The debate has raged in Handball circles for many years: Which league is better? The German Bundesliga (HBL) or the Spanish Liga Asobal? Now the two leagues have decided to take the debate out of parlor halls and onto the court with their joint announcement of the first ever HBL-Liga Asobal shootout.

Over 10 straight days all 16 Liga Asobal and the top 16 HBL clubs will play each other in a head to head competition to start the 2009-10 season. The teams will be paired by their final placement in each league at the end of this season and half the games will be played in each country. The tournament will start with a double header on Friday, August 28th in Barcelona with matches featuring the 2nd place and 6th place teams from both countries. It will culminate on Sunday, September 6th at Cologne Arena with matches between the league champions and the 5th place clubs.

The winner of the competition will be based on the overall W-L-T record of each league and will be awarded the Toyota trophy (Toyota is the sponsor of the event). In addition to bragging rights, both leagues have also agreed that any additional slot for Champions League play will be awarded to the winning country.

As an added bonus and marketing move the HBL has indicated that all matches will be available for viewing on their web-streaming platform HBL.tv www.hbl.tv free of charge. HBL General Manager, Frank Bohmann, indicated that this is the HBL’s way of saying thanks to their fans and also an opportunity for fans world-wide to experience the 1.5 Mbs quality of hbl.tv. And he also acknowledged an ulterior motive by saying, “We’re convinced that once people experience hbl.tv they will be willing to pay for the season ticket package.”

Link to the Official Press Release: press release

Other groundbreaking stories previously uncovered at Team Handball News
From 2008: IHF, EHF and National Leagues Form Major TV Partnership: http://teamhandballnews.com/2008/04/ihf-ehf-and-national-leagues-form-major-tv-partnership/

From 2007: Kretzschmar Signs Contract to Play Handball in the United States: http://teamhandballnews.com/2007/04/kretzschmar-signs-contract-to-play-handball-in-the-united-states/

The French Monthly Handball Magazine, HandAction, has devoted roughly half of their latest issue to the upcoming Coupe de la Ligue Final Four in Miami. As has been done previously, I’ve set up a link to a PDF of the articles in French and a link to a wiki page for English translation. Anyone can edit the wiki pages. If all our Francophiles contribute a little of their time, we should be able to get the articles translated in short order.

[b]Miami: A to Z [/b]
– An “A to Z” guide to Miami and the tournament.
French: http://teamhandballnews.com/docs/Miami_A_to_Z.pdf
English Translation: http://teamhandball.wikispaces.com/Translation-+Miami+A+to+Z

[b]Alaian Smadja, The American[/b]
– An article on the commissioner of the French Professional League
French: http://teamhandballnews.com/docs/Miami_Alain_Smadja.pdf
English Translation: http://teamhandball.wikispaces.com/Translation-+Alain+Smadja%2C+the+American

[b]Handball in the City: A Team in New York![/b]
– An article on the New York City Team Handball club.
French: http://teamhandballnews.com/docs/Miami_A_Team_in_NY.pdf
English Translation: http://teamhandball.wikispaces.com/Translation-+A+Team+in+New+York

[b]Montpellier: 22 in Florida[/b]
– An article on how only maybe a few fans from Montpellier will be making the journey to Florida.
French: http://teamhandballnews.com/docs/Miami_Montpellier_22_in_Florida.pdf
English Translation: http://teamhandball.wikispaces.com/Translation-+22+in+Flordia

[b]Commentary: I Have a Dream [/b]
– Former French National Team goalie, Bruno Martini, on how he hopes the Miami Tournament will be spur the sport’s growth in the U.S.
French: http://teamhandballnews.com/docs/Miami_Bruno_Martini.pdf
English Translation: http://teamhandball.wikispaces.com/Translation-+I+Have+a+Dream

Earlier article: “Des Hommes et un Coup Fou”: http://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.529

The Associated Press (AP) has posted an article on the ever widening match fixing scandal in Europe. The article highlights several of the allegations and notes that the IHF is setting up an independent committee, under Playing Rules and Referees Commission Chair, Christer Ahl to review subject matches for evidence of foul play. The article also quotes German Bundesliga General Manager, Frank Bohmann, who doesn’t mince words in stating that, “There seems to be a massive corruption problem”.

The latest development in the German media is that there appears to be evidence of a money trail in regard to funds being transferred to a third party shortly before suspect matches.

