[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.

Well there’s nothing like people losing money to stir up strong emotions. If you’ve been following the controversy related to the ISAE and Bern Wulffen you’ll see that it’s received a lot of interest from our readers. And, unfortunately some of those readers have gotten a little bit too personal in their comments or have decided to use our site for their own agendas. As I’ve got a full time job and don’t have the time and/or inclination to monitor comments regularly something has got to give.

So here’s the deal. I’m turning off the comments on news articles that I think could result in a lot of commentary that might need policing. Readers wishing to rant, however, still have a couple of options:

1) Start your own handball website or blog
2) Post in the forum section on Team Handball News. (Link is at the top of the page)

The 1st option will allow you to spout off without monitoring. The 2nd option will be monitored, but, as far as I’m concerned, readers will have more leeway as to what they write there. Just keep it relatively clean.

As for the comments that were posted, I’ve moved them to the forum. Feel free to continue the discussion there.

President Bush made a short stop in Croatia on his recent European trip and had the chance to meet and chat with Croatian Handball Coach, Lino Cervar during a state dinner. Cervar, who was until recently also a member of the Croatian Parliament, said that the dinner was a thrill and the Bush wished him luck in Beijing this summer.

Article on Bush meeting Cervar: http://www.javno.com/en/sports/clanak.php?id=137951

What was not said in the article, is that upon learning that Coach Cervar was coach of the Olympic Handball Team, President Bush in all likelihood immediately thought of the 4 wall handball sport played in the USA. He probably was even surprised to learn that it was an Olympic sport and I’ll further speculate that he thought to himself, “Handball in the Olympics? Squash is more deserving than handball.” It’s a good thing he didn’t get into a discussion on how do you get 7 guys on a handball court.

Of course, I could be wrong. President Bush, might have made small talking about the Champions League matches coming up and whether Ivano Balic would play for Zagreb next year. I doubt it though. I would guess that there’s probably about a 5% chance that Bush is aware that there are two handball games. He does know his American sports, but having done little travel outside the US it’s unlikely he’s ever seen a match. And this is not Republican bashing, I would give Obama about a 5% chance as well. As an avid sports fan, it’s possible on a trip to Europe he might have stumbled on the sport while channel surfing at a hotel. As far as Hilary Clinton goes, the odds are less than 1 in a 100 that she is familiar with the sport. My guess is that the most prominent politician in the USA that is familiar with the sport is California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who surely was exposed to the sport while growing up in Austria.

But while American politicians are clueless about Handball, that’s to be expected. The all time handball political faux pas has to go former French President Jacques Chirac. In 1995 the President honored the French National Team for the World Championship title they had won in Iceland. Introduced to France's iconic star with an American sounding name, Jackson Richardson, a very confused President Chirac replied, “Welcome to France” in [i][b]English[/b][/i].

Handball in America FAQ: https://teamhandballnews.com/page20.html

Well, I got several emails from readers who didn’t realize that my recent post on the IHF, EHF and National Handball Leagues forming a TV partnership was an April Fools Day joke. My apologies to those that thought it was a real news item, logged on to handball.tv and pulled out their credit cards. This isn’t our first April Fool’s article as last year we had Stefan Kretzschmar joining David Beckham in LA. https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.291

I guess the good news is that the possibility of such a partnership forming to bring Handball to more TV and computer screens world-wide no longer seems so outrageous. Certainly the technology is there, even if the willpower and audience isn’t there yet. Things are, in fact, trending in the right direction. Recently, handball fans had the opportunity to watch the IHF sponsored Women’s Olympic Qualification matches for free via web streaming. The EHF has been making Champions League matches available on their website as well with 2 more free matches scheduled for Sunday. And if you want to shell out a few dollars or Euros, you can also watch German Bundesliga matches with near TV picture quality. Just last night I watched Hamburg and Kiel in the German Cup Final. It was a great game and the viewer experience, thanks to the higher bit rate is much better than the IHF and EHF offerings. And while I’m looking forward to seeing those same 2 teams take on Ciudad Real and Barcelona on Sunday, I can’t help but think about how awesome it would be if I could watch those matches at the HBL.TV bit rate. Add good English language commentary and on demand (watch any time) to the package and I would have no problem paying for that. And I don’t think that I’d be alone.

If the IHF, EHF, and the National Leagues were to set aside their differences and combine forces for one web TV package they surely would save money by pooling their resources. On top of that they would better realize the inherent synergy and cross marketing opportunities which might not seem so obvious. Case in point, are the National Team competitions which seem at odds with the club system. While the National Team competitions do disrupt the club schedule and add to player fatigue they also provide a bigger stage and undoubtedly draw in viewers not familiar with the club leagues. Some of these new viewers could then be easily steered into watching the club matches, especially if those matches were to be hosted on the same platform.

