The main rising star in European club handball in recent years has undoubtedly been AG Copenhagen (AGK). Not that Denmark is a newcomer at the top level in men’s handball, but the collection of stars that suddenly was acquired for this newly founded club is at par with some very few top clubs in Germany and Spain. Indeed, AGK qualified for the ‘Final Four’ of EHF Champions League in 2011-12, where they narrowly lost to Atletico Madrid. AGK has at least a dozen absolute world-class players, so that even their second choice on each position would combine into a top team.

While there have been some hints about the financial status of AGK in recent time, it nevertheless came as a real surprise when the founder and main owner, well-known businessman Jesper ‘Kasi’ Nielsen announced that he was withdrawing from AGK and would be selling off his involvement. Officially, he indicated that he was doing so because of the ‘smear campaign’ against him in one Danish newspaper (Ekstrabladet). This is not seen as a very credible explanation by experts in media, academics, federation and other clubs. They point to the stories about severe financial problems and also note that Nielsen would never leave his creation if it was doing well from a business and investment standpoint. There are also indications that some of AGK’s smaller sponsors are pulling out.

It is pointed out that Nielsen has almost treated AGK as a toy, something to have fun with and to enjoy on the side of his real business, which has now ended up having really major problems. But it has taken absolutely enormous investments of money to buy all these top players and to pay their hefty salaries. And everyone knows that club handball, even at the absolute top level, is not really a money maker, at least not in Denmark. So the expectation is now that the managers and other key persons in the club are struggling to keep the club going, but that this soon will have to take place at a much more modest level. Perhaps the AGK can keep enough competent top players to remain a good club in Denmark but not a serious challenger at the European level. But if there is no money to pay the players, then the situation could become even more fragile.

From last year’s team AGK has players such as Mikkel Hansen, Joachim Boldsen, Olafur Stefansson, Snorri Gudjonsson, Henrik Toft Hansen, Niklas Ekberg, and goalkeepers Kasper Hvidt and Steinar Ege. New acquisitions for 2012-13 include Kim Andersson, Carlos Prieto and Fredrik Petersen. Clearly, some of these players cannot be kept. Transfer income and salary reductions are necessary. So there is of course great unrest among the players, who have not yet been paid their Champions League bonuses for last season and now have to begin to wonder who are the ones on the trading block. The top players, such as Hansen, would yield more but their departure would obviously hurt the team strength more. And a real problem is that there may not be any buyers. A quick check among some German top teams reveals that they consider their rosters set, so close to the start of the next season. They do not need more players, and they do not have money for more.

As some readers know, AGK is not the only club that has depended on Nielsen’s ‘generosity’. Rhein-Neckar-Lowen have had him as their main sponsor for some years. In fact, he was the owner, until both AGK and RNL qualified for Champions League and EHF ruled that two participants could not have the same owner. So Nielsen stepped down but remained a sponsor. While RNL’s financial situation and continued existence as a top team does not appear threatened, there are reports that Nielsen has unpaid contractual obligations to the team in the order of about 15 Million Euro, and that his house in Spain has been taken as a security, as he does not seem able to fulfill his contract. In other words, a real mess! People do not seem to doubt that Nielsen has essentially acted in good faith; he just has not been able to appreciate the ramifications of his extravagant spending. It will be interesting to follow the outcome.

Following the recent PanAmerican Championships, John Ryan interviewed Coach Christian Latulippe. Christian commented on the unequal circumstances, when it comes to competing successfully with the PanAmerican super powers Argentina and Brazil. He noted that for the USA national teams it seems necessary to recruit athletes well into their 20s, simply because we do not have a pool of talented teenagers from which the senior teams could be built. By contrast, on both the men’s and the women’s side, Argentina and Brazil have massive youth programs. The young handball players grow up getting used to continuous training with the help of competent coaches and frequent league games.

