Well, Team Handball fans if you’ve watched Poker or the World’s Strongest Man competition on TV in the United States and thought surely the next sport that will get air time is Handball, you thought wrong. As reported in the International Herald Tribune and other news outlets, Rock, Paper, Scissors is finding its way on to ESPN this July. Adding further insult to injury, the US national championships took place this past weekend in my new home of Las Vegas. Jamie Langridge of Odessa, Texas took home the $50,000 grand prize.

EHF, Liga ASOBAL, HBL are you reading this? Will you please do something, anything to get your sport on TV in the United States.

Variety:: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117961028.html?categoryid=14&cs=1
International Herald Tribune: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/14/news/rock.php
Official American Rock Paper Scissors League site: http://www.usarps.com/news/articles/view/jamie-langridge-takes-the-2007-usarps-world-championship/14/

OK, you will have to indulge me today, as I’m going a little off topic.

Well today, as I passed through the wrought iron gate of Parc Monceau http://www.visualtravelguide.org/medium/France-Paris-8eme-Arrondissement-Parc-Monceau.html with my two girls, Carole, age 5 and Evelyn, age 2, for the last time, I’m not ashamed to say that I teared up. It’s amazing how time flies. When I arrived in Paris almost 5 years ago Carole was all of 3 months old. Now she’s a little bilingual girl running around with her little French friends while her little sister tags along trying to keep up. My wife and I even have to remind our daughters that they’re Americans. A small problem that doesn’t overly concern me and should be fixed soon. Needless to say, even if it was not the most beautiful city in the world I will always have fond memories of Paris, because in my mind it will forever be the place where my daughters are under 6 years old.

Handball and sports wise it has also been a quite a journey. When I arrived my knowledge of French and European Handball was pretty much limited to Jackson Richardson and other aging stars that I had seen play back at the World Championships in 1993. I had no clue as to the organization of club handball, let alone what the top clubs were. What an education, as I slowly, but surely, developed new favorite teams http://teamhandball.blogspot.com/search?q=montpellier to replace the Yankees and the Lakers. Not to mention the experience of seeing the World Championships in person in Germany. And it’s been more then a viewing experience as I played 1 year of handball http://www.lsc-handball.com/ and 4 years of basketball http://www.levallois-basket.com/asp/zon_html/htm_vie.asp?htmid=3369 . Quite simply these well structured and organized leagues put adult recreational sports in the US to shame.

But, all good things must come to an end. La famille Ryan will take a long pause for one last grand European vacation through Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Corsica and the south of France, but then we’re getting on a jet plane for a new life in Las Vegas. I can already hear Carole, saying “C’est trop chaud” (It’s too hot) and “this bread isn’t any good.” Sorry, Carole there’s not a bakery on every street corner in Vegas. Convenience stores and slot machines maybe, but finding a fresh baguette will be a challenge.

And what about me? I’m going from the heart of the Handball World to a Handball Desert. To the best of my knowledge the sport has never even been played in Las Vegas. It’s safe to say that I won’t be subscribing to Eurosport and Sport Plus with my cable company there. Will I even care 6 months from now if Ivry can beat Montpellier for the title in France? Will I care if Kiel can repeat their Champions League title? Will I care whether the Spanish clubs get their revenge next year? The answer of course is HELL YES. And god willing, expanded TV viewing options in the US will soon make it possible for a growing base of fans to do the same.

So, what can be learned from this little homage to France? Well, for young players out there who are contemplating the pros and cons of playing in a foreign country, all I can say is that you’d be foolish to pass up the opportunity. Not only will you become a better player, you will be exposed to a different culture and the inevitable learning and enriching experience it will be. Pack your bags and spread your wings. Trust me; you’ll be glad you did.

[link=/e107_images/newspost_images/jrbig.png] [img]/e107_images/newspost_images/jrsmall.png[/img] [/link]

THN article on Greenland’s Status Change: https://teamhandballnews.com/2007/04/greenland-membership-in-pathf-downgraded/

I’m an American and I don’t care what the sport is I’m always going to root for the team with USA written on their jerseys. As someone who had the opportunity to wear one of those jerseys several years ago I’m even more passionate about USA Team Handball squads. But when Team USA isn’t playing I feel free to pick a side. This past January at the Handball World Championships , I had the opportunity to see several of the Handball “minnows” play in the President’s Cup and it didn’t take me long to pick a 2nd favourite team- the team from way up North where the sun doesn’t shine much in the winter and the names are unpronounceable.