Of course, each of these entities can continue to develop their products in an uncoordinated fashion. But, if handball ever wants to be more than a niche sport, a coordinated effort is probably needed to make real inroads into new markets. Such a combined effort might even have a chance in getting Handball on a traditional TV outlet in the United States and other countries. It won’t be easy. Heck, if it was easy it would have happened years ago. Getting a toehold in the US market will cost money upfront, but sharing that investment cost together might make it more palatable. And the long term gain could be enormous. Alternatively, the Handball World can sit idly by while the NBA gets their own network on TV in Europe and China. And other sports like Rugby, Baseball and American Football also make inroads into new markets. Did you know for instance that the NBA has a staff of 50 working full time in China promoting basketball there. Do the IHF, EHF, HBL and Liga Asobal have even one employee doing the same for Handball on a part time basis?

I don’t want, however, to sit by and just complain. That’s why we’ll soon be adding a new page to our site devoted to getting Handball on TV in the USA and other non-traditional markets. The new page will keep viewers up to date on offerings in their market and will contain information on networks and delivery platforms that might carry Handball matches in the future. The goal will be to organize and mobilize Handball fans to support and encourage any TV network that is considering the possibility of broadcasting matches. While it might seem we are a bunch of Don Quixote’s chasing windmills I’ll point out that a similar organization, the Australian Football Association of North America (AFANA) www.afana.com was instrumental in getting that even lower profile sport on TV in the USA. Yes, I do see a Quixote in my future, but it’s an arena in Ciudad Real and I’m watching a match there on a High Def TV.

Here are a few scores for you to consider:

2006 England – Faroe Islands 8 -54
2008 Great Britain – Faroe Islands 19-6

March 28, 2008 Japan – Romania 21 – 44
March 29, 2008 Japan – Poland 29-27

One of the most appealing aspects about sports is that it’s one of the few things in life where there is no real question or argument about where you stand. All you have to do is look at the scoreboard. It doesn’t usually lie and there’s no escaping that fact. That’s one of the reasons there are so many coaches that are fired and so many players that lose their contract. If you want to know where your nation stands in the Handball World all you have to do is look at how many times you win or lose. And further you can look at the final score and see how far you are behind.

That’s why these scores tell a pretty significant story.

First, look at the England/Great Britain vs. Faroe Island scores. Two years ago England got waxed by 46 goals. Now with a new focused program Great Britain has erased the memory of that defeat with a 3 goal victory. Sure, those aren’t exactly the same teams and the Faroe Islands are not a world power, but anytime you can turn things around 49 goals, you are making progress.

The Japanese result is also significant for a couple of reasons. First off, Japan showed tremendous resilience in their ability to shake off a 23 goal defeat against Romania one day and then score a victory over Poland the next day. Also, from a precursory check of the IHF database it look like it is the first ever victory for a Japanese side against a European team in a major competition.

But, while these sides have made progress, there’s still a long way to go. Great Britain lost their semifinal game against Finland and 3rd place game against Bosnia, meaning that they are a middle of the pack team in Europe’s lowest tier. Japan lost their final match against Hungary by 10 goals.

As is often the case, it’s 2 steps forward 1 step back. For Great Britain the next step will be to win the Challenge Cup the next go round and to play some competitive matches against the next tier of teams in Europe. For Japan, the next step would be to advance to the Main Round at a World

British Handball Article: Championship.http://britishhandball.worldhandball.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?menuid=1093&itemid=1948

I’ve uploaded onto Youtube.com video of the last 5:20 of the controversial group play match between Kuwait and Iran. With 6 minutes remaining Kuwait led Iran 31-25. Iran, however, outscored Kuwait 10-3 to eke out a 1 goal victory. This victory resulted in a three way tie for first place between Iran, Kuwait and Bahrain. The one goal victory for Iran was the only possible outcome that would result in Kuwait finishing first in the group and Iran finishing second. Bahrain protested the result and claims that Kuwait purposely lost the match as payback for Bahrain speaking out earlier against the Asian Handball Federation on the Olympic Handball Qualification controversy.

My personal opinion is that some members of the Kuwaiti team, in particular their goalie, did not play their hardest on defense and made it very easy for Iran to score quickly and often. Proving this, however, is not possible. It can always be claimed that the players are simply having a bad day.

This is not the first time that goal differential manipulations have appeared to occur in a competition. Both Handball and Soccer have many examples where it might have occurred. It’s also a safe bet it won’t be the last. What teams should remember when they decide to play this card is that “what goes around, comes around.”

Youtube video (with commentary): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c2wG9HA7_Y

[html] Recently our site got a couple of extensive post in the comments section from a couple of former USA Handball Presidents. While the commentaries were interesting they were, in my opinion, too long and not related to the story. This isn’t the first time our comments section has degenerated into long and involved discussion that‘s somewhat misplaced. While we don’t want to stifle debate, we would like, however, for the news section to remain a news section.

