USA Team Handball: Smart international moves offset by questionable National team planning

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If you check the USA Team Handball website regularly like I do, you surely noticed General Manager Steve Pastorino’s recent blog post highlighting his recent trip to Germany and Denmark. Some shortsighted naysayers have knocked these trips to Europe as a waste of time and money, but I see those trips as just the type of frequent face to face interaction that’s needed to coax the Euros into realizing that 1) the U.S. is a massive untapped market for handball and 2) that market won’t wake up unless they (the Euros) take action to make it happen. The moves to build relationships with European organizations should pay dividends in the future and in particular, I was very pleased to see them meet with the TV production and marketing company, Sportfive. It’s one thing for a guy like me to pull them aside at the World Championships and tell them that they are missing the boat, and it’s another thing entirely for USATH to show up in force at their offices to talk shop.

But, while these international efforts are exactly the kind of moves I’ve wanted to see for years, I can’t say the same thing in regards to the moves the U.S. appears to making in regards to national team competition. I say “appears” because the U.S. Federation has not chosen yet to share any of its plans for national team competition. Even worse, in a clear lack of transparency, it masks that this topic is even being discussed by its Board of Directors. Why do I say this? Well, first off, you might be surprised to learn that the Board Meeting minutes from last March have been posted on the U.S. Website for a couple of weeks now. One might think that such a meeting merits a short blurb on the front page with a link to the minutes, but apparently the discussion that took place wasn’t considered interesting enough to the membership. I guess one could argue that really bad transparency would be not posting the minutes at all, but this can’t be done as it would violate the Federation’s by-laws. So much like USA Team Handball’s IRS Form 990, you’re going to have to periodically drill down a couple layers on their website to get some marginally more meaningful information.

Alright, why the sarcastic, “marginally more meaningful?” Well, read the meeting minutes as it relates to National Team development and judge for yourself. This passage, in particular, is very telling:

“A lengthy discussion about USOC High Performance funding ensued. Programs and funding for Domestic Development, Futures Program and European Resident Athlete Program are in place. A discussion about National Team Development resulted in a commitment by Wartalowicz and Pastorino to present at this year’s Nationals a “Plan 2016” that will outline the men’s and women’s roadmaps to success.

OK, how about a little more detail concerning this “lengthy discussion”? What exactly was discussed? Why did it result in a commitment to present an outline roadmap to success? Why isn’t there a plan already and why is it called Plan 2016? Underlying these rhetorical questions are some unsubstantiated rumors that I have received indicating that USA Team Handball is not even going to try and qualify for the 2011 Pan American Games. The information I received is second or third hand, but an email query from USA Team Handball General Manager Steve Pastorino acknowledged that they “have to address the upcoming PANAM issue” and plan to do so next month in Vegas.

I don’t even know where to begin here. The Pan American Games is the primary route for the U.S. to qualify for the Olympic Games. How can a National Governing Body (NGB) underneath the U.S. Olympic Committee umbrella even contemplate not trying to qualify for the Olympics? Well, if you read the USOC Bylaws it’s pretty clear to me that an NGB simply can’t do that. Read Section 9, Athletes Rights, 9.1 Opportunity to Participate, which reads in part:

“No member of the corporation may deny or threaten to deny any amateur athlete the opportunity to participate in the Olympic Games, the Pan American Games, the Paralympic Games, a World Championship competition….”

I’m not a lawyer, but I’m thinking deciding to not even field a team for qualification matches for the Pan American Games pretty much denies athletes the opportunity participate in those games. And come to think of it, the decision to not send a Men’s team to the Division 1 tournament last year in the Dominican Republic would seem to violate the USOC By-laws as well, since it was a qualification event for the World Championships.

But setting aside the legal ramifications, you’re going to have a hard time convincing me that skipping out on a chance to compete in the Pan American Games can ever be construed as a good idea. Last October, I wrote a commentary on what a big mistake I thought it was for the U.S. to not send a Men’s team to the Pan American Team Handball Federation’s Division 1 Championship. Lacking a clear explanation behind the decision I provided some speculative reasons as to why this decision was reached. Those reasons were:

1) The USA Federation didn’t want to jeopardize the establishment of a North American Handball Federation (NAHF)
2) Not enough money to afford the trip
3) A European Friendly trip is seen as more productive
4) Participating would disrupt the youth movement
5) Team USA wants to avoid embarrassment

Six months later the picture is somewhat clearer. Reason #1 appears to have lost validity as the Board Minutes indicate that the motion for the new federation at the IHF Congress will “be withdrawn until a more favorable climate for a split is available.” (Memo to USATH Board: If a new federation means somebody else in the world is going to lose a slot for the WC or Olympics I don’t see any change in climate coming.) Aspects of reasons 2-5 would still seem to apply, but the words “Plan 2016” appear to signal that Reason #4 (the youth movement) is the focus for this decision.

