pretty skeptical about whether the USA is ready for a Professional League: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.368 After hearing more detail from Dennis at the meeting, however, I’ve turned down my skepticism a notch or two. There’s still a lot of hurdles for sure, but as constructed this league just might be doable.

[b]USA – Pan American Team Handball Federation (PATHF) Relations:[/b] Dennis Berkholtz, VP North America for the PATHF, brief the status of the USA’s relations with the PATHF and indicated that after 8 years he would like to see someone else take his role. Mr. Esch indicated that he will represent the USA at the next meeting. Steve Pastorino, who is fluent in Spanish, will also attend and act as translator.

[b]Interaction with USOC:[/b] It was noted that the new Federation has established a good working relationship with the USOC and had met with them recently for two full days in Colorado Springs. Additionally, the USOC was represented at the meeting by Steve Powderly, who works for Jay Warwick.

[b]Leagues and Competition: [/b] The need to eventually move to a National Championship Tournament with fewer teams and fewer games was discussed. It was agreed that implementing such a tournament for Spring 2009 might be too soon. Tentatively an open championship, similar to previous Championships is planned for the April/May timeframe. The results of this tournament might be used to establish participants for regional competition for the 2009-10 season and to establish regional seeding and wild card seeds for an 8 team National Championship in Spring 2010.

[b]Commentary: [/b] I’ve been a big advocate for revamping the weekend tournament structure the USA has been using for many years.
http://teamhandball.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_archive.html
http://teamhandball.blogspot.com/search?q=%22a+new+format%22 Additionally, one of the few bright spots of the previous administration was the competition rule book that proposes a similar concept.

[b]Final Thoughts:[/b] Mr. Esch thanked everyone for attending and asked that they spread the good word that USA Team Handball was back.

[b]Commentary: [/b] There weren’t a whole lot of decisions made at the meeting, but that wasn’t the point of the meeting. There was, however, a lot of constructive dialogue and I think that just about everyone there walked away with a sense of purpose to move this sport forward in the USA. Additionally, those new to Handball in attendance got a fire hose education on many aspects of the sport‘s needs in the USA and I think that will serve the new Board well. If they didn’t know it before, they know now that it won’t be easy to move handball from an obscure sport to a well recognized sport with quality National Teams and it certainly won’t be done overnight. On the flip side, while others (myself included) might be a little skeptical of the newcomers, I’m clearly impressed with their commitment (financial and time wise) to a sport that they’ve only been recently introduced to. Time will tell if the new Federation will find success where others have failed, but this observer is optimistic.

Well, it was back at the 1993 World Championships when I had my first opportunity to see Kyung-Shin Yoon play. And it was an up close and personal opportunity as Team USA battled South Korea for 15th place and an opportunity to avoid the “wooden spoon” (i.e. last place). We did our part to keep the USA’s unblemished record of World Championship futility alive, losing 35-28. After the match, I remember telling my teammates, “That young guy Yoon’s quite a player. You know wouldn’t surprise me a bit if he gets a contract from some Bundesliga club soon. Heck, I’ll go further; barring injury by the time he’s done playing he’ll be the all time scoring leader in Bundesliga history.”

In truth, I don’t remember much of anything from that match other than the annoying little sing song chant the Koreans did on defense after they had scored a goal. But I do remember, thinking, “hey that guy’s pretty tall for a Korean” and surely that was the 19 year old Yoon on his way to future stardom.

And quite a career it has been. In 12 seasons starting with Vfl Gummersbach in 1995 and ending with HSV Hamburg this past Saturday he found the back of the net a record 2,908 times. In 7 of those 12 seasons he also led the league in scoring, including a single season scoring record of 324 in the 2000-2001 campaign. What is even more remarkable is that with his nearly 8 goals/game average he has accomplished this in far fewer matches then most of the other players on the top 10 all time scoring list. Sure, he’s benefited from the fast style of play introduced by Gummersbach and now favored by many teams in the HBL, but he’s also benefited from remarkable consistency and a career that has been relatively injury free.

What’s surprising and somewhat disappointing to me, however, is the lack of celebration or acclaim that surrounds the departure of a player with such a record. Handball is above all else a team sport, but holding the career scoring record in the World’s best professional league is arguably the greatest individual record a handball player can have. Those of us who are old timers remember the retirement of the NBA’s Yoon equivalent, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCJ/is_4_31/ai_113183440
In poor Kareem’s case his departure was woefully overdone, as for an entire season he and his team were subjected to a pre-game ceremony of retirement gifts from every city in the NBA. The outpouring of recognition was surprising giving Kareem’s stoic and less than animated personality. Still even the most casual fan recognized the significance of the all time scoring leader retiring.

But in Yoon’s case the exact opposite is occurring. The fans at Hamburg did give him a standing ovation as he walked off the court last Saturday, but there were no celebrations a la Jackson Richardson or a special retirement match a la Stefan Kretschmar . I guess in the marketing world tattoos or dreadlocks are often seen as prerequisites. A little flash is needed along with the skill if you’re going to get promoted as a star.