I am, of course, talking about Greenland. And judging by the reactions of the German crowds I wasn’t alone in this respect. But, there are more reasons than just being a “feel good” story for keeping Greenland as a full member in the PATHF. Herewith are those reasons as I see it:

Reason #1: It was already decided in 1998.

They joined as a full member in 1998 and that couldn’t have happened without someone or some body deciding that they should be a full member. What’s happened since then to make that decision wrong now? A cynical person would conclude that maybe they’ve qualified for the World Championships one too many times. Certainly, if they were consistently finishing in last place at the PATHF its safe to say that the USA would not have asked for a clarification of their PATHF status. And let’s don’t be too hard on blaming the USA for asking the question. Trust me, some other nation would have asked the same question sooner or later.

Reason #2: This team is not a Danish mercenary squad, but a true Greenland team.

I can’t bear witness to earlier incarnations of the Greenland National Team, but the story I often heard was that the ethnic makeup of their team was more blue eyed blond than darked haired Inuit. The insinuation being that the Greenland National Team was simply just a bunch of 2nd and 3rd class Danish Handball players looking for an opportunity to play in the World Championships. That certainly wasn’t the case with the 2007 squad, which certainly in appearance was a homegrown squad.

Reason #3: There is precedent in other sports for Nations to participate in World Championship events, but not the Olympics.

There are several examples of this. Most relevant is probably the Faroe Islands, another nation with Danish passports. The Faroe Islands is a member of the EHF and soccer’s UEFA. In particular, they are competitors in European Championship and World Cup soccer competition. I’ve even seen the French side play at their stadium in Torshavn. And I’ll never forget a couple of German officers nervously following the score of a European Qualifier where the Faroe side took a 1-0 lead into the 2nd half before Germany rallied for a 2-1 win. The Faroe Islands, however, does not participate in the Olympics, and someone from there could only participate under the Danish flag.

Another example is the United Kingdom… of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Depending on the sport, the “nations” of the United Kingdom field separate or combined teams. For instance, they field separate teams for rugby, soccer, and handball. Of course, when it comes time for the Olympics they field a combined UK team. For Handball England and Scotland only recently decided to start fielding a UK team for International Competition.

Reason #4: They have real fans.

Of the Handball minnows participating in the World Championships Greenland had the most vocal and supportive fans in attendance. Certainly, it is safe to say that their contingent was much greater than the US has ever had for a World Championship. On top of that they had their own television crew broadcasting the games live back to Greenland. In the US, we’d be lucky to even have the scores listed in the newspaper.

Reason #5: It is a feel good story.

Handball certainly has its share of controversies whether it’s the officiating at the World Championships or the ongoing power struggle between the EHF, IHF and the major European Clubs. But, everyone (well, almost everyone) can get behind a nation of 57,000 people that has a rare turn in the spotlight on the world stage. And the fact that they have some good young talent playing only made the story better.

What’s really a shame is that several players on Greenland’s Senior Team, including their leading scorer, Angutimmarik Kreutzmann, could be playing right now at the PATHF Junior Championships. In my opinion, they would have contended for the title and would probably have qualified as 1 of the 2 PATHF representatives to go to the World Championships this summer.

Let’s hope that the PATHF and the IHF see the light and correct this injustice.

Earlier THN article on Greenland at the World Championship with Podcasts: https://teamhandballnews.com/2007/01/greenland-handball-a-national-passion/

Well, if it wasn’t too obvious the, “Kretzschmar Signs Contract to Play in United States” article was an April Fools’ Day joke. Kretzsch has no plans to move to the USA and the LA Team Handball Club would be hard pressed to find $60 for salary compensation, let alone $6 Million. Still, if anybody had told me that David Beckham was going to sign a deal to play soccer in the US for $50 Million over 5 years I would have thought that was an April Fools’ day joke as well. Maybe some day the Handball World will try to wake the sleeping giant and make Handball something more than the blip on the radar screen it is now in the US, but I’m not holding my breath.