Then as now, I don’t see a youth movement as justification for not participating. National Teams, with a heavy influx of young prospects could participate in Pan American Games qualification events later this year and next spring. Anyone who follows handball in this hemisphere knows that the U.S. has virtually no chance of putting together a men’s or women’s team capable of winning a Gold Medal next year in Guadalajara. But, it’s certainly feasible that we could put together teams that could qualify for 1 of the 8 spots at the Pan American Games. Those players would gain valuable experience in very meaningful and relevant competition and when we try to execute “Plan 2016” at the Pan American Games in 2015 wouldn’t it be better to have several athletes that have been there before?

But what do I know? Maybe Plan 2016 will try to incorporate an “out of nowhere” strategy similar to the North Korean soccer team that shocked Italy at the 1966 World Cup. All, I can say is that I look forward to the presentation of the plan next month in Las Vegas. As I’ve been saying for months it’s high time that we had one.

Steve Pastorino on Handball (16 Apr 10): USATH Welcomed in Hamburg and Denmark:
http://usateamhandball.org/blogs/steve-pastorino-on-handball/posts/1822-usath-welcomed-in-hamburg-and-denmark
USATH March 17 BoD Meeting Minutes: http://assets.usoc.org/assets/documents/attached_file/filename/24170/BOD_Minutes_for_3-17-2010.pdf
USOC Bylaws: http://assets.teamusa.org/assets/documents/attached_file/filename/17354/Bylaws_7.01.08__executed_-_final_.pdf
THN (22 Oct 09): USA declines to send team to Men’s Div 1 PATHF Championships: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.853
THN (25 Oct 09):Analyzing the US decision to not participate in PATHF: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.854

Progress regarding Competition Calendar and Compensation/Insurance matters

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Reports from a recent meeting, where IHF top officials met with representatives for the EHF, top leagues and top clubs, suggest that some progress was made regarding the important issues of a streamlined competition calendar and compensation for federations and for clubs whose players spend time on their national teams in IHF events. An earlier meeting seemed to have been characterized more by complications regarding formalities and procedures. In the meantime, the EHF had been able to conduct similar meetings in a seemingly more constructive fashion.

It would certainly be a positive development if the IHF now follow suits and that, if possible, [u]one[/u] coordinated process with all the relevant parties involved would be feasible. For instance, there seems to be some loosening up of a stubborn reluctance to deal with the representatives that the clubs themselves wish to choose. It also seems that there was more of a focus on possible solutions and less on obstacles.

The issue of compensation appeared to be based on a good deal of agreement on the principles involved: the IHF is prepared to share revenues in such a way that federations participating in World Championships would benefit more than in the past and so that clubs will get compensation for the fact that they are paying player salaries during substantial periods when IHF events make them unavailable to their clubs. It remains as a tough issue for negotiation to determine just [u]how much[/u] the IHF will be able and willing to provide. Clearly, the IHF needs to use a large part of its event-related revenue for global development work and other projects, but the federations and clubs will probably want to become reassured that the IHF does not make itself poorer than it is.

There also seemed to be agreement regarding the need for some kind of insurance arrangement that would cover those unfortunate situations where a club finds that a key player returns from an IHF event with an injury that makes the participation in club matches impossible for an extended period.

Perhaps it may turn out to be more complicated to get to a satisfactory agreement regarding the overall match calendar and the impact of the health and well-being on the players. Presumably all parties agree that it has gone too far, but who will be prepared to cut back on events under their jurisdiction?? IHF events and continental championships may not in themselves constitute the excessive portion of the overall schedule. Instead one might be inclined to say that continental club events are stretched out too much and that some of the top leagues involve too many weak teams and boring games. But this makes the club representatives jump and insist that also the games that are ‘useless’ on the court are valuable for the bank accounts. In other words, the income that is needed to pay player salaries becomes more important then their health. But something has to give!

It will indeed be interesting to see how this whole process continues, and it is certainly nice to see and hear some signs of optimism!

Prominent writer Andrew Jennings gives the IHF regime global coverage

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Andrew Jennings is a globally known investigative reporter, author and film maker. He has been active for about 30 years, having written for all the major newspapers in Britain. While he has provided first-hand accounts of stories such as the rebel activities in Chechnya, Mafia enterprises in Sicily, and shady dealings in the 'Iran-Contra' affair, his main focus has been on corruption in sports. He is the author of several award-winning books, translated into a multitude of languages, containing revelations of the 'inside story' of FIFA and of the IOC and the Olympic movement.