This year again, USA is participating with a team in the renowned Partille Cup in Sweden, the largest and foremost international youth competition. Personally, I am very happy to see this tradition continued, because I happened to be among those who helped getting Partille Cup started more than 40 years ago. But of course I feel sad when I see that after all these years we have yet to reach a level where we can seriously compete with the rest of the world. While the USATH keeps insisting that we have a boy’s team participating, despite the fact that the accompanying photo seems to indicate that this is a girl’s team, the Partille Cup web site provides a bit of clarity. Our team, which is described as the USA National Team, is in the Girls under-16 group.

They finished the group play on Thursday, with a fourth consecutive loss. They have played club teams from Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Iceland. While all these clubs are of modest quality at the senior level, it is more difficult to assess how good their 16-olds are. In any event, the average result in the four games was roughly 7-16, but they lost just 6-8 in their opening game which was against the second-weakest team in the group. In the consolation bracket, which is in the ‘knock out’ format, they play a local team on Friday. It should be added that together with Scotland, Kenya, China, Zimbabwe, India Benin, and a few other countries, USA is participating in an ‘Olympic Development Program’, in collaboration between the Savehof (the organizer of Partille Cup) and the IHF. This entails coaching assistance, training sessions and support in connection with the matches.

Brazil is not just a world-class team at the senior level. In Partille Cup, they are this year participating with an astounding 23 club teams in many age groups. Not only do they have club handball at the youth level; they take every opportunity to develop their skills and gain experience. What do you think this tells us about the prospects for USA to catch up at the pace we are moving!? And then to rub it in: the World Championship for Women in the under-20 category started out this week. PanAmerica has three participants: Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Uruguay has had one win in four games and Argentina had a one-goal loss against Sweden. But Brazil has been just outstanding. Despite a higher ranking, they got a tough group: Norway, Croatia, Netherlands, and Romania, plus ‘up and coming’ Tunisia. It seemed they would have a tough fight to advance. But with one day of group play left on Friday, Brazil is the only team in the entire Championship that has already won their group after four straight victories!

John commented yesterday about the EHF Final Four, and the excitement that this event creates among handball fans, not just in Europe but worldwide. By contrast, and through unfortunate planning during this same weekend, IHF has what could or should be a really exciting event for women’s handball. Because what could be more interesting than seeing which teams grab the remaining six slots in the Olympic women’s handball tournament, joining Norway, Sweden, Brazil, Angola, Korea and hosts Great Britain!? But unfortunately, not even the IHF’s own web page is able to create much suspense or show much enthusiasm…

There are three groups of four teams each, and from each group the best two qualify for London. I have been impressed by the nice progress of Tunisian women’s handball in recent years, but is there really anyone who believes that Tunisia or the Dominican Republic would knock out Denmark or Russia in their group? That would be a sensation that would steal the thunder from the Final Four!

At least it seems that in the other two groups there will be a fight for the second spot. France playing at home will be hard to defeat, even in the absence of injured star player Pineau. So, while either them of might be strong enough to cause an upset against the hosts, I suspect that Montenegro and Romania will have to concentrate on fighting for the all-important second place. Romania must try to do so without their key player Neagu, and Montenegro may feel a boost from recent Champions League triumph of Buducnost. This will most likely be the most excited game of the weekend. It is hard to see that ‘the rising sun’, i.e., Japan will have much of a chance.

In the group played in Spain, it is conceivable that Croatia will be able to threaten the home team, but normally they would have to be content with winning the qualification by defeating the Netherlands. This team came into the qualifying event through the back door, having to rely on Angola to free up their qualifying position from the World Championship by winning the African Championship. But for the Dutch women it is an important PR and preparative opportunity, as they are hosting the next women’s European Championship in December this year. Argentina did not do well in last year’s World Championship and is not expected to be competitive.