And maybe instead of saying blip on the radar screen, I should say blip on the heart monitor in the Emergency Room. With the recent losses to Mexico and Chile by the Women’s National team, the US has sunk to a new level in terms of performance on the court. In fact, not too long ago a 9 goal loss to Mexico would have simply been laughed off as another April Fools’ joke. This weekend the US Men’s team will seek to restore some measure of respectability for US Team Handball with their 2nd chance opportunity in Chile. Still, even with a win, a roster with several players in their late 30’s or early 40’s speaks volumes about the current state of US Handball.

Team Handball in the US is clearly on life support and in a total state of disarray. With the USOC’s decertification of USA Team Handball last year, the US doesn’t even have a Federation anymore. And while the USOC has continued to provide limited support to keep the National team programs running, this support can be described as lukewarm at best and contingent on achieving some positive results. With the continuing lack of success this lukewarm support could quickly turn very cold.

The US is staging their annual National Championship Tournament this weekend and traditionally a “Town Hall Meeting” is held to discuss the sport’s status. Hopefully, after this meeting we’ll know a little bit more about what the USOC's near, mid and long term plans for the sport are. As was the case last year, Bogdan Pasat will be on site at Nationals and we hope to make podcast recordings of the town hall meeting available on our site, as well as interviews with players and officials. Be sure to stop by and talk to Bogdan and let us know what you think about our site and what features you’d like to see added.

I was very surprised by the recent resignation to Christian Latulippe as the US Women’s Head Coach. Reading between the lines of both Christian and the USOC’s statement it seems that the USOC had decided that the time had come to make a coaching change. While both statements dance around the subject, it seems clear that this is a case of “you can’t demote me, I resign.”

Now certainly a case can be made that the team’s performance over the past few years justifies a change at the top. A brief summary of the less than spectacular results includes:
2004-05 Quebec League (5-15-1 record)
2005 Panam Championships, 6th place, out of 6 teams) (0-5 record)
2005-06 Quebec League (10-8 record)
2006 USA Cup, 2nd place, out of 3 teams) (1-5 record)
2007 Canada vs USA Qualification games (0-2 record, losing by 6 and 9 goals)
2006-07 Quebec League (8-8 record, so far)

In fact, strictly going by results, the only logical question would be, “What took you so long?”

As anyone who has followed the events of the past couple years knows, however, the women’s program has been run on a shoestring and might not even exist if not for the efforts of Coach Latulippe. Regardless, of Christian’s dedication, at [i][b]some point [/b][/i]I was expecting the USOC to evaluate his and the team’s performance and decide whether a change was needed.

But when should that “some point” have been? Maybe it should have been in 2005 after the disastrous showing at the Panam Championship. In fact, the much maligned (and deservedly so for some of his actions) former President of USATH, Mike Hurdle, took a lot of flak for tweaking Christian’s contract in light of that performance. In the end it was decided to keep the program intact and see how it progressed. And there have been some signs of progress, but it’s safe to say, that from a results standpoint it hasn’t been very satisfactory. Maybe, losing both games to Canada in January in less than competitive fashion could have been the decision point.

In the end the decision point was the first week in March, following some losses in the Quebec League and only 3 weeks from the PANAM Games 2nd chance qualification tournament. Maybe there were other factors involved, but you wouldn’t know that from the official statements.

So, by what logic do you fire a coach 3 weeks from a key tourney, especially if you’ve kept him around for 4 years? Well, depending on your perspective, it’s either an act of desperation or a decisive action. Here’s the case for either:

[b]An Act of Desperation[/b]: My goodness this National team probably won’t even make the playoffs in the Quebec league. You can’t just stand by and do nothing. So to show that you’re engaged, you fire the coach. Never mind the fact that you’ve kept him around for 4 years and that such a move so close to a major tournament is bound to be disruptive to the team. Throw a Hail Mary and hope for the best.

[b]A Decisive Action[/b]: Well, the easy thing would be to just stand by, do nothing and hope for the best. No, a shakeup at this critical juncture is just what is needed to light a fire under an underperforming Women’s team and give them some added “sense of urgency” prior to the Mexico tournament.