He has never before written about handball, so it is clearly significant that this week he has seen fit to write a major article on his own web site 'TransparencyInSport', http://www.transparencyinsport.org/ about the long list of transgressions by the IHF president in recent time and over many years. It is not exactly the kind of publicity that an international sports federation and its top officials would like to see. Indeed, it is a warning to the 'international handball family' that what is going on cannot be kept secret, and that the current IHF regime is doing great damage to the image of the sport we love.

The Viking Gods miscalculated slightly…

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As many of our readers are likely to be aware, if counted 'per capita', Iceland has the highest number of handball players of any country in the world. Handball is almost a religion for the Icelandic people. And in their frosty – although sometimes fiery – climate, it is not strange that they still rely very heavily on an active and vivid relationship with their old Viking Gods.

The Icelandic people have a strong sense of right and wrong. They are never hesitant about speaking up and letting the rest of the world know what they think. So when they heard about the proposed changes in the IHF Statutes they realized that something drastic needed to be done. The Viking Gods, with Thor as the main responsible, needed to be called into action.

By now you are beginning to sense where this is going… Thor shrewdly figured that a small eruption of the volcano at Eyjafjallajokull would do the trick. With a good deal of accuracy it should be possible to direct the resulting cloud of ashes to a position exactly over Italy, as a way of preventing the planned IHF Congress from taking place in Rome this coming weekend. At the most, the cloud would extend from Basel in the north to Cairo in the southeast.

But apparently something went badly wrong in the calibrations. Thor is known to be a bit heavy-handed and prone to be using more power than is needed. But it may also have something to do with his temper, and his reactions after reading the proposed changes in the Statutes. In any case, most of Europe is now under a cloud, somewhat to the embarrassment of the Icelandic. What started out as totally justifiable and well-targeted took on totally unexpected proportions and created a misery for far too many.

However, when the truth about the origin of the whole situation is now becoming known to the general public, I am sure that they will be forgiving and conclude that it was well-intended and for a very worthy cause. At least the IHF Congress has been 'postponed'…

1000 Posts and Counting: Some thoughts from the Editor

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My colleague, Christer Ahl, noticed the other day that Team Handball News (THN) was approaching the posting of its 1,000th article and indicated to me that this milestone was probably worthy of comment. I agreed and thought it would be a good time for a commentary about the site, its history, its content and its way ahead. So here goes:

Site History: As this site regularly picks up new readers from everywhere in the world a little bit of history is warranted as to why the site got started initially and how it has evolved over time. During the 2004 Olympics I stared a simple blog on Team Handball primarily as a way to share my views about Handball with friends back in the U.S. while I was living in France. You can still read those old posts at http://teamhandball.blogspot.com. In 2006, an internal dispute within the USA Team Handball Federation bitterly divided the sport’s community within the U.S. In the midst of this dispute it became apparent that a blog couldn’t address the myriad issues as effectively as a dedicated website. So on 2 January, 2006 Team Handball News was born with this post.

With a dedicated site it was now easier to post documentation and store audio interviews on the site. Additionally, the site allowed more flexibility and made it easier to distinguish between commentary and straight news.

Since 2006, we’ve covered Handball news from all of the continental federations and we haven’t shied away from controversy. We’ve covered the never-ending (seemingly anyway) transgressions of the current IHF leadership, the occasional lack of transparency in the EHF and the PATHF’s unfair practices against its North American members. Sometimes forgotten, however, is that we also cover the “good news” stories like the IHF’s President’s cup, the EHF’s wonderful promotion efforts and the progress Brazil has made as a Handball nation. For those of you new to our site or new to handball, it’s probably worth your while to use the search function (upper right hand corner) to find out more about a particular topic.

THNs Content: Since being established, we’ve experimented with many different themes and topics, but for the most part we’ve focused on two major themes:

1) Handball news from the developing nations
2) Handball news for the English speaking world

With the addition of Christer Ahl to the site in July of 2009 we’ve also started to include more stories on technical issues like proposed rule changes, refereeing, coaching and gender issues.

We can’t even begin to cover everything so we have to pick and choose. Often that meets simply writing about what interests us, but we try to focus on events like Continental Championships (other than Europe) that are woefully under-reported. We also pay special attention to transparency and conflict issues because, not surprisingly, official sites either don’t report on them at all or provide a very slanted, one sided story. Finally, commentary is another important aspect of our site. For whatever reason, many European news outlets (not just handball news outlets) don’t do much in terms of opinion pieces. Shockingly enough, sometimes our site is the only one out there (in any language) stating a position on a controversial issue.

