For several years now, there has been a strong sense that the EHF Champions League for men has yet to find its ideal format. The approach used in recent years does allow for a fairly large number of countries to have a team involved, but the drawn-out group stage has tended to become a predictable and boring period with many meaningless games. So there has been a lot of pressure for changes.

And now there is a proposal which seems to be gaining momentum after a preliminary agreement between the EHF and the association of the European top clubs, the FCH. The proposal is to replace the current format, which has 24 teams in the group stage, with a top division with 16 teams and a lower division with 12 teams. The proposal has the support of the majority of the top clubs but far from everyone is happy with the idea. In fact, it is strongly resisted in many places.

The problem is that different countries have vastly different circumstances. Leaving out those countries which really do not have a champion who is competitive enough to participate, the other countries essentially fall into three categories: 1) those rather few countries who have a league with many evenly matched teams, with a different champion every year, and with a strong following among the fans; 2) several countries where one or possibly two teams dominate completely, perhaps by tradition but more likely because of vast differences in financial resources and access to top players; and 3) Germany.

The new format, which would have four more games than currently for the teams in the new top group, suits the teams from category 2 perfectly. This would be Barcelona, Veszprem, Croatia, Kielce and several others. They would love to have more games in Champions League, which matters much more to them than the national league. But the teams from category 1 are of course upset for two reasons. Several of them would be excluded from a top group with only 16 teams; and if they do qualify, then they have to play more such games at the expense of their national league which still matters to them.

But Germany is really the crux. Typically there would be four teams from Germany in Champions League who all have a good chance to qualify for the final four or at least to be in the quarter-finals. And by any measure, the German Bundesliga is by far the strongest national league. But it has one problem, which leads to stubbornness or selfishness in Germany and to resentment in the other countries. Bundesliga has 18 teams, but it is not the strongest because of that. Normally, there are 5-6 top teams, 5-6 other quite strong teams, and then 6-8 teams who are not of the same caliber. But all these teams, and other clubs who have a chance to qualify for Bundesliga, desperately want to keep the number at 18, so that they can have the chance to be in this top league.

Unfortunately, and for reasons that are not clear to me personally, the very top teams in Germany also resist a reduction from 18 to 16, perhaps out of some kind of national loyalty. It seems that the games that would disappear if the league was reduced would be offset by even more lucrative games in Champions League. And of course the many teams in other countries who like the proposed format think the Germans are selfish and resent the German attitude. I can fully appreciate that. But, while I see many advantages in a move towards a real ‘elite league’, I can also understand the attitude of those countries in category 1 who resist the whole idea.

In fact, they argue along the same lines as many currently do in the context of football. Recent voices have been heard with arguments that UEFA has really created a closed and unfair system, where year after year roughly the same teams from the same small number of countries monopolize the places in the group stage of the Champions League. By that time, most of the champions of the about 50 countries in Europe have long since been eliminated from the competition. Their chances are only theoretical. It seems that at the same time, football and handball have come up against this issue of basic principle: should there be a true ‘champions’ league’ or should we be moving towards some kind of ‘closed shop’ Euroleague for the rich and powerful elite. This is an important debate and a critical decision!

Qatar were clearly the favorites in the Asian Championship, considering their recent progress and the special efforts they are making to have a strong team when they host the World Championship one year from now. And they lived up to expectations throughout the event, winning all their group matches with large margins and then defeating Iran in the semifinal.

But in the final they had to take on the home team, Bahrain, who probably had been the main surprise of this championship, for instance by winning their group ahead of Iran, Korea and Saudi Arabia. In the semifinal, the Bahraini had easily defeated the United Arab Emirates. Bahrain’s success has been made possible by strong efforts especially by the brothers Jaffar and Mahmood Abdul Qader. The final, where of course the Bahraini had strong crowd support in the fight against their rivals from Qatar, it was a very close encounter up to the very end. But to the frustration of their supporters, the Bahraini fell by a one-goal margin, 26-27, after 14-14 at half-time. It was a real battle, with tough methods and lots of provocations from both sides. A difficult job for the referees, but apparently a solid performance by Johansson/Kliko from Sweden.