What do I think? Well, I can’t really know the full story as to what’s going on, but I lean toward this being an act of desperation. If you’re going to make a coaching change, January 2007 would have been the time to do it. Since the decision wasn't taken then, it would have been better to wait until after the next major tournament, not right before it. Changing coaches in mid stream might work well for an experienced, professional sports team, but it is more likely to create turmoil on an amateur team, no matter how smooth the transition.

The good news is that, regardless of who’s coaching the USA team, they should still be able to beat Mexico and Chile. Neither of those programs have a strong handball tradition and they certainly don’t have a full time training program like the US. Here’s hoping that the USOC’s move does in fact “bring an energized focus to the goal of successful qualification for the 2007 PAG.”

No Handball enthusiast in their right mind would even begin to argue against the fact that the Liga Asobal (Spain) and the HBL (German Bundesliga) are the top two national club leagues in the world. In fact, for this year’s Champions League all the Spanish and German teams have advanced, except when they have had to play each other. But the argument as to which of those two leagues is stronger is a hotly contested debate. Last year it was hard to argue against Liga Asobal superiority as two Spanish sides (Ciudad Real and Portland San Antonio) played each other in the final.

This year the case for superiority is more wide open, partly due to Ciudad Real and Portland San Antonio meeting in the quarter-finals. With the 2 top Spanish teams playing each other, it looked as if the Germans would get to continue their World Championship winning ways in the Champions League with 3 out of the 4 semi-finalists. Flensburg handled Barcelona with no problem, as did Kiel vs Hungarian side Veszprem. All Gummersbach had to do was beat Valladolid at home in Cologne Arena in front of 16,000 fans. Somebody forgot to tell Valladolid this, though, and behind a monster game, 10 goal outburst from Argentine Right Back Eric Gull, German fans left Cologne Arena unhappy for the first time this year.

Now two German sides are left to face two Spanish sides and we can only hope that the draw sets up Spain vs Germany showdowns in the semi-finals. (a 67% likelihood) If this is the case and either the German Clubs or Spanish Clubs manage a semi-final sweep they will make a good case for best league bragging rights. If we end up with separate Spanish and German semi-final derbies, however, the case for superiority will be less clear. Maybe, there are few fans out there that prefer the national derbies, but I suspect they are the minority. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again the EHF should change the draw format to prevent clubs from the same nation playing each other until it can no longer be avoided.

Handball fans world-wide have had the opportunity recently in the past couple of weeks to view live handball matches via the web. In the United States, both the Carolina Cup and Miami Sharks featured live streaming of their weekend tournaments. And the quality of the video was much better than I would have expected for a couple of amateur club tournaments. Miami even added audio commentary featuring Team Handball News reporter Bogdan Pasat and Houston Stars goalie Mark Telthorster.

Carolina Tourney Results: http://www.unc.edu/cthc/CTHC-EVENTS-BC2007.htm
Sharks Invitational Results: http://www.miamisharksteamhandball.org/

In terms of Professional Club Handball some of the quarterfinal matches of the Champion’s League have been broadcast as well. The video feed was fine, but I was puzzled by the lack of audio commentary and the last minute advertising of this video option by Eurosport. Last year the web video offerings were prominently displayed on the EHF Champion’s League website. This time around it is only mentioned on the Eurosport website and you have to search a little bit on their site to find where to click. Frustratingly, for this weekend there is still no indication if any of the games will have a webcast. Compared to last year’s offerings this limited availability is a disappointment. I suspect that it is probably due to the contract with the Eurosport 2 TV channel. Which, of course, is fine if you have access to Eurosport 2. But even Europsport 2 won’t get you coverage of the key quarterfinal match-up of Ciudad Real and Portland San Antonio as this is only available to Spanish viewers.

The German Bundesliga (HBL) has also added matches via the Sportdigital.tv webisite: http://www.sportdigital.tv/index.php A season package can be purchased for 24.95 Euros and free video highlights of matches can be seen at this link: http://www.sportdigital.tv/index.php?pid=995&lang=de As I will be moving back to the US soon this might be something that I’ll consider purchasing next year. Arguably, the HBL is the top league in the world, and if one wanted to follow a professional club league this package would let you finally do it remotely. Unfortunately, however, the HBL currently have no plans to market this web option outside of Germany, which is why the site is strictly in German. And following a league with no understanding of the audio commentary or news articles (in a language you understand) will probably be somewhat unsatisfactory.

