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.

You might think I added Eurosport 2 to my cable lineup, so I could watch more Team Handball. https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.165 No, I actually got it for the Kabbadi and Sepaktakraw. More Handball is just a nice bonus. In all seriousness, last Thursday night after watching Kiel trounce Chambery (as expected) and the French Women beat Denmark (definitely, not expected), I found myself back on Eurosport 2 mesmerized by 2 sports I never even knew existed.

First up was the Asian Games Men’s Gold Medal match for Sepaktakraw between Thailand and Malaysia. This sport can best be described as 3 man volleyball/hackysack with your feet. Clearly a finesse sport in which timing is everything. Thailand had little problem taking care of the Malaysians. For more on this sport check out these links:
http://www.doha-2006.com/gis/menuroot/sports/Sepaktakraw.aspx
http://www.doha-2006.com/gis/menuroot/news/article.aspx?id=16326

Next up was Kabaddi which I will describe as a cross between “red rover, red rover“, and full contact tag. Each team starts with 7 players and is played on a court about the size of a volleyball court. Teams take turns sending a “raider” to the other side of the court where he tries to touch the players on the other team and then run back to half court before they tackle him. Oh, and did I forget to mention when you are a raider you have to hold your breath and to prove this you have to keep chanting kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi over and over. I am not making this up! India took care of Pakistan for the Gold Medal. For more info check on these links:
http://www.doha-2006.com/gis/menuroot/sports/Kabaddi.aspx
http://www.doha-2006.com/gis/menuroot/news/article.aspx?flag=1&pagenum=1&id=16264

So, if you think this is pretty “off topic” for a website called TeamHandballNews.com, you’re absolutely right, but I do have a couple of points, mostly for the benefit of anyone who lives in a country where Handball is well known.

– In more countries than you might think, Handball is only slightly more well known than these sports. As someone who has literally spent half his life explaining Team Handball as Soccer with your hands, Water Polo without water or Lacrosse without sticks, you can see how difficult it can be to develop a sport with little name recognition. I’m sure there are dedicated fans of these sports who do the same thing.

– For those who would like to see Handball become a more prominent sport world wide, this underscores how critical television exposure is. Somewhere in the world where Eurosport is shown there are probably a couple hundred new Kabaddi and Sepaktakraw players simply because they were exposed to the sport for the first time. I for one won’t run out and play the game, but you give me a choice between 2nd Division French League Soccer and Kabaddi, I’m watching the Kabaddi.

Disclaimer: European Club Handball is quite simply and unquestionably the best in the World. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some glaring problems that should be fixed. In my first installment https://teamhandballnews.com/2006/08/whats-wrong-with-european-club-handball-part-1-the-disparity-from-top-to-bottom/ I addressed the huge disparity between the top and bottom teams in the Champions League and the National Leagues. With only a couple of upsets in group play and no surprises among the 16 teams that advanced in this year’s Champions League the analysis continues to stand up. In this installment I address the presentation and arena shortcomings.

It’s More than a Game

I know this might sound sacrilegious to purists, but in a world where customers have many other options for their entertainment, sporting and non-sporting, this is a harsh reality. I’ll give you a personal anecdote that highlights some of the problems.

Last season after France’s dominating victory over Spain in the European Championships I noticed that Montpellier (France’s top club team) was coming to the Paris region to take on Ivry in a key French League matchup. Knowing that Ivry’s gym only seats around 1,500 I figured I better order my tickets ahead of time, so I logged on to Ivry’s web page to get ticket information. Of course, you couldn’t get a ticket on line (maybe next year), but they did have a phone number and I found out that you could purchase tickets at the gym ahead of time. This is OK for someone living in Ivry, but Ivry is a 1 hour round trip from where I live in Paris. So, I took my chances and showed up 45 minutes before game time. Bad decision! As I soon found outside the gym where several hundred people waited in line behind one ticket booth and one person selling tickets. As you might expect, I and several other people were shut out as they ran out of tickets about 10 minutes after the game started.

So my experience with Ivry was negative outside the gym, but I’ve also not been impressed when I’ve gotten inside the gym for Handball and Basketball games in Europe. For many people like me just seeing a good match, and I’ve seen some great ones, is enough. But my wife and daughters and other more casual fans would be bored silly at these matches because they generally lack the amenities that are commonplace with an American Sporting experience. Whether it’s a snack bar with appealing food and drink, a jumbotron screen, a friendly mascot walking around for the kids, cheerleaders or simply a comfortable seat these sorts of things are usually lacking. And I’m just left scratching my head and wondering, “Have these people ever seen a regular season NBA match. It would just rock their world.”

“19250!” Or Yawn, That’s Just Another Night in Sacramento

As I highlighted in the previous section the game itself can be great, but everything else surrounding the game can be lacking. And the underlying reason is that the arena itself is usually a small aging facility that would have been torn down years ago in the US. In fact I would estimate that in the US there are probably around 250 arenas larger and newer than just about every club handball arena in Europe. Certainly ever one of the 30 NBA and 30 NHL arenas (I realize there is some overlap here) are superior and there are probably about 200 NCAA collegiate arenas in the same category. Maybe the US has overdone it, but the counter argument is that those arenas are often full. And maybe the Europeans are sensibly getting by with modest arenas that work just fine for their local clubs. There probably is a little of truth in both arguments, but mostly it depends greatly on your perspective. I will argue that at least some Europeans are coming around to the American perspective. Case in point: Here’s the title of a January 2006 article in French Magazine, HandAction, “19,250.” The title refers to the attendance at a Gummersbach-Kiel regular season game that was played at the Cologne Arena (arguably the only arena in Europe comparable to a typical NBA arena). More revealing then the pictures of the match at Cologne Arena, though, were the side by side pictures of where Gummersbach plays it other matches (against the bottom of the league teams) in a life-less gym that looks like an aircraft hangar.

Of course my American reaction to the title of the article was simple amusement. They get a crowd like this for one match and it’s a cause for celebration? Why that’s just a typical sell out crowd in Sacramento. And a little research does in fact show that the Sacramento Kings of the NBA currently have an ongoing streak of 317 consecutive sell-outs of their 17,317 capacity ARCO Arena. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento_Kings So it is a couple thousand seats short, but you get the picture. And trust me if you’ve ever been to Sacramento (or Portland or San Antonio), you’d probably agree with me that there are more than a few cities in Europe approaching this wonderful metropolis in terms of infrastructure and population base.

Now, there are a number of reasons as to why the amenities are lacking and the arenas are smaller. But, the underlying reason is that the overall structure of club sports in Europe with multiple leagues in multiple nations spreads the product out too thinly. The clubs only have so much budget and amenities and arenas aren’t where they are going to spend it. Case in point, is the Paris metropolitan area with 5 LNH teams (Paris, Ivry, Creteil, Pontault-Combault and Tremblay) all within an hour’s drive or less from each other. What if those 5 teams were to combine budgets and form one club? I’d expect that not only could they field one of the better teams in Europe, I’d bet they could they play their games in a nice little 5,000 seat arena and hire some more people to work the ticket booth. But even if you could get those 5 teams to combine, because they’re playing in the geographically restricted French League, you’d have to find 4 more teams, probably in smaller towns to play against and those teams would not provide good competition for the new big club. Of course, you’d have some Champions League games, but as its currently structured it doesn’t have enough games to support the needed revenue stream.

So, what’s the solution? I’ll save that manifesto for another day. Stay tuned.