To solve this quandary we’ve added a forum to the website. The link is there at the top of the page and the forum will be the venue for protracted discussion and debate. When you want to vent on a particular topic and/or debate handball issues this is your venue. This doesn’t mean that you can’t comment on a particular article, but let’s try and keep the comments short and germane to the article. A great example of how the article comment section should be used is Yaz’s tip on registering for the EHF video streaming.

And of course another benefit of the forum is that you can pick the topic, within reason. All that we ask is that you keep it civil. We hope this plan makes sense and we hope that members take advantage of the forum to air their views and share information. [/html]

It never ceases to amaze me the varied options that have been provided for watching handball video over the web in the past couple of years. You never know what you’re going to get and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the pricing strategies being employed.

Case in point is the dramatically different prices offered recently for two products from the same parent entity, the EHF. For the Men’s European Handball Championships in January a variety of packages were offered with a complete pass topping out at 29.99 Euros or $43 with the current lackluster value of the US Dollar of late. For $43 customers were subjected to shoddy customer service, appallingly poor English commentary, complete drop outs of video, and misleading pronouncements that you could watch any game on demand any time you want. And that’s just some of the problems, I put together in a 4 page missive that I wrote to the EHF asking for restitution for handball fans everywhere.

And then one week later the EHF provides Champions League matches for free. Maybe the dramatic price drop was the EHF’s way of saying sorry, but whatever the rationale, I can’t complain this time around. The bit rate is about 600 kbs which gives a similar quality to that which was seen with the European Handball Championships. Sure, I’d like the great picture that the HBL provides with 1,500 kbs and it would be nice if there was good English Language commentary, but I’ll take arena sounds over the commentary provided in Norway any time. And video on demand, that would allow me to watch the game at my leisure instead of Saturday morning would be great too. All those things would be nice, but when the price is nothing, I’m not going to complain.

Some might argue that the European Championships is a dramatically more important event and provides viewers better handball. While National team competition is compelling, particularly for the nations involved, I would argue that the Champions League is actually a better product for a number of reasons. With a few exceptions all of the World’s top players are still playing and instead of playing together as an all-star team with a couple of weeks of practice prior to the tournament they are practicing with their clubs all season. On top of that the competition is over several weeks instead of compressed into a two week tournament that doesn’t allow for sufficient rest.

So overall, I would argue that we have a bizarre situation where the free product is better then the $43 product. The EHF is offering 3 more free games this weekend. Let’s hope that this good deal continues.

[html] Well, maybe the EHF is trying to make up for their less than spectacular Euro 2008 web streaming, but whatever the reason I’ll be looking forward to seeing my “favorite” team, Montpellier in action this Saturday against German side Gummersbach. This should be a good game between evenly matched teams. Sunday’s offering between French champion Ivry and German Champion Kiel will be a homecoming of sorts for Kiel’s Frenchmen Karabatic and Ohmeyer, but barring a mega performance from Luc Abalo it should be an easy victory for Kiel.

To watch the games you first need to register at the laola1.tv website: www.laola1.tv The instructions are in German, but it’s pretty intuitive as to what you need to enter. After you’ve registered, you’ll then get an email with your username and password. You can then log on to the site and change your password. As this process takes a few minutes you’re probably better off doing it now rather than game time on Saturday. 
Top 10 Reasons Why I Love……. Montpellier Handball:http://teamhandball.blogspot.com/search?q=montpellier [/html]

Matt Dickinson of The Times of London has written a highly critical piece questioning public funding in support of the British Handball Program. The basic premise of the article is that the 3 million British Pounds ($5.9M) through 2009 that has been earmarked to develop competitive handball teams for the 2012 Olympics is a waste of funding that could be better spent on sports where British athletes have a feasible chance of medaling.

While I agree that the chances of the Brits medaling are nearly zero this is not the primary goal of the program. The primary goal in simple terms is to field teams that are competitive and can give a credible accounting of themselves on the court. Of course, it can be argued as to whether even this is a worthwhile goal. It all depends on your perspective.

The article points out how much is now being spent on British Handball, but it fails to point out how practically no funding was provided prior to the recent influx. Still despite this lack of support there is an established club system in Britain which is more organized than other countries (ex. USA) which have participated in the Olympics previously. Additionally, the funding Handball now receives is still significantly smaller than the funding that many other sports in Great Britain receive. Medaling in some of these other sports is also an unlikely prospect and yet they did not receive the “Handball” treatment from the Times. Even more extreme, is the largesse provided to soccer. With arguably the richest professional soccer league in the world, soccer development does not need that kind of Government support. If every penny of that money went away there would still be thousands of youth teams and millions of Pounds being spent to develop young soccer talent. So if your perspective is relative to the funding other sports receive, I think it’s accurate to say that Handball is now finally getting it’s fair share.