The complaints in regards to World Championship refereeing has reached a crescendo, at least in France. Here is a sampling of quotes from an article in Lance Armstrong’s favorite newspaper, L’Equipe.

Francois Garcia, Former French International Referee and Chairman of French Federation Referee Commission: “The more we need to improve, the less we improve. Currently, there are only 3 International pairs who are capable of handling matches at the highest level (the German, Spanish and French refs) The roof could fall on their head and it wouldn’t bother them. There are other refs that aren’t bad, but they aren’t ready for the big games. The Swedish refs, Thursday, decided to let the teams play. They weren’t very good a calling “passive play,” but I wasn’t really upset until the end of the match. Guigou’s goal should have been awarded. No more, no less.”

Philippe Bana, French Federation Technical Director: “There is a crisis in the management of referees. The commission is pressured and influenced.”

Nonattributed (presumably the opinion of reporter, Philippe Pailhories): “The commission is led by an… American, Christer Ahl, who is neither charismatic or truly qualified.” (note the “…” is in the actual text, as if to emphasize the preposterousness that an “American” would lead such an important commission.

Now, I’ve seen all of the French matches, and I think it’s safe to say, that the officiating in the match against Germany wasn’t the best. At times I was wondering when, if ever, a German defender would get called for a two minute penalty. That being said, you’ve got to expect that a the home team is going to get the benefit of the doubt on most calls. Where the French really came up short was in their inability to push a 2 goal lead up to 3 or 4 as they could and should have done on several occasions. In failing to do so, they failed to take the crowd out of the game and let the outcome of the game turn on some referee decisions.

To simply blame the officiating or the selection of the officials is simply bogus. One would think that Norway and Sweden, with strong handball traditions could also come up with at least 1 pair of refs able to handle the pressure as well as the super-refs from Germany, Spain and France. And having known Christer Ahl for many years, I will say that he may not be overly charismatic, but I would hardly look for that quality in selecting a Chairman for the Playing Rules and Referees Commission. From my own personal experience I would certainly say that one would be hard pressed to question his integrity and sense of fair-play- two qualities that I would look for in this committee. And as American he certainly can’t be accused of a bias in referee selection. Just imagine the quotes if a German was the Head of the Commission.

The bottom line is that some evenly matched teams have played some unbelievably close games. 2 semifinal games both decided in double overtime. Logic only dictates that such games are going to hinge on a number of key plays and close calls. I daresay that even a perfectly called game would probably have gotten a lot of scrutiny.

I guess Denmark’s 42-41 quarterfinal overtime victory Tuesday over Iceland wasn’t enough for the IHF, so they mandated that both semifinal matches be extended into overtime. This is getting downright silly! Quite frankly you’d have a hard time scripting two better semifinal matches than handball fans world-wide had the privilege of watching Thursday night.
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First off, Germany and France played a double-overtime match that see-sawed back and forth over 80 minutes of action. At no time in the match did either team lead by more than 2 goals and from the 46 minute mark no lead ever exceeded 1 goal. It’s a shame one of the teams had to lose. At least it didn’t get decided by penalty throws.

Not to be outdone, the 2nd semifinal also played a double-overtime with upstart Poland continuing their Cinderella run all the way to the final, upending Denmark 36-33. Give credit to coach Bogdan Wenta who went to his bench in the 2nd overtime as stars like Karol Bielecki appeared to be winded.

Poland will now face Germany for the Championship Sunday afternoon. Germany’s only loss in the tournament was to Poland in the preliminary round 27-25. I’m sure a lot of people after that preliminary round match, though, “Yeah, these two teams of destiny are going to meet again in the finals.” Perhaps a few observers might have been thinking that Germany could bounce back and make a good run on home soil, but few, if any, were expecting big things from Poland. Just how big an underdog was Poland going into the tournament? Well, let’s just say at 50-1 to win it all, there probably are a few fans in Warsaw with a little monetary interest in the outcome on Sunday.