So if things go according to plans, all the six remaining slots would go to European teams. This special qualifying event is, on paper, meant to give the other continents an additional chance to get someone into the Olympic tournament beyond their continental champions. But instead it is likely to confirm the European dominance beyond the ‘traditional’ powers of Korea, Brazil and Angola. One would hope that the IHF would see fit to put in a special effort in support of the ‘second tier’ of non-European teams, so that eventually the Olympics and the World Championships stop looking too much like European Championships!

An event like EURO 2012, with a concentrated number of difficult games involving the best referees of Europe, is often a good opportunity to take stock of both the overall quality of the current level of refereeing and of the specific situations and problem areas that may warrant attention. Therefore, even if undoubtedly both Sandor Andorka and his EHF colleagues, as well as my former IHF colleagues paid close attention to the referee performances, I hope that they will not mind my offering some unsolicited input. In doing so, however, I should note that the internet opportunities this time were not ideal, as there were many parallel games and the ‘on demand’ feature for watching games afterwards mostly functioned rather poorly.

I have already commented that the quality of play in EURO 2012 perhaps was not as high as one had hoped, and that many top players sometimes seemed to lack their usual energy and motivation. But from a refereeing standpoint, it may have been more relevant that an unusually high proportion of the games were very close and exciting in terms of final results. Also, there was some added excitement in the sense that there was not just a competition for EURO medals but also for a chance to obtain one of the slots in an Olympic qualifying tournament. Also, the format of EURO, where results are carried over to the next round, means that there are very few games where the results have less importance. All this contributes to put pressure on the referees, as does the reality that there were really TWO home teams with loud and fanatic spectators, namely Serbia and Macedonia.

Possibly this may have contributed to the feeling I had that in many games some of our most experienced referees showed a hint of being overly ‘diplomatic’ or cautious. Of course, while we want our referees to be bold and confident, essentially ‘whistling for what they see’, without worrying about the reactions to their decisions, we do not want them to be robots or in an ‘autopilot’ mode. They need to take into account the ‘temperature’ of the game and their decisions in previous similar situations, so that they can maintain consistency and control. But we do not want them to look as if they primarily think of how they can avoid problems for themselves with their decisions. By this I mean the tendency to interrupt quickly instead of giving advantage or letting a situation develop fully; or the temptation to whistle ‘cheap’ free-throws for the attacking team, instead of taking a tougher decision to give a 7-meter or a 2-minute penalty, or alternatively a decision in favor of the defenders.

There was a clear indication that the referees, collectively, had been instructed to pay more attention to offensive fouls. I agree with this approach, as it creates more fairness and balance and encourages the defenders to avoid excessive, desperate methods. And I saw many excellent decisions. But such a focus can be a bit dangerous, if it cannot be implemented with full consistency. There were now situations where it was impossible to understand how the referees could find reason to decide offensive foul, and on the other hand also clear such fouls that were not detected. So the good intentions were somewhat undermined by the difficulties in maintaining a clear line.

Similarly, many of the referee couples demonstrated a very good sense for detecting passive play, in part by being alert to the situations where there were tactical reasons for a team to ‘hold back a bit’. But it does not then look so good when other couples seem more ‘blind’ to the tactics that they should be able to detect. The same applies to the irritating habit of some players in being theatrical, in attempts to mislead the referees. This may involve pretending to have been fouled or at least exaggerating the impact. It is not enough to avoid falling for this behavior; you must also show that you do not tolerate it and even punish it. Some referees did not handle this firmly enough.

The decisions involving personal punishments was clearly the main area where ‘diplomacy and caution’ entered into the picture. It becomes a bit too obvious, when the referees are very correct and systematic early in the game with the ‘yellow cards’ and the 2-minute penalties, but then later on, in the critical phase of a close game, they seem to close their eyes also in the case of dangerous and careless fouls. This may involve pushing against jumping or running players, or it may be related to ‘wrestling’ against the pivot on the 6-meter line. Players will lose respect for the referees if they see such situations where the courage is lacking.