THN’s Audience: If it’s not already obvious, THN has a bifurcated audience. On the one hand there is the English speaking Handball world with the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, India and other assorted countries. On the other hand is the Handball world that has English as a second language and is looking for Handball news outside their home country. The interests of these two audiences overlap, but rest assured there are plenty of Americans who could care less about International Handball political developments and plenty of Europeans who could care less about American Handball development. The relative size of these audiences ebbs and flows, but currently are English second language audience is on the upswing. I guess if we are the only ones to report and comment on IHF developments the rest of the Handball world is going to take notice.

Audio Podcasts: https://teamhandballnews.com/download5.html
We’ve done several interviews, provided Champions League commentary, and a few “Handball Talk” shows since our inception. While I’ve enjoyed doing these podcasts they can be a time consuming endeavor. As the technology evolves and more people get comfortable with consuming audio content we’ll relook the possibility of regular shows on a weekly or monthly basis.

The Forum: https://teamhandballnews.com/e107_plugins/forum/forum.php
I probably get more feedback on our forum section than any other aspect of our website. Generally, that feedback is about how the reader doesn’t like the negativity coming from some of the participants. My response has been, universally, to tell those readers, “if they don’t like it, don’t go there.” While I prefer constructive dialogue on the many issues related to Handball, I acknowledge that the forum does sometimes degenerate into silliness, but we don’t have time to police and arbitrate every post. Instead we do minimal policing of the forum and as long as the attacks aren’t directed at race, creed, and the other assorted discriminatory categories we let the posts stay. Generally, the “idiots” eventually depart, but some do stick around to provide entertainment. It kind of reminds me of the old poker adage: if you don’t know who the worst player at the table is within 15 minutes, then you are the worst player.

Are we journalists?: I occasionally get emails along the lines of “you never went to Journalism school, why should we take you serious?” This, of course, is a debate that is taking place in every corner of the internet, and handball is just one niche example. In today’s world, anyone with an internet connection can spout their opinion and stake a claim as a news outlet. For the record, I’ve never been to journalism school and this website can best be described as a hobby. I have to admit that I have had to study up on the use and application of some common journalism terms such as “on background” and “on the record.” To those out there who do take us seriously and have seen fit to provide us “inside information” I say, thank you. To those out there who don’t take us seriously, I say, “Explain to me, Why do you check our site so regularly?”

How bout a little respect: Continuing on this journalistic credo theme: Team Handball News has queried major Handball organizations on a number of occasions. Sometimes the issues are controversial, but often they are about more mundane issues. Usually, we are lucky to get any response. And when it comes to unsolicited communiqués, we rarely get notification of major newsworthy events. OK, I understand we’re not a mainstream news site, but we are a Team Handball News site. Oh, and one other little factoid:

WE ARE THE ONLY INDEPENDENT HANDBALL NEWS SITE IN ENGLISH, THE WORLD’S LINGUA FRANCA.

Wow! You would think that the world’s “2nd most popular sport”* would be genuflecting daily in the direction of its only world-wide news outlet. OK, maybe genuflecting is a little much, but I’ll settle for a little respect. That respect could start with answering email requests for information. The next step would be periodic phone conversations and interviews.

*FYI. It’s pretty self-evident that I’m a huge fan of Handball, but the oft quoted claim of it being 2nd most popular sport is simply not a credible one. In fact, by a number of metrics it’s only the 2nd most popular team sport in a handful of countries. http://teamhandball.blogspot.com/search?q=popular

A call for help (reporters): Sometimes we’ve been critiqued for too little reporting on actual handball events. It’s certainly true that actual on the scene reporting has been scarce. I would certainly like to do more reporting like I was able to do at the World Championship in Germany (2007). To the IHF’s credit they gave me full media accreditation and access for the games. I was able to put this to good use and wrote several stories and even did some audio interviews like these with Greenland national team:
https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.254 and IHF Treasurer, Miquel Roca https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.264 There’s nothing to say that other Handball fans attending events couldn’t also do the same sort of reporting. If you’re interested in playing reporter let me know and we’ll even try and get you media accreditation.

