USA Team Handball Veteran with seat on USOC Reform Group

Posted on by

Former USA National Team Goalie, Matt Van Houten has been selected to be a member of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) reform advisory group being headed by former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. The reform group has been tasked to assess the current USOC board and committee structure and make recommended changes.

Van Houten told Team Handball News (THN) that the panel has a good balance of objective outsiders and representatives from the USOC’s key constituent groups. He also believes that it will be a positive step towards improving the overall position of the US Olympic family both domestically and internationally. Van Houten, who is no stranger to the challenges a smaller National Governing Body (NGB) faces within the USOC structure indicated that a less influential NGB like team handball can only benefit from this process.

This is the second key appointment for Van Houten, who is also a member of the committee that will select the next USOC CEO.

LA Times Olympics Blog: Latest USOC reform group shows promise by avoiding usual suspects: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/olympics_blog/2009/12/latest-usoc-reform-group-shows-promise-by-avoiding-usual-suspects.html
Associated Press: USOC critic, Chicago bid chief join advisory panel: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hYxUVXZza67KgwSXEchGtHqh7AHgD9CGU8B00
Associated Press: Ex-NFL commish looks for solutions at USOC: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hxeQCi82qvrlBhEIu2tbfA9yzvAgD9CHKH9O0

In search of a Handball Invictus

Posted on by

The sports movie is as American as apple pie. American football has Brian’s Song and Remember the Titans. Baseball has Field of Dreams, Bull Durham and the Natural. Basketball has Hoosiers and Hockey has Miracle! and Slap Shot. Soccer has Goal! and Victory. And now Rugby has Invictus.

Invictus (Latin for unbeaten), opened in theaters this weekend in North America and South Africa. The film depicts South Africa’s 1995 Rugby World Cup championship and Nelson Mandela’s statesmanship in using his support of the “whiteman’s game” to help bring his country together. The film is directed by Clint Eastwood and stars Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as the South African team captain, Francois Pienaar. It’s a wonderful story line and there is already talk of it being an Oscar contender.

Aside from the movie itself, the promotional impact for the sport of Rugby in the U.S. will be massive. Commercials have been frequently promoting the movie during NFL and college American football games. Literally, millions of potential fans/players will see the movie either in theaters or DVD in the coming year. For youngsters not familiar with the sport, they will soon be asking where can I play this game. For old timers with misconceptions, it will be their first real exposure to the sport and it will squash whatever notions they had that rugby is merely an excuse for college kids to drink beer. Follow on effects will be more players and more customer demand for matches on TV. Add in Rugby 7’s (a modified version of the 15 a side game) recent inclusion to the Olympic program and you could not ask for a better publicity blitz.

Right now, one can only dream of a Team Handball movie with the kind of star power and promotion Invictus has behind it. There have been a couple of films with Handball themes. Korea’s “Forever the Moment” chronicles the 2004 Women’s Olympic team and did pretty good business in that country. The independent film “Machan” tells a fictionalized version of the phony Sri Lankan Handball team that used handball as a ploy to emigrate to Europe. These are nice films, but you really need major studio backing to have an Invictus like impact.

You also would need a compelling story and right now I’m not aware of any Handball story that could be sold to a major studio. Maybe an Iceland Gold medal in Beijing would have fit the bill, but it lacks the inner conflict that South Africa had in 1995 or the USSR-USA rivalry backdrop that USA hockey had in 1980. Maybe Bosnia & Herzegovina could go on an improbable run to an Olympic medal with a multi-ethnic team of Bosnians, Croats and Serbs playing side by side. Certainly, that would be an achievement, but still it would be tough to sell a sport even less well known than rugby.

Got an idea for Handball movie plot: Share it on our Facebook page

VIDEO: Invictus Trailer
THN (27 Aug 07): Can you teach an old dog a new trick
THN (10 Nov 08): In Search of a Handball Zee Ngwenya:
THN (9 Jul 08): Korean Handball Movie Available Online:
THN (3 Sep 08): Sri Lankan Handball Movie Debuts at Venice Film Festival

World Championship format — there are good solutions!

Posted on by

A World Championship serves many purposes, so there are inevitably conflicting objectives and views regarding the best format. Almost any format will help us determine the medal winners in a fair manner. But beyond that, there are many different opinions.

Some argue that a World Championship with x teams should have as it overriding objective the participation of the x best teams in the world. (It seems to me that football could argue that they come close to that, but no one has explained how this could be easily achieved in a sport like handball). Others note that the main thing is to have close and exciting games between evenly matched teams, for the sake of attractive TV coverage and good PR for our sport. But many remind us that we are talking about a [u]World[/u] Championship and that all continents must have a chance to participate fully.

Unfortunately, there has been too little debate about how these seemingly conflicting objectives could come together under one particular format. Most of the ‘debate’ has focused on whether 24 teams should be divided into 6 groups of 4 or into 4 groups of 6. Sorry, but this is just a bit too ‘myopic’. If experienced people came together, surely many interesting ideas could come out of a thorough and uninhibited brainstorming. I am prepared to offer one particular idea, without any claims that it is the ‘best’ idea, let alone the only idea. But at least it shows that one can find ways of combining objectives.

The teams from the non-European continents want to participate in THE World Championship. They do not want to be told to go and play in a ‘B’ World Championship. They want to see and learn from the top teams. But they are sometimes a bit naïve: I read that the players from Thailand saw it as’ the best thing that had ever happened to them’ that they had had the chance to play against Russia, even if they lost 8-45. I am afraid that nobody else is interested in, or helped by, such a game. This is not why we organize a World Championship.