Another temptation for ‘diplomacy’ exists when the referee does not really see if a defender is inside our outside the 6-meter line when facing a jump shooter. Somehow, it seems as if the referees find it easier(!) to give a 7-meter than to call an offensive foul. But I also think the referees (and perhaps the instructors) may ‘forget’ the wording of rule 6:2c: “entering the goal area does not mean just touching the goal-area line, but clearly stepping into the goal area”.

Finally, a specific situation where more work seems needed by both instructors and referees involves the shots from the wings. It is a situation where it is difficult to see clearly ‘who is doing what to whom’, but I also sense that clearer instructions are needed. The wing players more and more seem to be in the habit of getting (too) close to the defender, even intentionally trying to gain an advantage by causing body contact, rather than avoiding such contact. Often this is taken too far, and it causes an unfair disadvantage for the defender, or it leads to an unwarranted 7-meter decision. But sometimes it is just the opposite: the attacker does nothing wrong, and the defender seems to be passive with the arms down along the body, but a perfectly timed turn of the body makes the defender puts his shoulder into the shooter at the critical moment.

All in all, I do not have major concerns about the collective performances at EURO 2012, but I had probably hoped to see more consistency from one couple to another, and more convincing performances from the relatively more experienced couples. After all, most of the couples, although generally of a ‘new generation’, have already gained some experience from big events. But it is also a bit of the same situation as in the past: one or two problem areas from recent years are being handled better than before, but then instead some new situations (or supposedly resolved ‘old’ issues) are (re)appearing… The task of the referees is not easy, and neither is that of their instructors and observers!

The semifinals for both men and women were played today. On the men’s side, most people expected to see Egypt and Tunisia move on to the final ‘as usual’. And even the format of the Championship seemed to support that. After Egypt and Algeria had battled to a draw when playing in the same group, today they met again in the semi-final under a schedule that seemed designed to keep Egypt and Tunisia apart until the final.

BUT, there will be no such final. Algeria managed to win 26-25, despite a 12-14 deficit at half-time. So Algeria showed that the 34-34 in the group game was not a fluke. There is now absolute euphoria in Algerian handball circles, judging from their main handball web sites.

While Egypt and Tunisia have recently been the main rivals in men’s handball, perhaps the most intense rivalry in sports general, and certainly in football, is precisely Egypt-Algeria. In 2009, there were riots, literally, when they had to play each other in play-off games for the World Cup in football. It led to diplomatic tensions, and Egypt backed out as a host of the 2010 African Championship in handball rather than having to host the Algerian team. And the history of tension in sports goes back much further and is too long to explain here.

One would imagine that there is now a state of shock in Egyptian handball. It would have been bad enough to lose in the final and have to play in one of the qualifying groups for the Olympics, but one doubts that they had expected to miss out completely on the chance to be in the Olympics. For many years, Egyptians have had their faith in handball as the sport that one day would give them an Olympic medal in a team sport. It seems likely that Egypt will still be able to win the bronze medal game against Morocco and thereby qualify for the 2013 World Championships, but that will not provide much consolation.

On the women’s side, we will tomorrow see the expected final between the perennial winner Angola and the up-and-coming Tunisians. The latter beat Algeria 27-24 in a tight game, while the Angolan women crushed the Democratic Republic of Congo, 39-19. So Angola and Tunisia will fight for the direct tickets to London. In the perhaps unlikely event that Tunisia would win, then the Angolans would get a special slot in a qualifying tournament on account of their ranking in the recent World Championships , and it seems that the bronze medal winner would then get Africa’s ‘number two’ slot in the qualifying.

During many years at the IHF and PATHF, I was frustrated with the primitive methods used during games for the recording of relevant situations for post-game feedback to the referees. Essentially the ‘equipment’ consisted of a notepad and homemade full-court and half-court diagrams to facilitate quick recording of game situations that I needed to remember. Knowing the extent of the technology available to coaches and players, I found this really annoying, as a correct and clear feedback to the referees is so critical for their continuous learning.