Archived odds: https://teamhandballnews.com/page.php?13

Well, for the past few days I’ve been catching a glimpse of our Handball TV future. And I’m happy to report that the future looks good.

A little background story to highlight why I think it looks good: For many years, at least prior to living in Europe, I made a yearly pilgrimage to Las Vegas for the first long weekend of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. For Euro readers a short explanation: the NCCA basketball tournament is a 64 team single elimination tournament which captivates the American Sports public for 3 consecutive weekends in March every year. Much like the national cup tournaments it gives the underdog a chance to take on the big heavyweights and pull off the big upset. Watching the games in Vegas had many benefits: 1) $1 beers, 2) betting on the games and 3) I could watch 4 games simultaneously. For the purposes of this article I’ll focus on #3. How many times have you been at home and seen a score and said, “What the hell!? Holy Cross is beating Kansas! Why don‘t they switch to that game?” Well in Vegas, I wasn’t forced to follow the whim of the network, every game was available.

Last Saturday, courtesy of VideoSport, it was just like being in Vegas, except the beer was a little bit more expensive. With my regular TV broadcasting the France-Ukraine match, I used my laptop to watch the Spain-Egypt match at the same time. But then I noticed that South Korea was giving Russia all they could handle, so I started flipping back and forth between the two games on my laptop. As it became apparent that the France-Ukraine match wasn’t going to be very interesting, I found myself wishing that I could put one of the good matches on my TV. Then the light bulb turned on. “Hey, I wondered, could I watch one game on my laptop and another on my desktop computer?” Needless to say the experiment worked. Whereas a year ago I would have been stuck watching a boring blowout, I was now watching two good games at the same time.

But, before we all get too excited, I need to highlight that this is still a glimpse of what will be. At times, my internet connection at home couldn’t keep up with the data stream causing the frustrating “buffering xx%” message to keep periodically recycling at critical moments. Even worse on Sunday, I could only get the audio to work and tech support at VideoSport only response was “Sorry, it must be your internet connection.” (note: It was actually a problem with Internet Explorer, and I switched to Netscape and I’m having no problems now.)

In fact, I’m now probably doing the ultimate in multi-watching here in Dortmund. Where else can I watch a sold out match live and in person, while keeping an eye on Czech Republic – Russia. Teamhandballnews.com may be small time in relation to most news outlets, but there were more than a few journalists peaking at my laptop.

Well, the World Championships have kicked off with Germany taking care of Brazil 27-22 in a casual fashion. Brazil was able to hang around and keep the score respectable, but also couldn’t mount a successful run to make it a little more interesting.

But, more importantly let’s talk about the VideoSport live stream http://www.videosport.com/ihf2007/ of the match that is available in most locations world-wide. This isn’t the first time Handball has been live streamed on the internet, but after watching this match I can easily say it’s the best I’ve ever seen and heard.

Video: The screen is the typical small box you’ve probably seen before and can’t be increased to a larger size (at least I couldn’t figure out how to). Two bit rates 350 Kb/sec and 750 Kb/sec are offered. The 750 Kb/sec provides a pretty constant stream and the 350 Kb/sec isn’t too bad either. The stream and clarity at 750 is clearly better than you get at many sites like you tube. I did, however, have a few dropouts which was a little annoying. The actual feed is the same that is being provided world-wide and the multiple camera angles are great, particularly the overhead shots.

Audio: English language commentary! Paul Bray does a pretty good job for a one man show. It would be nice to have a two man team, but it’s great to hear commentary in a language I’m fully fluent in.

Bottom Line: OK, it’s not the same as a High Definition picture on a 42 inch Plasma screen, but this is the best on-line sports stream I've ever seen. With the ability to switch between games, the next 3 days are going to be awesome! Is it worth 19.99 Euros? Are you kidding? Don’t even call yourself a Handball fan if you can’t find the change to purchase the 92 game option.