Interestingly enough, in addition to playing handball 3 more years in Korea, the 34 year old Yoon intends to study sports marketing. Here are some questions he might want to consider for a research project:
– What country is 4th worldwide in internet broadband penetration with 29.9% of all households having a broadband connection? ANS: South Korea http://www.oecd.org/document/60/0,3343,en_2649_34223_39574076_1_1_1_1,00.html
– Who is arguably the most accomplished Korean professional athlete ever in his particular chosen sport? ANS: Kyung-Shin Yoon; Handball
– What Handball league has the best overall content for web TV which works best with broadband? ANS: The HBL

So it doesn’t take a marketing genius to see that maybe, just maybe, a unique opportunity to promote handball in Korea was lost. Maybe there is a Korean language HBL page which promoted Hamburg games and it’s Korean star, but I get the sense that Yoon’s notoriety in his native country is minimal. As I’ve mentioned before if you want to grow a sport in a country one of the best ways do it, is by promoting the native son who’s done well abroad. It’s not too difficult to spot the Parker jerseys in France, the Nowitzki jerseys in Germany and the Yao jerseys in China. Perhaps it’s too late for the Yoon HSV Hamburg jerseys in Seoul, but let’s hope that next time around an opportunity like this presents itself the handball world pounces on it.

Kyung-Shin Yoon HBL Player Profile: http://www.toyota-handball-bundesliga.de/handball/spieler.php?menuid=62&topmenu=41&saison=08&vid=1710101107&nr=20

Kyung-Shin Yoon Wikipedia Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoon_Kyung-shin

Kyung-Shin Yoon Career Statistics
Season Total Goals/7 M Goals
95/96 39
96/97 209/41
97/98 207/53
98/99 228/27
99/00 256/26
00/01 324/76
01/02 263/59
02/03 273/40
03/04 261/85
04/05 221/63
05/06 200/17
06/07 236/88
07/08 188/78

HBL Career Scoring Leaders: http://www.toyota-handball-bundesliga.de/staticsite/staticsite.php?menuid=77&topmenu=61&keepmenu=inactive
HBL Season Scoring Titles: http://www.toyota-handball-bundesliga.de/staticsite/staticsite.php?menuid=81&topmenu=61&keepmenu=inactive

Jackson Richardson, the iconic star of French Handball played his final game as a professional this past weekend. This website has some video related to this last match: http://handballdream.blogspot.com/2008/05/take-care-jackson.html

Richardson's entry suspended from the rafters was a little strange, in my opinion, but I thought that all the players entering in dreadlocks was a nice and comical tribute.

When ever anyone asks me where is Handball popular in the world, I rattle off several countries in Europe, and I'll usually mention that in Iceland it's their number 1 sport. Based on this article in the Iceland Review http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=16539&ew_0_a_id=305455 , however, my standard litany is going to need updating. Yes, shockingly basketball has now clearly outstipped handball in popularity in Iceland.

You'll see a lot of articles on the IHF and EHF websites heralding the ever increasing popularity of the sport, but they often mask the big challenges the sport faces against the baskeball juggernaut of the NBA. The reality is that Handball is in danger of further marginalization if the sport's leaders don't start to get a little more creative with the marketing and promotion of the sport. That's not to say that nothing's being done. Efforts like the EHF's free web broadcasts of the Champions League and the LNH's trip to Miami are to be commended. Much more, however, is needed to turn the tide if they are going to convince Icelandic kids to quit shooting hoops.

Although one could argue that this is actually good news for developing countries like the USA and Great Britain. If countries like Iceland have a shrinking talent pool, then they logically aren't going to be as good anymore and the gap between the haves and have should lessen.

[html] If you're not going to be able to watch the Champions League Final between Ciudad Real and Kiel live, you should be able to watch it "on demand" at this link:  http://www.ehfcl.com/2007-08/videos

This link will allow you to acess the match with less likelihood of seeing information about the final outcome that might spoil the game for you.  For a couple of days the EHF doesn't even post the score of the match.  But just in case have a sheet of paper handy to block out the score.

Finally, don't forget that in the home and away two game format there is no such thing as "garbage time" in the first game as every goal counts towards the final aggregate.
[/html]

[html] When I received an email from a French reader last week informing me that the French Professional League (LNH) Coupe de la Ligue Semifinals and Finals we’re coming to Miami next year, my first reaction was that perhaps somebody was aiming at payback for my April Fools Article  https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.480 . I even looked at the web addresses carefully in the links that were sent to me just to make sure that it wasn’t an elaborate web phishing trick.

Needless to say I’m excited about this happening. It’s not very often that one can make a bold statement like, “Out of 300,000,000 Americans, I’m the most devoted fan of the LNH,” with a high degree of confidence. Maybe there is somebody hiding in Butte, Montana with a lifetime subscription to HandAction magazine who has every match taped and Fedexed to him, but I doubt it. While living 5 years in France I didn’t go to as many games in person as I would have liked to, but I rarely missed an airing on TV. And even though I’ve been back in the States a year, I still follow the league as best as I can now. Really, I can’t wait to cheer against my favorite team http://teamhandball.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_archive.html in Miami.