But not so many years ago, we introduced a software system in the IHF, so that notes during the game could be limited to the exact time of the relevant situations, as that would enable us to go to the game DVD afterwards and retrieve and save the necessary game segments or situations. This, however, typically requires a long night’s work in the hotel room after a long day of intensive work with the referee and then during 2-4 games. Moreover, it would depend on immediate access to the game DVDs, something that often failed, and it did not allow for an electronic transfer of the material after it had been used in the feedback session.

However, in collaboration with the European office of FIBA (the International Basketball Federation), the EHF last year tested a much more modern and efficient approach in connection with the European Youth and Junior Championships. It involves an Online Platform and an Observer Program. This does not just expand the scope and speed of the capturing of situations but also the quality, because it is based on real-time footage. It means that the video clips can be prepared and ready immediately at the end of a game. And for the referees it is possible to receive the clips electronically for self-evaluation from their own games, and for learning from the games of their colleagues.

The approach is based on the concept of a ‘Digital Scoresheet’. Sorting and filing of clips can be done under different categories along several different dimensions. So it is possible to be very systematic and focus on specific problems and issues in a very efficient manner. This saves a lot of preparation time, but it also can make you tie in the observations to the specific guidelines and emphasis that have been provided prior to an event.

Clearly, while the distribution of the resulting material may need to be controlled by the responsible federation, in this case the EHF, there is afterwards no reason for any limitation in the dissemination of this valuable material. So referees at the national and local levels can easily be given access. Unfortunately, the reality is that not all national federations have first-class referee observers and instructors, and not all of them have the technical resources needed to set up systems of their own. Therefore it could be of tremendous help well beyond the small group of elite referees.

The only thing that is now missing is a political/financial arrangement between the EHF and the IHF, so that the IHF could also share in this system. For obvious reasons, the IHF Referee Commission is enthusiastic about it, not the least for its own immediate tasks during major events. But it could also become a fantastic asset for federations and referees worldwide. So I do hope that the IHF leaders will see fit to move ahead promptly with the necessary agreements.

Finally, on a slightly different issue, and apropos the parenthesis in the heading for this write-up, the EHF introduced another new twist in the pre-Championship preparations of the referees. During their meetings before the EURO2012 got underway in Serbia, the referees were required to take an oath, in a similar way to what one representative of all the judges is doing at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, regarding their determination to carry out their job in a fair and sportsmanlike way and in accordance with all applicable rules. This is a very nice idea. But it makes me suggest that, as part of the opening ceremony, the same thing should be done by, or on behalf of, all the players and team officials as well!

This may sound like a strange headline, a mathematical impossibility. Surely there must be the same number of winners and losers. But what I mean is that during the first two days, with the first game for each team, there were not so many teams winning their games by doing a great job. Instead, and by contrast, there were several teams that seemed to give away a point or two unnecessarily, by playing without the necessary stability. Admittedly, this may be explained by ‘opening day nerves’ and the reality that the teams have not yet found their rhythm.

For the same reason, it may be very risky to make any firm predictions on the basis of the opening games. But it seems that there may be a smaller number of really strong teams than the pre-event media discussions had suggested. For instance, Group D has been talked about as the ‘group of death’, but yesterday’s games may suggest that Croatia, who did not play great, is lucky by actually not having such a tough opposition. The Croatia-Iceland game yesterday seemed to be a pale copy of the great battles these two teams have fought in recent years. Now it was the goalie, Alilovic, who ‘woke up’ and rescued Croatia at the end.

Some may have seen the defeat of France against Spain as an upset, but in our podcast recently I suggested to John Ryan that France might be in for a bit of a struggle. And Spain seems to have built a solid team, with impressive contributions from some of the newer members of the team. Hungary and Russia seemed to try to outdo each other in efforts to lose their game; in the end, neither one succeeded.