As I reported earlier, the semi-finalists were already gaining spots in next year’s World Championship, regardless of the final ranking, where Iran today secured the bronze medals by winning against the U.A.E. The perennial top teams in the Asian continent, from Korea and Kuwait were a disappointment. As I have indicated, Korea failed to reach the semi-finals by the smallest of margins and got the fifth place by defeating Saudi Arabia in their final match. Kuwait placed seventh by beating Oman. But the real fiasco concerns the ranking of Japan in ninth and China in eleventh place, Japan has probably never before had such a weak showing, and China clearly has not made any progress following the Olympic Games. Should one draw the conclusion that the hegemony of the East Asians is now over, and that the Gulf States has once and for all by-passed them.

Looking ahead to the 2015 World Championship, almost half the field is now determined: Qatar; Spain (as defending champions); France, Denmark and Croatia from Europe; Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt from Africa; and now Bahrain, Iran and the United Arab Emirates from Asia. Nine of the remaining thirteen slots will go to the winner of the European play-off pairings in June, three will be determined in the PanAmerican Championship in Uruguay in June, and one place is for the winner in Oceania.

The preliminary round of the African Championships for men and women finished today, even if almost all of the teams advancing to the semifinals were known already yesterday. On the women’s side, I had suggested that the main question was which other team would join the three recent World Championship participants in the semifinals. Not surprisingly the answer is Algeria, who were able to use the home court advantage. They won their group ahead of the team from Dem. Rep. of Congo. In the other group, Angola and Tunisia dominated, with Angola coming out as the winner (25 -19) in today’s encounter between the two. This makes for an intriguing semifinal between Algeria and Tunisia, and the other semifinal is then Dem. Rep. of Congo against Angola. The fourth-placed team will not qualify for the World Championship.

On the men’s side, Egypt and Tunisia were through to the semifinals prior to today’s game between the two, which Tunisia won by 26-20 after a commanding 15-7 lead at half-time. These teams had easily won against all their four group opponents. Third place in the group went to Cameroon. In the other group, Angola had defeated Morocco in the very first game, but then they surprisingly lost against Dem. Rep. of Congo. So today Angola first needed to beat the ‘other’ Congo, which they did convincingly (38-29), and then they needed to hope that Algeria would defeat Morocco. This also happened, as Algeria pulled away to 26-19, after 11-11 at half-time. Judging from the group results, Morocco was never really convincing; and as I wrote a few days ago, it may be good for African handball to have a Sub-Saharan team come through on the men’s side. The semi-finals will now be: Algeria-Egypt and Angola-Tunisia. The top three will go through to Qatar 2015. Algeria-Egypt promises to be a hard-fought battle.

In the European Championship, the teams in the Main Round groups now have one game left on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. Denmark is already through as a group winner to the semifinals from Group A, while Iceland still has a chance to knock Spain out of the other semifinal spot. But this would require both a win for Iceland against Denmark and a loss for Spain against FYR Macedonia. It seems to me that Spain is too strong to allow that to happen. In the other group, the results today meant that France is already the group winner and that, on Thursday, we will have a Croatia-Poland game which directly decides who will be second and third in the group. Sweden had seemed to have a chance, but today they had a complete mental breakdown against Poland, following the near collapse against Russia two days ago.

And before competitions come to an end in Algeria and Denmark, the 16th Asian Men’s Championship will get started on Saturday in Bahrain. Twelve teams will be competing, initially in two groups of six. Three teams will qualify for the next World Championships in January 2015, but as this event will take place in Qatar, it means that the hosts have a spot guaranteed. Undoubtedly, the Qatari will still see it as a matter of prestige to do well now in Bahrain, and they are probably the favorites. But it takes a little bit of pressure off for all the other teams who could qualify even if they come in fourth. The format of the event means that the key is to come in first or second in the group and qualify for the semifinals.