Editor’s Note: As Handball is not followed closely in any English speaking country, the fact that the Associated Press (AP) has deemed the story as newsworthy is a notable development. Typically, the Associated Press will write one or two articles a year on the sport briefly highlighting the World Championship results. In an Olympic year there may be a few more written on selected topics, such as Iceland’s first ever silver medal.

Additionally, covering these developments continues to be a challenge. Most of the relevant articles are in German and contain a lot of nuance in terms of sources of information which are difficult to decipher through automatic translations.

International Herald Tribune (AP): “Handball federations investigating matches”: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/03/20/sports/HNB-Handball-Corruption.php
Copenhagen Post: “Handball refs turned down bribes”: http://www.cphpost.dk/sport/120-sport/45086-danish-handball-refs-bribed.html
EHF: “EHF Initiates Proceedings”: http://www.eurohandball.com/article/12196
Der Spiegel: “Dubious transfers debit THW Kiel” (German):
http://209.85.225.132/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.spiegel.de/sport/sonst/0,1518,614667,00.html&prev=_t&usg=ALkJrhg8XC_kg99RH5tT74hWhfpjRok_rw

Group Club Handball has issued a press release that outlines a number of proposals that the EHF should consider to improve the current refereeing system. Chief among these is the establishement of an independent Referee Office separate from the EHF office. A full text of the press release is below.

Press release of Group Club Handball Dusseldorf , 17.3.09

Group Club Handball EEIG offers support to European Handball Federation (EHF) in order to improve the current refereeing system as soon as possible.

The following proposals shall be regarded as a basis for discussions:

1. An independent European referee office is responsible for organisation and nomination of referees and delegates (further on referees).
2. Every country has at least one referee official. He is taking care of the referees on behalf of the European referee office. He might issue invitations for visas, recommend or book hotel, and/or pick up referees at the airport, if necessary. He is not linked to clubs or national federations. He has to report to the referee office.
3. Travelling is organized by referees and European referee office. Clubs are not involved at all. There is no common dinner, meeting or similar before and after the match.
4. Referees are not allowed to have any contacts with clubs or club representatives. If a referee is contacted by a club – for whatsoever reason – he has to report it immediately to the European referee office. This will be controlled by the European referee office
5. The clubs are not allowed to contact referees. Referees have to report about any contacts with clubs.
6. Refereeing has to be totally independent and separated from the European Handball Federation (EHF) office. The responsibility for nominations is exclusively with the European referee office. No handball politicians or tournament management should be able to take influence.
7. The position of the Delegate shall be upgraded. He should be fully responsible for the bench.
8. The performance of delegates shall be judged by the referees. The performance of the referees shall be judged by delegates and coaches. A detailed control system with responsibilities for coaches, delegates and referees should to be established.
9. It has to be discussed whether it is necessary to referee in couples from one country. It might be a possible to nominate every time various referees from various countries for one match.
10. The delegates should be specialists which means that they should be former or active referees. Delegates should not be nominated due to political reasons.

The current statement has to be seen in relation with the rumours about bribery in Handball. GCH insists that Kiel and Lemme/Ulrich have to be regarded as innocent as long as no relevant proves have been forwarded.

At the same GCH encourages all competent bodies to clarify the correctness of the current allegations which jeopardize the future of Handball.

European Handball Federation (EHF) and Group Club Handball EEIG should closely co-operate in the spirit of fairness to optimize transparently the refereeing system and adopt it to the necessities of modern handball.

With kind regards

Atentamente
Mit sportlichen Gruessen
GROUP CLUB HANDBALL EEIG

Dr. Gerd Butzeck/General Manager

American Airlines Arena, in Miami, Fl is set to host the following LNH semifinal games on Friday, April 10, 2009.

[color=#ff0000][b]12:00 PM (EDT) ISTRES will take on PARIS
05:00 PM (EDT) MONTPELLIER will face CHAMBERY[/b][/color]

Click http://newworldsports.us/lnh.html for more details.

The German magazine, Der Speigel, is now reporting that the 2006 European Cupwinner's Cup final may have corrupted. Chekov Medvedi beat Valladolid narrowly on aggregate and when German officiating pair Frank Lemme and Bernd Ulrich went through security at the Moscow airport they were notified that they had $50,000 in their luggage. Lemme and Ulrich do not deny that the money was found in their luggage, but maintain that they had no idea how the money got there and that they had refused an offer to fix the match prior to the game.

The German Bundesliga and the EHF have replaced Lemme/Ulrich for upcoming matches until the investigation is resolved. Lemme/Ulrich are widely considered one of the best officiating pairs in the world. They've officiated numerous top matches including last summer's olympic finale. Ironically, they are also the German pair that was infamously replaced by the Lebanese pair at the Asia Olympic qualification match between South Korea and Kuwait.