I had talked about Germany as the most unpredictable team. Against the Czechs, they showed themselves from their worst side, leaderless and listless. They will need to come back strongly today against the Macedonians, who are frantically supported by thousands of spectators. Nevertheless, the Swedes did not really have a good excuse for dropping a point against Macedonia.

It had been my prediction that Serbia would do well, not just because of home court advantage but because they have a really talented team. They won convincingly against Poland, although the Poles were hampered by having a couple of key players, including goalkeeper Szmal, missing. Now the Serbs got an injury that may constitute a handicap in today’s key game against Denmark. Make sure to catch that game on EHF’s YouTube broadcasts if you can.

Finally, it may seem premature to talk about the 2013 World Championships. But the EHF just finished up the first round of their qualifying process. France as defending champions and Spain as hosts are of course already qualified for 2013. In addition, the best three of the other 14 teams in EURO2012 will qualify directly. The remaining eleven teams will be paired up together with seven qualifying winners in a ‘knock-out competition’ for nine slots in a few months. The seven qualifying winners this past weekend were: Austria, Portugal, Montenegro, Netherlands, Lithuania, Bosnia/Herzegovina, and Belarus.

There was some excitement in the final round. Perennial power Switzerland played well in the final game in the Lithuania, having a seemingly insurmountable lead; but in the end they only managed a tie, which was not enough. Traditional top team Romania could afford to lose by three goals in the final game in Belarus, but they lost by five so that meant an early exit. Portugal surprised somewhat by defeating Ukraine both home and away, and the Bosnians had tight double victories against Greece.

The African Championships for both men and women got under way in Morocco this week. Three of the five match days have been played, and the results have been rather predictable. But, of course, the ‘serious business’ will come next week, when the direct battles for World Championship slots and places in the Olympic qualifying tournaments will take place.

On the men’s side, the top three teams qualify for the 2013 World Championship in Spain, the winner also qualifies directly for the Olympic Games in London, and the runner-up will be participating in a qualifying tournament for the Olympics. Among the women, Angola has already qualified for at least a place in the Olympic qualifying, on the basis of their placement in the World Championship last month. If they now become African champions, they will be directly qualified for London, with the runner-up going to a qualifying tournament. Any other team beating Angola would, of course, obtain the Olympic slot.

The men initially play in two groups of six teams each and the women have two groups of five team. The top four teams in each group play ‘cross-over’ quarterfinals. In men’s group A, Tunisia and the home team Morocco already qualified for the quarterfinals by winning their first three games. The same is the situation for Egypt and Algeria in group B, so the four North Africans seem to retain their top ranking. In Group A, the two Congos seem poised to grab the other two slots, although Senegal might put up a fight in the final group game. In group B, it seems likely that Angola and Cameroon will be able to keep Cote d’Ivoire and Burundi behind them.

Among the women, in recent years Cote d’Ivoire has been the main rival to Angola, but the results in the recent World Championship suggest that Tunisia is the up and coming team with a genuine chance to compete for the chance to be in London. Both Cote d’Ivoire and Tunisia have matched the expectations so far. The best bet for the remaining semifinal slot may be the Congo. We will endeavor to come back with further updates next week.

The year-end reports in the British media focused substantially on the (positive) impact that the hosting of the Olympic Games might have on the British economy, the image of Britain as a power still be reckoned with, and the mood of the British people. Inevitably, the media reports also dealt with a spectrum of concerns that tend to be linked with such events.

The main topic tended to be the risk that the Games might make London a target for ‘guests’ with less than friendly and peaceful purposes in mind. London has been a particular target of terrorist attacks in recent years, and the additional crowds and extra media attention during the Olympics might tend to create an irresistible temptation. There had been earlier reports that the organizers (LOCOG) and the British authorities had been taking an optimistic approach, at least in terms of those aspects of readiness that tend to be known to the public. For instance, leaving aside the planned police presence, there were suggestions that the LOCOG security forces would be kept at a modest 10.000. This has now been increased to about 24.000. More generally, the authorities go out of their way to be reassuring.