As readers to this website are aware I’ve been an outspoken critic of some previous Pan-American Team Handball Federation (PATHF) actions:
– Awarding the Men’s 2nd chance tourney to Chile: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.215
– Excluding the Canadian Men from the 2006 Men’s PATHF Championship:
https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?extend.75

So, for a change I’m pleased to announce an underlying problem, the lack of a website to dispense accurate information, has been rectified. The PATHF website is now on-line and can be accessed at this location: http://www.panamhandball.net/index.html

The site is still under construction and is missing some key elements of information; namely minutes from previous meetings and competition regulations, but it’s a good start. Hopefully, it will be further updated in the near future.
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The Pan American Team Handball Federation (PATHF) had a Congressional Meeting in November in which a number of issues concerning Handball in the Americas were discussed. In particular the schedule, location and national participation of several upcoming tournaments were decided upon. Arguably, organizing these tournaments is the most important thing that the PATHF does as these tournaments decide ultimately who qualifies for the Olympic Games, PANAM Games, and the World Championships.

Of particular note, were a number of decisions/votes surrounding the Men’s 2nd Chance Qualification Tournament for the PANAM Games. As reported on our website, a previous PATHF Congress apparently had decided that the 4th place Central American and Caribbean Nation team would have the right to host this tournament.
THN Article: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?extend.59
Canadian Federation Newsletter: http://www.handball.ca/newsletters/77.doc

Dennis Berkholtz’s report http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=73440975&blogID=200075136&MyToken=2f477c74-a2bb-4d20-a2bc-e36c2ac09af5 from the recent Congress highlights some of the discussion that took place:

“The sites of the Pan American Second Round Qualification Games were determined by a vote of membership. There was some discussion led by Manoel Oleveria that at the past Congress the first right of refusal to host the event should go the Central. No discussion followed and a vote was taken and Puerto Rico's offer to host the games was first ignored, then defeated by vote.”

So, this description of events seems to indicate that either of the following occurred:
1) The PATHF Congress [i][b]decided[/b][/i] to give the Central region the right to host at the previous Congress, but then decided to just override that earlier decision with a new vote or….
2) The PATHF [i][b]discussed[/b][/i] giving the Central Region the right to host at the previous Congress, but didn’t really make a decision. Hence, the need for a vote on host selection.

Either of those depictions of events is, of course, unacceptable. If the Congress makes a decision it should stand by it unless there is some legitimate and compelling reason to change the decision. If recent history (Canada’s exclusion from the 2006 Championships: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?extend.75 ) is a guide, the PATHF standard for a legitimate and compelling reason to change is pretty high.

If the previous Congress, in fact, simply discussed giving the Central Region the right to host, then it should be clear to everyone involved that no decision in fact had been made. Based on the earlier Canadian report of the meeting and the fact that the PATHF President brought the topic up at this meeting it seems that there was no consensus on what had previously taken place.

The impact of this decision to put the tournament in Chile, as opposed to Puerto Rico, is huge for the nations involved. Puerto Rico has the biggest impact as they are now traveling and no longer playing at home. Venezuela and the Canada/USA loser were traveling anyway, but it’s now an extra 3,000 thousand miles and probably twice as expensive to fly to Santiago as opposed to nearby Puerto Rico. Needless to say, the benefit to Chile is obvious. They are no longer traveling and they will be playing at home. A cynical person might even simply think that this was a South American coup.

[b]Fixing the Problem[/b]
Once again, this sort of confusion and apparent lack of transparency could be cleared up with a PATHF website with the following information readily available for all:
– An official schedule of all upcoming tournaments
– Regulations for host selection, team participation and scheduling of tournaments
– Regulations for tournament procedures (seeding, format, etc)
– Minutes highlighting the key decisions of PATHF Executive Committee and Congressional Meetings

[b]Side Notes[/b]
– It also appears that the criteria for the nations being selected for the 2nd chance tournaments has changed. For the Men, Honduras has been replaced by Venezuela. For the Women, Puerto Rico has been replaced by El Salvador. Using the originally posted format Puerto Rico should have already qualified by virtue of their 3rd place Central American and Caribbean placement. Of course, the website could clear up this confusion as well.
– Seeding and the format for the upcoming Women’s Pan American Championships should be handled very transparently. As 4 teams will qualify for the World Championships the seeding and placement of teams into their respective pools is very important. In fact, serious consideration should be given to using a tournament format that ensures that 4th place is not awarded to a team by the simple luck of a fortunate draw.

The good news is that the PATHF report indicates that a website will be available soon.