Group A: Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Uzbekistan, China and Bahrain. Group B: Qatar, Japan, U.A.E., Kuwait, Iraq and Oman. Group A has the three top seeds as the main contenders, as China does not seem to have progressed since the 2012 Olympics. The host team from Bahrain will have a tough time. Group B might look just slightly easier, but a tough fight seems to be looming between Japan and Kuwait. On the basis of recent results, U.A. E. may also be capable of a surprise.

The IHF is providing support for both the African and the Asian events. In Bahrain, there are two referee couples assigned, Johansson/Kliko from Sweden and Pichon/Reveret from France, under the supervision of the Referee Committee member Ramon Gallego. In Algeria, ten African referee couples are reinforced by Cacador/Nicloau from Portugal, under the leadership of Manfred Prause, IHF/PRC President and PRC member Roland Buergi.

So the many years of efforts finally paid off! Brazil’s women have been close to the very top for a long while now, but always there was that one match that derailed the move towards the medal podium. In the 2012 Olympics, Brazil surprisingly won one of the two groups, but instead of getting a relatively easier path in the quarter-finals, they encountered Norway who had stumbled a bit in their group. So that led to a premature exit.

Now in the World Championship, the Brazilians had what already from the beginning looked like a tough preliminary group, with hosts Serbia and perennial medal favorites Denmark. But they managed to defeat both these opponents and win the group. And at that point we did not yet know that this group in fact had all the three eventual medal winners. But after four more wins, against Netherlands, Hungary and again Denmark and Serbia, Brazil are now at the top of the rankings! Nine straight wins, so nobody could argue that Brazil are not worthy winners! Defeating Denmark in the semi-finals by 27-21 and then coping with the enormous crowd support in favor of their Serbian opponents, and their own nerves, in their first ever final, holding on for a 22-20 win is really impressive!

The talent and spirit of the players has always been there. They have gained lots of international experience by playing for clubs in Europe, mostly Austrian Hypo. And they now have shrewd ant tactically strong support by their Portuguese-speaking Danish coach Morten Soubak. They have great goalkeeping, a spectrum of offensive weapons and, in my opinion, an enormously dynamic and alert defense. Their impressive footwork and reactions always seem to put them in the right place at the right moment. All in all, they play a positive and attractive handball!

While the Brazilians should now enjoy this special moment, I am sure that both they and everyone else can see the special significance of these gold medals, when one keeps in mind that the next Olympic Games will be held precisely in Brazil. So this victory should mean a lot for the interest in handball in Brazil, and for the determination of these players to hang in there and come even more prepared in 2016.

The Brazilian victory will also have implications for other PanAmerican handball countries in the sense that, unless IHF competition regulations change again, no less than four other teams from PanAmerica, plus of course Brazil, will be able to participate in the 2015 World Championships. This should give a boost in a number of countries who will now find it realistic to get onto the world scene. Finally, as someone who for over 30 years has been active in the PanAmerican Handball Federation, I must say that I feel really happy or even proud, because I know what it means and I know what it takes for a country in our continent to get to the number one position. From all of us in Panamerica: well done, and well deserved, Brazil!

Well, at least some of my predictions for the semifinals worked out: Denmark will indeed get the chance to have revenge on Brazil for the loss in the preliminary round, but the Norway-France pairing will not materialize. Both teams made their way to the quarterfinals, but there it came to an end.

France had looked relatively steady and comfortable in the preliminary round, and they easily got past Japan. But against Poland they suddenly appeared lacking in confidence and fighting spirit. Some of the veterans were not in old form and some of the newcomers looked overwhelmed. By contrast, Poland came to the game with a lot of enthusiasm after having defeated Romania. They just played their style and never let up. It was refreshing to see their attitude, and the 22-21 victory was deserved. And the Swedish team sitting at home watching may now feel some sense of consolation, after they were so criticized by being kicked out by Poland in the qualifying.