A call for help (commentators): Have you got an opinion on Handball related issues? Would you like a platform to broadcast that opinion to the world? Team Handball exists that for that very reason. Since its inception we’ve been open to posting commentary from guest contributors. Few, however, have ever taken us up on this open invitation. The requirements are not overly stringent, but the prose does need proper construction and a reasoned argument. If you have a proposed essay, send it to john.ryan@teamhandballnews.com

A call for help (web designers): THN’s current web site can best be described as functional. It gets the job done, but it clearly lacks bells and whistles. If you are interested in spicing up our website by making it simpler to add more pictures, video, more web 2.0 features and/or an online shop please let me know: john.ryan@teamhandbalnews.com

The Way Ahead: THN plans to continue the same things we’ve been doing. As highlighted above there are several features/functions that we’d like to add to the site. I’d also like for the site to add more reporting on handball, but there’s only two ways that’s going to happen. We can either bend time to add more hours in a day or we could add more contributors to THN. The latter is more feasible and I would like to see THN have a sizable staff of dedicated volunteers. With such a staff more and better content could be provided. Ideally, the site would then grow to a point where revenue from advertising could be used to cover a portion of travel costs for volunteers to attend major events like the World Championships. But, barring an influx of volunteers we’re more likely to continue as before. We’ll keep fighting the good fight for transparency and fairness for our sport and hopefully, you’ll keep reading.

Playing time – 2×30, 3×20, 4×15 or why not 12×5 !?

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Before you start wondering: no, this is not intended as a serious analysis of a possible change in the playing time for handball. I will leave it to others to investigate whether there would be any merit in the idea of changing the playing time to, for instance, 3×20 or 4×15, following the pattern of some other sports. Indeed, when one thinks about the importance of marketing handball as an attractive ‘product’ for spectators and media, it is necessary to have an open mind and not just stick to traditions. Of course, this could also open up for opportunities to consider new points systems or other changes that could add to the basic excitement of a handball match.

But I do not believe any such study would come to the conclusion that 12 periods of 5 minutes would be a good idea as a standard, not even at the lower levels where the fitness of players and referees might leave something to be desired. Instead I will just tell you a story about a situation where I, as a referee, had to experience the 12×5 approach in an official competition, and it did [u]not[/u] happen out of concern for my fitness…

I cannot remember exactly when it happened, but it was approximately 25 years ago. The event was a South American Junior Men’s Championship. The location was the town of Maldonado in Uruguay, very close to the famous seaside resort Punta del Este.
There was no suitable indoor arena available, but it was summer, so playing outdoors was not a problem. In fact, they had come up with a very nice solution, playing on the court of a tennis stadium. Because of the heat, the starting time of the games was 10 in the evening and midnight. This meant, of course, playing under the ‘floodlights’ of the tennis stadium, as there is no midnight sun in Maldonado. It was really quite an attractive setting for a handball tournament.

But there was one thing that the organizers had not counted on. The matches did not attract many spectators but, thanks to the floodlights, they attracted an absolute invasion of big, crunchy bugs and roaches — onto the court! This was not clear during the warm-up, as the lights were not on at full strength yet, but soon after the match started, it became all too obvious. I recently offered a story about trying to play a World Championship match on ice (indoors) in Tunisia; this was not very different. The players started to skid on a layer of bugs and roaches who really enjoyed being in the ‘limelight’. But for the players it got a bit scary. So it became obvious that, to keep it safe, we had to stop the game with frequent intervals, and all the brooms and shovels that could be found were put to use to clean off the court. Because those bugs and roaches just kept coming.

I must confess that perhaps we did not stick to precise 5-minute periods; it seemed to make more sense to take the cleaning breaks when the game was already stopped for some other reason. So it may not have been [u]exactly[/u] 12×5, but it certainly was a unique experience!

PATHF Junior Women’s Final Results: Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico Qualify for World Championships

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The Pan American Team Handball Federation (PATHF) Junior Women’s Championships took place this past week in Buenos Aires. Argentina beat Brazil for the gold medal 30-26 while the Dominican Republic beat Puerto Rico, 36-26 for the bronze. All four teams, however, qualified for the Junior World Championships this summer in South Korea.

Final Standings
1) Argentina
2) Brazil
3) Dominican Republic
4) Puerto Rico
5) Uruguay
6) Mexico
7) Chile
8 ) Greenland

Commentary: If Puerto Rico can qualify for the Junior World Championship it’s not a stretch to think that the U.S. could have had a decent shot at qualifying for this event too. Not to beat a broken record here, but USA Team Handball is really missing the boat with their all the eggs in the basket focus on the possibility of a North American Handball Federation (NAHF) being approved by the IHF later this month. Certainly, 4 potential members of the NAHF (Greenland, Mexico, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico) chose to participate in PATHF qualification events. This would have been a great experience for Under 20 players in the U.S. as evidenced by the atmosphere shown in the youtube video of the final.