Der Speigel: http://wissen.spiegel.de/wissen/redirect/redirect.html?c=sport&r=sonst&a=613269&s=spox&qcrubrik=artikel
EHF Notice: http://www.eurohandball.com/article/12179

Below is a link to a video promoting the French Couple de la Ligue in Miami. Included is footage of Handball legends Jackson Richardson and Valerie Nicolas instructing Miami students as well as footage of the Coupe le la Ligue draw.

Coupe de la Ligue Draw: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=54039764

Commentary: The draw has the two best teams (Montpellier and Chambery) facing off in the Semi-Finals. Clearly, if the LNH wanted to fix the draw that is not the result they would have chosen. Perhaps this will silence the conspiracy theorists back in France, at least for awhile.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Devin Avery
(954) 592-6678
Email-davery@sfeconomic.org

[b]MIAMI LAUNCHES TEAM HANDBALL CHAMPIONSHIP CUP WITH TOURNAMENT SELECTION DRAW[/b]

Miami, FL- On Thursday, March 12, 2009 at 10:00am, District 12 – Miami-Dade County Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz, Chairman, Miami-Dade Sports Commission, the New World Sports Enterprises, The Miami Sharks, South Florida Economic Foundation, and Ligue Nationale de Handball (French National Handball League) will hold a press conference to launch the promotion of 2009 South Florida Coupe De La Ligue in Miami, Final Four Championship Cup, with a TEAM HANDBALL CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT SELECTION DRAW at Bayside Marketplace, 401 Biscayne Blvd. Miami, FL .

The 2009 South Florida Coupe De La Ligue event will be held at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida, with two Semi-Final Games at 12 and 5 p.m., Friday, April 10th and the Championship Game, Saturday, April 11th, 2009. In addition, there will be the World All-Star Exhibition Game featuring legendary Team Handball great Jackson Richardson, who will be joined by international players from France, China, Tunis, Algeria, Egypt, Chile, Argentina and others.

Coupe de la Ligue is a unique event in the World of the Olympic sport called Team Handball (in USA, for the rest of the World is Handball), first of its kind, where a professional League, Ligue National de Handball, LNH, has their official event outside the national borders. The world’s best players and Olympic and World Championship gold medalist from Paris, Chambrey, Istres and Montpellier compete for their place in history. .

Team Handball is one of the world's most popular sports today. Handball has been an official Olympic Sport since 1936. It is played in over 160 countries wi th more than 30 million players and officials from Little League to the Professional Ranks. The 2008 Men’s European Championship set an impressive record of 1.2 billion viewers in over 160 countries. The 2006 Women’s and Men’s European Championship was also substantial with a viewing audience of over 1 billion.

“Team Handball can be traced back to ancient Africa, Greece, Rome, and medieval France. It is the second most watched and viewed sport in the world following soccer. It is a fast-paced game involving two teams of seven players each (six players and a goalkeeper) pass and bounce a ball to throw it into the goal of the opposing team. The team with the most goals after two periods of 30 minutes wins” – A.C.Tellison, Jr., New World, C.E.O., NFL Pro , 1994 All-Big East wide receiver at the University of Miami and a member of 1991 National Championship team.

“We are excited to host athletes and businesses from France and other countries in South Florida, sports and recreation activities provide a $32 billion annual economic impact to Florida’s economy as well as the world. It also provides support for 434,000 employment positions=2 0and generates $12.9 billion in annual labor compensation”.-Devin Avery, Founder/President South Florida Economic Foundation
Other sanctioned events include:
April 7 & 8, 2009- First Annual Sports and Business Conference
The South Florida Economic Foundation will present the First Annual Sports and Business Conference at the Hotel Intercontinental Miami.
The Conference for Sports, Gaming, Fitness and Recreation Professionals, will offer the latest information on building, operating, marketing, programming and staffing your fitness, recreation and sports facilities, sports media programming and distribution, technology, wireless distribution, gaming and fantasy sports, with consultants i.e. sports law, medicine, manufacturers, suppliers, architects, celebrity spokespersons, seminars and workshops, keynote speakers.
2009 World Sports, Games and Traditions Festival
Festival is a free family event which will promote health, fitness and athletic participation, international games traditions, sports and recreation, sports education, jobs and careers, fantasy sports, water sports, local and national sports and sporting goods vendors. Each country represented will have a village hosted by the South Florida Consular Corps of South Florida and Bi-national Chamber of Commerce with music, food, wine and beer from each country.