Poland will now have to deal with the home team Serbia. Just as in EURO2012, where Serbia was also the hosts, it seemed again that playing in front of a boisterous home crowd made a real difference. This had already been noticed in the previous round, where Serbian hooligans used green lasers in the face of the Korean 7-meter shooters. Norway got off to a great start with good goalkeeping and a fast-paced game, and it seemed that they were on a winning path. But suddenly the lost their rhythms, resorting to crazy shooting and beginning to leak on defense. In particular, they were not able to cope with the ‘heavy-weight’ circle-runner Cvijic. So much to the delight of the spectators, Serbia turned a 15-20 deficit into a 25-22 edge and never looked back. Norwegian spectators and media were dumbfounded and coach Hergeirsson was criticized for having been too passive. The unofficial Serbian anthem ‘The march to Drina’ could be heard with increasing fervor.

Denmark started out in a way similar to Norway, using fast-breaks and speed to get ahead. But gradually the German team fought back. It was then a tough game with an uncertain outcome for most of the game, until Denmark again was able to get a grip towards the end. The end result was 31-28. It had seemed already in the ’round of 16′ against Montenegro that Denmark was back in shape after a hapless preliminary round. So even if they were occasionally struggling today, they are probably going to be a tough nut to crack for Brazil in the semifinal; and then there is that element of revenge!

It is hard to know how Brazil will react after their victory today. They had occasionally been unconvincing in the previous game against Netherlands, and now they had an even more experienced opponent in form of Hungary. Of course, I had really dismissed the weak effort of Hungary in the preliminary round, but against Spain they then showed improvement and today they were again good enough to win, And it was close, with Brazil seemingly getting undisciplined before the result after 60 minutes was set at 26-26. The lack of discipline and some bad luck with referee decisions continued, so I was prepared to give up on our PanAmerican friends. But in the end their determination was greater and they pulled away to 33-31 in the second half of the second overtime. Alexandra played a dominant role, but both goalkeepers also contributed to the win. So now Brazil is through to the semi-final for the first time ever. Will they still be ‘hungry’ and ready to go for more after that achievement? Other PanAmerican teams are certainly hoping so, because a Brazilian gold medal would mean that no less than FIVE PanAmerican teams will be able to participate in the 2015 World Championship.

There are many famous football teams in Argentina, for instance River Plate, Racing, Velez Sarsfield and, of course, Boca Juniors. The latter is obviously ‘my’ team, considering that they play in blue and yellow, moreover having once picked those colors from the flag of a Swedish ship entering the harbor of Buenos Aires. But in recent time, the team more often mentioned internationally is San Lorenzo (de Almagro), the team supported by Pope Francis. It should not require much explanation as to why he favors a team named after a sainted third-century Christian martyr.

San Lorenzo has not managed to win the championship in Argentina since 2007, but now it happened again. A team with such a well-connected and powerful supporter should of course have a major advantage. And by playing 0-0 at Velez Sarsfield, they managed to hold off second-placed Lanus who also managed just a draw in the final round. Our congratulations go out to San Lorenzo and all their supporters, including my good friend and successor as PanAmerican referee chief in handball, Miguel Zaworotny, now the Managing Director in the office of the PanAmerican Handball Federation. But how about San Lorenzo also starting a section for handball, perhaps even a women’s team!?

The dust has now settled after the complex and somewhat controversial election process which led to Thomas Bach of Germany taking over as new President of the International Olympic Committee three months ago. Observers of the Olympic movement are now instead paying attention to every word and every action by Bach, trying to interpret what direction and what changes could be expected as a result of the Bach presidency.

Bach, who turns 60 a week from now, has started out in a way which suggests that he quickly wants to try to put to rest the suspicions and concerns that surrounded his election. As I noted in some articles prior to the election, there had been concerns related to Bach’s background as a protégé of Horst Dassler, the former Adidas boss, who was seen as the ‘Godfather’ of the corrupt aspects of sports marketing and power brokerage. Similarly, the notion that Bach was being pushed by the well-known ‘puppet master’ Sheikh Ahmad of Kuwait did not go over too well in many circles in the IOC and elsewhere in the world of sports.