PATHF: Junior Women’s Final Results: http://www.panamhandball.org/index.php?option=com_joomleague&func=showPlan&mode=1&p=12&Itemid=29

VIDEO: Youtube of last minutes of Gold Medal match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dNGwrtYvy8&feature=player_embedded

THN (26 Nov 09): Another PATHF Tournament in Costa Rica: Where are the Americans?: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.888

Changes in IHF By-Laws/Statutes: What is the issue?

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In response to what has been written both by us in THN and in other media, I have had some feedback from persons who have either had some involvement in the process or are concerned about the results of the proposals before the IHF Extraordinary Congress.

It is understandable that people who are not directly involved have a very limited understanding of the issues, because the IHF has not exactly been open and transparent about what is going on. Not many have had an opportunity to review and understand the implications of the proposals. The same goes for the process that has been followed; not many know how it has happened that we now have a set of proposals that in many respects appear very dangerous and inappropriate. So I would like to dispel some misunderstandings.

Some persons have characterized the issue as essentially being a fight between the IHF and the EHF. This is mostly misleading, as it is true only in the sense that the EHF is the only entity that has openly protested against the proposals and pointed to the dangers involved. But this has happened only very late in the process, and personally I am not impressed with the overall role that the EHF has played; they have been far too unsuspecting or low-key until very recently. They were not invited to be part of an earlier Working Group but there is no indication that they were protesting this exclusion. Similarly, there is no indication that the EHF President ‘created an upheaval’ against what was happening, at the time of the most recent IHF Council meeting. Nevertheless, I am of course pleased that the EHF is now finally attempting to coordinate some kind of resistance.

Others have unfortunately focused more on the process than on the substance. There are indications of a ‘blame game’ between members of the Working Group and members of the IHF Council. From the Working Group it is said that ‘we just put forward a proposal but all decisions were taken by the Council’. From the Council it has been heard that ‘we are not experts so we felt we had reason to trust what was proposed by the Working Group’… If all the participants want to hold someone else responsible, guess who benefits from this kind of finger-pointing: the IHF President from whom almost all of the fundamental and dangerous proposals originated. Clearly, the process was not the issue. The President knew that he would not encounter any resistance. Far too many of the persons involved have their respective personal reasons for just going along with it!

So I simply want to restate briefly what I indicated in my lengthy article on March 21, https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.985 namely that there are [u]two completely inappropriate tendencies[/u] in the proposed new Statutes: [u]1. indications of a one-sided and heavy-handed shift in power in favor of the IHF, at the expense of all other levels and members in the international handball family, and 2. a major expansion of the personal power of the President.[/u] These are tendencies that run completely counter to all sound and modern principles for the management and decision-making in an international sports organization or, for that matter, in any democratic institution. Handball is being sent in a fast and dangerous down-hill slide. [u]Those of you who are in a position of influence must stop it before it is too late![/u]

New Zealand: The Gallipoli 14 and the Handball Haka

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New Zealand and Australia will be traveling to Turkey later this month to participate in a 3 nations tournament. The event will take place in the town of Canakkale, on the Gallipoli peninsula, the site of a fierce WW I battle that took place 95 years ago between the 3 nations. The tournament will be televised in Turkey and in New Zealand according to a radio interview with NZ Federation Secretary General, Frank Stotenberberg. New Zealand will also be travelling to Germany before the tournament where they are scheduled to HSC Gronau (14 Apr), HSG Ascheberg (15 Apr) and TSG Harsewinkel (16 Apr). The dates for the tournament are:

21 April, Australia – New Zealand
22 April, Turkey – New Zealand
24 April, Turkey – Australia

On a side note, I noticed on the New Zealand website a poster showing the New Zealand team performing the Haka, the Maori dance most often associated with New Zealand’s “All Blacks” national Rugby team. This tradition involves the National team performing the war dance on the field while the other National team stoically looks on. But, it’s more than just Rugby as the New Zealand Federation informs me that the Handball team also performs this pregame ritual. I know that Australia has ruled the roost in Oceania competition, but here’s hoping that New Zealand upends them for a World Championship berth. I can just see the puzzled looks of the Swedes in the stands in 2011.