In addition, there will be a special sports and games for kids area with sports clinics in golf, baseball, football, hockey, soccer and basketball by favorite sports celebrities, “game-on” face painting, appearances by team mascots, award winning cheerleaders and dance teams, international field-day game masters, inflatable sports arena- volley ball, basketball, soccer, slam dunk competition, touch-down bungee run, obstacle courses, rock-climbing and more!
The festival will also serve as a vehicle to promote summer sports, recreation and fitness programs at Miami Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County Parks, and City of Miami Parks, and youth oriented facilities throughout South Florida,
For information, tickets, vendor, exhibitor, volunteer and sponsor information call Tel: (305)785-1686- email: Festival@newworldsports.us
www.newworldsports.com

Check out this 7 meter penalty shot by 15 year old Eivind Tangen from Norway. Who knows? Perhaps this will become one of those “when they were young” videos when Tangen has moved on to play for a major club several years from now.

You Tube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP0uTvDD6aE

Editor's Note: Thanks to frequent poster, "TheDane" at the Handball123 Forum (formerly Kometal) for digging up this video.

U.S. National Public Radio sports commentator, Stefan Fatsis, joined the handball faithful after seeing the sport played at the 2004 Olympics. Even though the focus in the U.S. is squarely on the Super Bowl this Sunday in Tampa, he takes a minute to talk about watching the semifinals on ESPN360, the rebirth of the sport in the U.S. and most bizarrely, the 19 seconds of Handball footage in “The Reader“, a nominee for Best Picture at this year‘s Oscars.

NPR Interview: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100073988 (Handball discussion starts at around 3:30

NPR Interview during the 2008 Olympics: http://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.563

Main Round Group II was the most evenly matched Main Round Group in recent memory and perhaps ever. The first match on the last day was a seemingly meaningless match between Macedonia and Serbia. Both teams had no chance to go to the finals, but a Serbian victory gave the Serbs the morale victory of a 2-2-1 record and 5 points in the Group, to tie them temporarily with Germany at 2nd place in the Group.

Next came the Germany – Denmark game. The math was fairly simple for both teams. A win for either team would grant them 1st place in the group and a ticket to the semifinals. Denmark would also advance with a draw. But a loss for either team, put them at the mercy of Norway – Poland game to follow. In the end Denmark won a see-saw battle 27-25 to advance.

This left Germany with one back door way into the Semifinals. A draw result between Norway and Poland would result in a four way (Germany, Serbia, Norway, Poland) log jam for 2nd place with 5 points each. And Germany would advance with a +6 goal differential to Poland’s +5, Norway’s 0 and Serbia’s -11). For Norway and Poland the mission was clear, win and they were in. Lose and go home.

In the first half Norway and Poland traded leads, but in the 2nd half Norway led most of the way by 1 or 2 goals. With a two goal lead in the final minutes they looked to be on their way, but Poland stormed back to tie the score 30-30 with 33 seconds to play. Norway advanced the ball up court and took a timeout with 14 seconds to play.

At this juncture, three teams could envision a trip to the Semis. Norway had perhaps the best chance with a man advantage (they had pulled their goalie) and 14 seconds to score a goal and win the game. Germany, watching in their hotel rooms cheering on Poland to play defense and for the refs to blow a 9 meter penalty to expend the last 14 seconds with no clear shot and a draw result. Poland, however, needed a miracle with only 14 seconds, the only way they were going to win was a quick turnover and goal.

This video shows how it unfolded: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x866it_m-2009-polskanorwegia-krol-artur-si_sport

During the 2009 World Championships we will not be providing up to the minute scores and results from the tournament. In fact, we may even be a day or two behind. This is because we will be taking advantage of video on demand to timeshift matches for viewing at more convenient times. If you're looking for up to the minute scores and results for 2009 World Championships matches I suggest that you check out either the IHF homepage www.ihf.info or the Official World Championship page www.croatia2009.com

Time Shifting Article: http://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.539

A short notice on the IHF website has indicated that ESPN360 will be broadcasting matches from the 2009 Men’s World Championships in Croatia. ESPN 360 is an ESPN affiliated broadband service that has a limited market reach within the U.S., but this still would be a first ever for Handball in the U.S.

As of this posting, there is no confirmation on the ESPN 360 website or USA Team Handball website.

IHF Announcement: http://www.ihf.info/front_content.php?idcat=282&idart=1729
Wikipedia Entry on ESPN360: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESPN360
ESPN360 Website: www.espn360.com