So in a situation where, after 12 years, many had become disillusioned by the lack of achievements by the departing IOC president, Jacques Rogge, Bach has come into office with a lot to prove. Bach has been seen by many as a traditionalist and as a defender of key aspects of ‘status quo’, for instance by perennially being the IOC spokesman on the topic of the IOC’s strong insistence on autonomy for the sports movement. So for those who are looking for change, there were concerns. Among the changes that people have been hoping for, one could mention the composition of the IOC and the secret and stodgy nature of its work processes, the criteria and processes for the selection of Olympic host cities, the composition of the program for the Olympic Games, and the increasing sense of corruption and bad governance in international sports federations (IFs) and National Olympic Committees (NOCs).

Clearly, the IOC is first and foremost a ‘machine’ in charge of organizing the Olympic Games, moreover, with the recognition that such complex mega-events require a strong focus on its business aspects and the related politics. To a large extent, the respective IFs have a major role in ensuring the proper technical and sporting execution of the Games. But the IOC, as Bach clearly realizes, also has to be concerned with the image and credibility of the Olympic movement. Attention must be paid to issues such as corruption and doping. And the IOC would frantically hope that uncomfortable aspects such as anti-gay laws, abusive construction practices and worries about freedom the press at the upcoming Sochi games would not come to the forefront. Similarly, worries about political protests and delays in the preparations for Rio 2016 are dark clouds on the horizon. So Bach appreciates that bidding and selection processes will be critical in the future.

The continued justification for the existence of some traditional sports on the Olympic program is a hot topic, considering the realization, as just confirmed by Bach, that there is really no scope for expanding the number of participating athletes. And at the same time, there is a claim from many emerging sports who want to get their chance, something which also coincides with the IOC’s awareness that a modernization is needed in order to retain the interest among the younger generations. So the experience of the Youth Olympic Games, where some experimentation has been used, could become important. But there is also a balancing act in the sense that sponsors and TV rights holders will continue to insist on prominence for the well-established ‘cash cows’ on the program. Bach now seems to try to find a new way out, by discussing fine-tuning focused on specific events within the different sports, rather than just looking at additions and deletions of entire sports in the program.

Finally, I think it would be too optimistic to expect that Bach will take a new stand regarding the scope and propriety for the IOC to monitor and affect governance and corruption issues in IFs and NOCs. First, one must again keep in mind that the IOC is mainly focused on organizing the Olympic Games. Second, the ability of the IOC to serve as a role model or ‘police man’ given its own weaknesses in terms of membership and procedures is limited, although Bach seems intent on increasing IOC effectiveness, transparency and attention to ethics. Third, the potential for major conflicts and a weakening of the IOC’s ability to carry out its core functions would be enormous, if the IOC started intervening in the internal processes of the IFs and NOCs.

Yes, there is a tremendous need for such a role, and the IOC is theoretically well-placed, given its position at the top of the ‘matrix’ of IFs and NOCs. But for such role one would really need a separate WADA-like entity. Just perhaps there is some hope that Bach eventually would come to that conclusion. After all, he has explicitly recognized that the insistence on autonomy of the sports movement is tenable only if good governance and adherence to ethical principles can be demonstrated! So let us see what he means with his somewhat cryptic slogan: ‘unity in diversity’!

This could have been a story about how the U.S. men’s and/or women’s teams were gearing up to participate in the intercontinental finals in the IHF Trophy in Monterrey, Mexico, starting this weekend.  The only problem is that we did not have a team that managed to qualify.  So as often happened during long periods of ‘drought’ for our teams at the international level, our referees are the ones who play the role of upholding our image.  Just as U.S.A couples many times participated in men’s or women’s World Championships in the absence of U.S. teams, we now have Lars Jedermann and Christian Posch, our currently most prominent referee couple, participating in Monterrey.