Audio: Interview with NZ Federation Sec Gen Frank Stoltenberg: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOP4Vi3j6PA&feature=player_embedded

3 Nations Tournament official website: http://www.3nations.biz/default_en.asp
New Zealand Federation: http://www.handball.net.nz/cms/
Wikipedia article on Gallipoli: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli_Campaign
Wikipedia article on the Haka: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haka

Handball Haka Videos:

Rugby Haka Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83U_Vg1GRvA

Women's EURO 2010: No real surprises as the qualifying stage continues

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In his posting yesterday, John commented on the fate of the Great Britain team and noted that they are not strong enough to cause any surprises. In fact, the entire qualifying stage has been rather predictable, with the strongest teams dutifully having already ensured their participation in December, together with hosts Denmark and Norway. Several teams are totally without a chance, and the reality is that there simply are not 28 competive teams to make the 7 groups interesting. And it is hard to get excited about a situation where more or less 10 teams have 'smooth sailing' and the only concern is about the remaining 3-4 places.

[u]Seven teams are already through: Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Montenegro, Russia and Spain[/u]. While Switzerland mathematically still has a chance, most experts would say that it would take a miracle for them to keep Romania or Ukraina out. Serbia and Slovenia are heavy favorites to advance from their groups. The Netherlands team is currently ahead of FYR Macedonia in their group, but they will have a tough time defending that position. Sweden should have an edge against the Czech Republic, by virtue of having clearly won the away game. And then, finally, we have the toughest battle in the group where Iceland won by 4 goals at home against Austria. This means that Iceland needs to prevent the hosts from winning by a larger margin when they go to Austria in late May.

Switching gears, more immediately we have the Champions League semi-finals coming up the next two weekends. The draw caused us to have two interesting battles among neighbors and rivals: Viborg (DEN) – Larvik (NOR) and Gyor (HUN) – Valcea (ROU). Judging from comments in the media, Larvik are perhaps the favorites in the Nordic matchup, but this just might the Viborg's chance to pull off a victory before Larvik appears to come with an even stronger team next season. Valcea has the advantage of playing the second game at home, but it is not at all clear that this is a sufficient edge between two teams that seem very evenly matched. We are certainly looking forward to the broadcasts of these exciting games!

British women with disappointing results against Iceland

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The Great Britain women’s team was easily defeated twice this past week by Iceland in Group Play qualifier matches for the 2010 European Championships. Iceland won the first match in London 27-16 and the second match in Reykjavik 40-20. Great Britain is winless in 4 matches having previously lost to France 42-16 and Austria 30-20 back in October.

Commentary: While wins against Iceland were not expected, Great Britain was surely hoping for more respectable score lines as the Iceland women (unlike the men’s program) are a second tier nation in Europe. Last October’s match against Austria was competitive and with 5 months more of development for their players better results would have been a sign of progress. Progress, however, does not usually occur in a straight line and this past week could be an example of three steps forward, two steps back. Additionally, Iceland may be better than thought as they were able to beat Austria at home and a return match in Vienna this May will likely decide who goes through to the next round.

On a positive note the British program continues to get good press coverage from the mainstream media with the BBC again filing a video report. From the video footage it also appears that the Britain – Iceland match was well attended with a good atmosphere.

THN (18 Oct 09): British Women given dose of reality: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.850
VIDEO: BBC (1 Apr 09): Iceland freeze out GB handball women:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/handball/8599609.stm
Morethanthegames.com (31 Mar 09): Holmris pleads for patience after British handball defeat: http://www.morethanthegames.co.uk/handball/3110240-holmris-pleads-patience-after-british-handball-defeat
British Federation: Iceland Prove Too Strong for GB Women:
http://fastbreak-handballnews.blogspot.com/2010/04/iceland-v-gb-latest.html

IHF and EHF apparently not merging!

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Many of you were not outsmarted by our April 1 posting about a possible IHF/EHF merger; perhaps it was just a tiny bit too much to be swallowed so easily… But we are pleased that at least some of you were ready to accept our story as real; in fact, this happened at both IHF HQ and EHF HQ, although in somewhat different ways:

there are rumors that at IHF in Basle, where the President was absent on travel, a celebration involving cake and champagne broke out, before the normally well-informed Managing Director was able to make the group understand that the President had no such plans;

at EHF in Vienna, there were mixed reactions: some staff invaded the office of the Secretary General, threatening to resign; Mr. Wiederer, who is capable of maintaining a good ‘poker face’ when necessary, had a tough time assuring these colleagues that the rumors probably were unsubstantiated; but some EHF insiders actually did relish the idea of a ‘takeover’, so they were a bit frustrated when they understood that the plans did not really exist…

whatever your reaction was, we hope we are not ruining your day now by confessing that we celebrated April 1 by indulging in some fiction writing! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_fool%27s_day

by the way, we really liked the idea put forward in the same spirit in haandbold.com : there it was suggested that, to avoid any new scandals, involving a repetition of a 'Prokop type' of behavior, in all the finals of the EHF cup competitions, the coaches would be banned from their normal position on the bench; instead they would have to follow the game on TV in the changing room…

for similar THN ‘revelations’ in previous years, use the following links:

THN (1 Apr 09): HBL and Liga Asobal Press Release on First Annual Shootout Event:
https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.721

THN (1 Apr 08): IHF, EHF and National Leagues Form Major TV Partnership https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.480

THN (1 Apr 07): Kretzschmar Signs Contract to Play Handball in the United States: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.291

Sensational news: IHF and EHF in merger negotiations!