In the larger scheme of things, however, one can always make a case against any Government funding for sport. There are surely run down sections of London or Manchester that could use a million pounds for community development. In some parts of the world there are people getting by on a dollar a day. Where do you draw the line? Some would argue that no money should be spent on games when there are so many problems that need solving. Just think of how much could be accomplished if every pound being spent on a two week London party was redirected elsewhere Others would argue that an appropriate balance is needed. I fall in that camp as do many others in the World. One only has to look at the kids playing soccer on dusty streets around the world to know that even the poorest people find discretionary funds to purchase soccer balls.

Oh, and one more thing: How can anyone claim that Great Britain is a “country remarkable for its sporting diversity?” Give me a break! As far as sports goes in Britain there is soccer and everything else. And that everything else is pretty much limited to rugby and cricket. My goodness, the most popular indoor sport is darts; which believe it or not is televised regularly. In terms of all team indoor sports Britain is woefully undeveloped when compared to any other European country. Britain sorely needs a National Indoor Team Sport- Why not Handball?

Times of London (22 Jan 2008:  The lost cause sticking its hand out for 3M pounds of Olympic Riches: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/matt_dickinson/article3228314.ece

Finland and Lithuania played a pair of matches recently as part of Europe’s Qualification for the 2009 World Championships. They split both matches and are in a 3 way battle with Bosnia to secure a spot in a playoff match later this spring. Just another match in a long qualification tournament, but be sure to check out the video of how Lithuania beat Finland in the 2nd match.

Video: http://www.yle.fi/urheilu/muut/id94237.html

Handball-World Article: http://www.handball-world.com/o.red.c/news.php?GID=1&auswahl=12604

Let’s assume for a moment that when the IHF Executive Committee meets next week they will reach the conclusion that the Kuwait – South Korea Olympic Qualification match was officiated unfairly. Not a foregone conclusion, but one that appears likely based on comments made by the IHF Secretary General, as well as the IHF website official statement.

The next question is what do you do about it? Here are some possible actions that might be taken:

[b]1) Sorry, but what’s done is done; We can’t un-ring a bell:[/b] The IHF might release a statement acknowledging that the match contained sub-standard officiating and that the Asian Handball Federation (AHF) would be reprimanded. The reprimands would be to bar the Jordanian referees from officiating future international competition and to bar the organizing official responsible for switching the referees at the last minute. And most importantly, the statement would basically say, while the events were unfortunate the IHF didn’t have jurisdiction over the AHF event, so the results will stand. The statement would then go on to emphasize that future Olympic Qualification contests would be organized and run by the IHF with assistance from Continental Federations to avoid this ever happening again.

[b]2) Stage a one game rematch: [/b]The IHF could take the unprecedented action of calling the result of the Kuwait – South Korea match null and void and scheduling a winner take all rematch. But, in doing so, a lot of logistical questions would have to be answered, including:
– Where do you play it? A neutral country; perhaps Japan again?
– When do you play it? Players are playing in club leagues and certain dates on the calendar are probably more advantageous to one country or the other.
– Who organizes the match? Does the IHF take full control?

[b]3) Stage a rematch of the entire tournament:[/b] If one match was tainted, who is to say that other matches in the qualification tournament weren’t also questionable. Maybe Japan could have beaten Kuwait as well and then Japan would have gotten 2nd place in the tournament and a spot in one of the Olympic Qualification tournaments in May. Or who knows, maybe Japan could pull off a big upset over Korea and win the whole thing. Korea also has a couple of older, veteran players (Cho and Yoon). Playing a one game rematch would be a lot easier for them then playing four games in five days.

The bottom line is that fixing the mistake is not as simple as saying “do over” is on the playground. If you look at previous sports related scandals, the end result has usually been to reprimand the guilty and say sorry to the victims. Often this is because restaging the event is too impractical. In recent years, drug testing results for Floyd Landis at the Tour de France and Marion Jones at the 2000 Olympics were handled in basically that way. You certainly couldn’t restage the entire Tour de France, so the 2nd place finisher got a hollow bump up to first place after the fact. And those examples don’t actually match this case, because as strange as it may seem, the Kuwaiti team is also a victim. While they benefited from the victory, I think it’s pretty unlikely that they had anything to do with the foul play. And I don’t know the Kuwaiti team and coach personally, but I’m guessing that if they had their way they would prefer to win on their own merits.

[b]So what should the IHF do? [/b] Well, I lean towards the one game winner take all replay match. I think it’s the most practical and fair way to handle it.

[b]What will the IHF do?[/b] Stay tuned.

And if you haven't seen the Korean TV news report on this topic,here's the link at Google Videos: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-908556008345758262