The IHF Trophy is an event intended to provide international competition against teams of equal strength and background for the small and new handball countries in all continents.  It is supposed to get these countries on a trajectory where eventually they will be competitive in the normal continental championships, and the hope is that it will give handball a boost vis-à-vis governments, sponsors, media, spectators and future players in the participating countries.  The IHF Trophy did not get global coverage until three years ago, when all continents were involved and intercontinental finals were held, separately for the men and women, in India and Kazakhstan respectively.  Now, for the first time, both the men and women will be together in one final event.

For Lars Jedermann, a resident of Houston, it is as close to home court as it can get.  For those who are not clear about the Mexican map, Monterrey is the capital of the province up in the northeast corner of Mexico, and therefore right of the border with Texas.  It is one of the largest and most modern cities in Mexico and, for many years now, it has been a bit of a ‘hot spot’ for handball.  It seems like a place that will be able to guarantee both excellent conditions for the tournament and a nice environment for the visitors from all over the globe.

On the men’s side, the participating teams are Australia, Moldova, Nigeria and Uzbekistan, together with the Mexican hosts.  Australia is represented also among the women, together with Bulgaria, Canada, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Thailand.   The referee crew is equally exotic, with Lars and Christian being joined by colleagues from Australia, Kenya, Korea, Russia and Mexico.   Lars and Christian are at this point ‘half-way’ toward an IHF license, after their successful participation in an IHF Course earlier this year.  The IHF Trophy should be a good opportunity for them to refine their methods and skills, so that they will pass the test when they get to their next IHF course in the coming months.  We wish them success!

1) French League (LNH) press conference and club budgets. Prior to the start of the new season the LNH had a “State of the League” press conference. It was noted that the LNH is now the world’s 2nd best league and is gaining on the HBL. Also released were the budgets of the 14 clubs. No surprise that Paris’ 13.5M Euros leads the way and is nearly double #2 Montpellier.

LNH website (French): Link
Handnews.fr (French): Link

2) Liga Asobal takes unprecedented step in promoting sports betting. Several leagues and clubs have had agreements with sports betting companies. I’m pretty sure, however, this is the first time that league matches have been incorporated into a specific betting scheme prominently displayed on a league’s home page.
Liga Asobal Homepage (Spanish): Link
Liga Asobal Website article on Quinihandbal (Spanish): Link

3) Talant Dujshebaev on his Champions League career and future plans. He indicates that he will not coach any team until November at the earliest.
EHF Website: Link

4) Hombrados signs with German Club Wetzlar. 41 year old Spanish Goalkeeper Jose Hombrados joins Ivano Balic in Wetzlar
Handball-World (German): Link

 

1) VIDEO: IHF President Hassan Moustafa discusses Argentinian Handball during his visit to Buenos Aires. He also indicates that Brazil’s debt related to their hosting of the 2011 Women’s World Championship might be partially recovered with that nation’s hosting of Beach Handball World’s Championships.
PATHF Website (Mostly English with some Spanish): Link

2) Argentinian International Diego Simonet and 3 others are now cleared to play for Montpellier. Previously, their contracts had exceeded overall budget restrictions imposed in France.
Mundo-Handball: Link

3) The Beach Handball community in Germany seeks more support from the German Federation.
Handball-World (German): Link

 

1) Polish International, Marcin Lijewski, discusses returning to Poland to play with his new club Wisla Plock.
Gazeta.pl (Polish): Link 

2) Spanish International, David Davis retires.
EHF Website (English): Link
(Side note: Of African descent and with an American sounding name, I was curious when I first saw him play several years ago as to the personal back story of this non-typical looking Spanish National Team player. There is, however, no USA connection. His ancestry is from Equatorial Guinea, Spain’s only former colony is Sub-Saharan Africa.)

3) Russian International, Sergei Gorbok discusses his return to the HBL and financial problems at his old club, Chekovski Medvedi.
Handball-World (German): Link

4) Chilean International and Magdeburg Circle Runner, Marco Oneto, discusses internal problems with the Chilean national team.
Short summary of the interview at Mundo Handball (Spanish): Link
Audio interview at Handball de Primera (Spanish) : Link