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According to well-placed and corroborated sources, when the IHF President recently invited the EHF leadership to a meeting, it appears that he had a secret purpose in mind: proposing a merger of the two organizations. This is really an incredible development, especially against the backdrop of the recent accusations back and forth between the IHF and the EHF regarding the seriously flawed proposal for new IHF Statutes. However, it seems that it was precisely the EHF pressure that caused the IHF President to think that this would be a smart initiative in order to gain more control. The EHF, for its part, initially seemed offended by the idea, but appears to have begun to see it as a beneficial move along the lines of the old expression: ‘if you cannot beat them, then join them!’ And now some IHF insiders have even been heard fearing that it may in the end become more of an EHF ‘takeover’ than a neutral merger.

The ‘official’ justifications are more along the lines that the senior managements of the IHF and the EHF have come to realize that it is really a waste of resources, with a good deal of duplication of efforts, to run two separate but very similar organizations. Synergy could be achieved through joint efforts in many areas: marketing and contracting about TV rights and sponsoring, development efforts in small or new handball countries, and relations with national federations, clubs and players. Recent debates regarding the competition calendar have also brought the IHF and EHF top managements together.

Non-Europeans and younger handball fans may not realize that a combined IHF/EHF is not as farfetched as it may sound. While continental federations existed in other continents much earlier, the European Handball Federation (EHF) did not come into existence until 1991. Previously, European matters, including the organization of competitions such as the European Cup (the forerunner of Champions League) were managed directly by the IHF. It now seems that this evolution is coming full circle!

The precise timing of the merger remains to be settled. The IHF Extraordinary Congress later this month will be asked to ratify the arrangement, but then the EHF will also need to obtain the formal acceptance from its membership. Ideally, the merger will take place ‘on paper’ later this year, while some of the practical and physical aspects will not be ready until about a year from now. The competition side will be fully modified only after the completion of the several IHF and EHF events that have already been awarded to specific countries.

Obviously there are many sensitive issues that still require careful negotiations. This includes the critical issue of harmonizing IHF and EHF pay levels for executives. The discussions regarding a suitable name for the new organization seem temporarily stalled. ‘The Global Confederation for Handball’ was suggested as a prestigious-sounding name, but this apparently caused protests from a Dr. Gerd Butzeck, on behalf of the already existing ‘GCH’. A new logo will be designed by a yet-to-be-named consulting firm, following a carefully orchestrated contracting process based on ‘sealed bids’.

By contrast, tentative agreement already appears to have been reached regarding a neutral location for the new Headquarters. Several sites in convenient proximity to at least three continents have been considered, namely Malta, Cyprus and Sicily. All these alternatives would also fit the distinct Mediterranean flavor of the current IHF Executive Committee. (PanAmerican arguments in favor of the Canary Islands, partly for language reasons, appear to have fallen on deaf ears). IHF top people are said to be advocating Sicily, possibly due to the easy local access to experienced specialists in financial and administrative matters. In the end, however, it seems that Cyprus may win out, perhaps because of its strong traditions with sharing agreements among divergent partners.

On the staffing side, it seems to have been concluded that the IHF and EHF bring complementary skills, with the EHF focus on technical and sports matters and the IHF emphasis on office administration. At the top management level, it seems the complete merger will lead to the creation of one joint executive group, with current IHF and EHF top officials presiding on a rotation basis until after the first joint elections. Below this top group, there will be a European Department and a Non-European Department, working in a matrix format with the technical/sports staff and the administrators.

As regards the impact on the competition calendar, the preliminary agreements appear to suggest the following in each 4-period: the Olympic Games, one World Championship, one year with a European and a Non-European Championship, and one year for ‘regional’ events. Each of the existing continents, including Europe, would be divided into two regions, partly for political reasons and partly due to travel considerations. It is also expected that the Non-Europeans will eventually want to organize their own Champions League.

Messrs. Moustafa and Lian have declined requests for interviews, and for the moment this is all the information that is available. THN will endeavor to keep you updated as further details become available. In the meantime, we would very much welcome your reactions in our ‘Forum’ or on Facebook!