Without question this is a big opportunity for USA Handball and Christian Zaharia and the LNH should be commended for their exemplary vision and willingness to take on this challenge. Hopefully, this match will further energize handball development in Miami and on the US East Coast. At the same time, maybe the LNH’s lead will entice the German HBL, Spanish Liga ASOBAl, and the EHF to take notice and pursue the 300,000,000 strong US market more aggressively, whether it be with similar matches on USA soil or a good TV contract.

The challenge of finding a European handball entity to take a chance on America has been met and that all by itself is a great accomplishment. But the even greater challenge will now be turning this opportunity into an unqualified success. Success will be measured in a lot of ways, but the most visually evident one will be the number of people in their seats. And while there was a lot of optimism expressed at the press conference regarding filling a 20,000 seat arena for two consecutive days of Handball in Miami, I have my doubts.

When the same event was played in Paris 2 years ago, I attended the final match, a captivating overtime game between Paris and Montpellier. Played at Paris Handball’s arena, the Stade de Coubertin, however, only about half of the 4,800 seats were filled. If they had played at Paris Bercy, the closest thing that all of France has to an NBA style arena, it would have been a cavernous emptiness. And I’ve been to games where the French National Team has played at Bercy and while there was a good crowd, there never was a sellout of all 15,000 seats. So if you can’t get a huge crowd in France, logic dictates it will be an even bigger challenge in Miami, where there is a much smaller fan base. A more realistic goal will be to fill the lower sections. Still a challenge, but potentially doable with an aggressive advertising campaign and an assist from the new USA Handball Federation.

And how could the new Federation help? Well, 11-12 April 2009 does coincide with the traditional timing for the USA National Championships. Miami has never hosted a Championship, so it would be logical for it to do so next year. The Federation would also do well, to coordinate the timing of the matches as to not conflict with the LNH games. As I think 2 matches are envisioned for both days, this would probably mean scheduling Nationals over 4 days (Thursday-Sunday) as opposed to the traditional 3 days (Friday-Sunday). Additionally, the Federation could look into playing some matches like the USA Club Championship Finale as warm up matches at the Miami Arena itself. Finally, the Collegiate Nationals have been held in a separate location in recent years. Next year that Championship too should be played in Miami.

If the National Tournaments are in Miami that would immediately add around 500 fans ( maybe more/maybe less). Not placing Nationals in Miami, however, could mean that those same 500 fans would not be there. As clubs plan their trips you could have a situation where a handball fan/player is forced to make a budgetary choice between flying to Nationals (location TBD) or Miami.

Perhaps it’s a little too soon to specify exactly what steps the new Federation should take. It’s a given, however, that they should engage proactively with the Miami organizers.  It’s also a given that any American who calls himself a Handball fan should find their way to Miami next April. I’ll be there in the front row. You won’t be able to miss me wearing my Mladen Bojinovich autographed jersey. [/html]

The EHF Champions League website recently published an interview http://www.ehfcl.com/men/2007-08/article/11388/Interwetten:+passionate+support+for+the+CL on their website with the CEO of one of their advertising partners. What’s notable, is that the marketing partner is an internet gambling company, Interwetten www.interwetten.com

Here’s my favorite exchange from the short interview:

“Eurohandball.com: You have seen an exciting game in Kiel, probably also exciting for those betting on it.

Thomas Daubek: It’s a men’s world: a fair, fast, technically very high level game, maybe the best match I have ever seen. I’m happy that I had a chance to watch it.

When the atmosphere gets through on TV to the people watching from their homes, they are ready to place their bets on it. This is an important circle: when the sports are high quality, there are many people betting on it. When many bet on it, there will be a financial basis to reinvest into it from our side, which we are willing to do. “

As an American it’s laughable to even conceptualize the NBA or the NFL having such a sponsor and posting an interview exchange like that on their official website. The major professional leagues are so frightened of gambling that they barely will even acknowledge the huge impact that betting has had on sport popularity. Of course, this fear is legitimate as scandals like the Black Sox in 1918 on college basketball in the 1950’s were devastating to those sports popularity.

The big news last year was that the NBA played the All-Star game in Vegas as a trial balloon to see if Vegas might be ready for an NBA franchise. Of course, the condition for a franchise is reportedly that Vegas will have to agree not to book NBA games. Contrast that to the CEO’s comments.

I’ll have to say, however, that I’ve evolved since I first wrote on this topic: http://teamhandball.blogspot.com/2005/12/ihf-marketing-policy-on-gambling-open.html Maybe, if you see enough games with advertisements in plain view your American puritan blood is thinned.

Maybe it is better to actually fully embrace gambling rather than ignore it entirely. Heck, if they want to help fund the sport, why not? The only caveat I would have, however, is that there need to be some very clear rules and penalties for players, coaches and officials regarding their involvement with gambling. I would think life time banishment would be the minimum penalty. It would be interesting to know whether such rules exist in the IHF, EHF and National Regulations. As the recent Asian Championship match between Kuwait and Iran shows the possibility for match manipulation is very real.

Hopefully, such a betting scandal never occurs, but it wouldn’t hurt to be ready to respond forcefully when it does. Or even better, make clear to everyone right now that the penalties are so severe that they outweigh any potential gains.