Of course, disturbances do not come just in the form of terrorism. Riots, typically related to social unrest and economic suffering, have taken place in recent years. Similarly, just as in many other locations, organized demonstrations or protest actions have also affect London and Britain. Clearly these are all events that may be occurring spontaneously and at the local level, but often they quite deliberately seek the limelight, and what would then be a better opportunity than the Olympics.

Congestion due to excess crowds can in itself be a problem. London is used to masses of tourists, something that I could notice during the traditional ‘invasion’ around the holidays. But the expected onslaught during the Olympics promises (or threatens…) to be something extraordinary. Olympic cities tend to draw crowds also beyond those who are ticket-holders and sports fans. And an additional problem this time seems to be that events, even in relatively ‘obscure’ sports (which by British standards certainly includes handball), are sold out to an extent that has never been seen before. This means that optimistic visitors will arrive in the hope of picking up miscellaneous tickets upon arrival, only to find that this may be much more difficult than they had expected.

The notion of having masses of frustrated visitors milling around in the streets, restless because they could not get the tickets they wanted, is not an attractive notion in the eyes of the security forces or, for that matter, the British public. But the situation may be somewhat alleviated by the apparent plans of an unusually large number of Londoners to take their vacation elsewhere in the country or abroad, precisely to escape the drawbacks of the Olympics rather than staying behind to ‘enjoy the atmosphere’. This might also constitute a saving grace in terms of reducing the risk for massive traffic congestions. Most Olympic events will be concentrated to an area far out to the East of central London. But while the heart of London may thus be less affected, the question is whether brand new roads and options for public transit will turn out to be adequate in the vicinity of the area where the main arenas are situated.

Awkwardly enough, on balance both LOCOG and other British authorities see fraud and match fixing as perhaps the main threat to successful and enjoyable Olympic Games. Britain, through the recent rise in problems of this nature in popular sports such as football, cricket and tennis, has become a focal point for cynical and ruthless illegal betting activities initiated by criminal groups from East Asia and various parts of the Commonwealth. They are firmly entrenched in the world of sports in Britain, and it will be a very tough task for IOC and LOCOG in collaboration with various police forces to try to stay ahead of this type of activities. Fraud related to illegal betting may not necessarily target the best-known athletes and the fight for the medals. More obscure events, results, and partial outcomes are easier but just as lucrative targets. Moreover, the bribery and manipulations may then involve athletes and officials who are carrying on more in the background, who come from poor circumstances and have relatively much less to lose, The criminals in this field know how to spot vulnerability and how to take advantage of it. Let us hope that the countermeasures will be effective!

For any person it may come to the unfortunate point where self-inflicted wounds in one’s professional life and grief due to tragedies in one’s personal life coincide in a macabre way.

Hassan Moustafa, IHF President, has for many years been in a state of denial regarding the numerous manifestations of his cynical and despotic regime at the IHF. Whether he is now able also to ignore and shake off the impact of having had the IHF Offices and his own private penthouse apartment raided by police two days ago, that remains to be seen. I will follow up on this topic later today or tomorrow.

But for some time now, Hassan Moustafa has had to focus on a personal tragedy in the form of a serious illness of his wife, Dr. Magda Fahmy Ezz, who has been in coma in a hospital in Cairo. I had the pleasure of meeting her, and she was very clearly a charming and highly accomplished woman, with major successes both in sports and in the arts, especially ballet. I will not forget the superb opening ceremony that she choreographed and produced for the Handball World Championship in Cairo in 1999. However, the message has now gone out that she passed away last night.

Yes, personal and professional tragedies can be intertwined in this way. But while the strong concerns about the impact of President Moustafa’s decisions and actions in the IHF will continue to be severely pursued by me and others, it is appropriate at this time to step back and convey condolences to Hassan Moustafa and his daughter (whom I have also met) in their moment of personal grief.