But there are stronger teams, ‘just below the top’, from all continents, who genuinely want to have a chance to play against solid teams from other continents, where the winners advance to the final stages and games against the real top teams. These teams deserve such a chance. And it should happen within the framework of one big event.

The top teams, who often also have many of the top individual players, who are already ‘stretched to the limit’ in their club teams, probably would not mind an event that is somewhat shortened for them and where they avoid some of the most one-sided games. So what does this point to?

The idea would be to keep 24 teams (qualifying in the same way as the 24 teams who are now in China) but to allow 8 top teams to go directly to a ‘main round’, saving 4-5 days for them. These would be the highest-seeded teams, but with the caveat that Africa, America, and Asia would need to be represented among the 8, so typically there would be the top 5 Europeans and 3 Continental champions.

The teams ranked 9-24 would play in 4 preliminary groups of 4, with more or less the current seeding procedures, so that the teams would get to play teams from the other continents. The best two in each group would advance to the main round, while the lowest two would go to a President’s Cup for the places 17-24, ensuring them enough games in total to make the experience worthwhile.

In the ‘main round’, there would again be 4 groups of 4, with 2 of the 8 top teams in each group, together with 2 each of the other 8 teams that had just shown (the days before, not one or two years before) that they were the most competitive ones of the remainder, deserving an opportunity to play against the top teams for a chance at the absolute top positions. This ‘main round’ format with 4×4 teams then lends itself to many different possibilities for the final stage, with quarterfinals, with 2 semifinal groups or whatever you want.

This gives ALL the 24 teams a chance, not just to play until the end, but to move towards the final round IF they really are good enough. It eliminates some of the worst one-sided games and conversely, it leads to proportionately many more games where the result is extremely important. Again, I have no vested interest in this specific approach, but I do believe it shows that new, useful ideas can come up if one only really tries.

Feedback would be appreciated, including your own alternative ideas!
Chime in our our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Handball-News/108817968908

Online sports viewing: Skeptic changes tune

Posted on by

Philip Hersh, who writes for the Olympics Blog at the Los Angeles Times has a posting on live webcasts of figure skating. He first highlights a statement he made 3 years ago concerning the state of figure skating on TV.

“The forecast is so ominous that it could turn figure skating into primarily an Internet sport as a broadcast commodity, barely a decade after its over-the-air network TV ratings and income were sky high."

He then backtracks from this original statement to note that:
1) The quality of webcasts are improving and younger viewers are more inclined to watch them on their computer
2) The internet is giving more fans the opportunity to watch it live
3) The TV revenue has decreased, but the adspace on the ice rinks are still getting exposure.

As perhaps the world’s biggest proponent of online webcasts for handball, I can only say hear-hear. The IHF is making the Women’s World Championship available and the EHF even provides Champions League matches for free. If only the Liga Asobal, Handball Bundesliga and others would realize that the TV money will come if they make their product available to more folks on line. The sooner the better.

LA Times (8 Dec 09): Webcasts no longer doomsday for figure skating: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/olympics_blog/2009/12/we.html
THN (22 Sep 09): German Bundesliga blocks internet Handball broadcasts to rest of world: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.827

Are lower division Handball leagues subject to corruption?

Posted on by

These recent articles in the New York Times highlights a recent soccer match fixing scandal in the lower divisions of German soccer. What’s depicted here could also describe the situation in Handball’s lower leagues in Europe or even to a certain extent the top leagues as Handball players are not nearly as well compensated.

New York Times: Soccer on Fields Ripe for Fixing: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/sports/soccer/07soccer.html?pagewanted=all

New York Times: Player Pulled Into Soccer Betting Maelstrom (8 Dec 09):

Pulling the goalie outside the last minute: Statistical nonsense?

Posted on by

Perhaps you might have noticed that more clubs seem to be pulling their goalie earlier in matches. Traditionally, this risky tactic has been reserved for the very last minute of a match because the risk of an open net has been seen as too great. Lately, however, more and more clubs are using this tactic when they lose a player for two minutes. The logic apparently being that they are better off keeping an equal 6 on 6 balance while on offense. Typically, the extra court player plays backcourt for about 15 seconds and then substitutes out for the “real” goalie.

And sometimes the “real” goalie plays offense and as Constanta’s Mihai Popescu shows they can even score. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSP9w83YJ0g

So does the possibility of an 12 meter cannonball strike by your pulled goalie justify the risk of your opposition getting an easy goal into an empty net? My intuitive reaction has been that this strategy is total nonsense. After all, if pulling your goalie was such a good idea why don’t teams do it for an entire game?

But, being that I’m an Engineer (in my day job) I decided to run some numbers to back up my intuition. In doing so I was surprised to find out that this strategy isn’t as foolhardy as I thought. In fact, depending on how likely you think different outcomes are it’s a sound strategy.

For the sake of argument let’s make the following assumptions:

Likelihood of Team A scoring when:
– Down a man (5 on 6): 15%
– Pulling a goalie (6 on 6): 30% (note: this is not the same as a regular 6 on 6 since the “6th man” often stays back a little in order to be ready for the substitution

Likelihood of different Team A readiness levels on their next defense as a result of their trying to score with a pulled goalie:
– Fully ready (Made goal): 30%
– Fully ready (no fastbreak opportunity for Team B ): 20%
– Partially ready (partial fastbreak; resulting in the goalie not being fully ready to defend): 30%
– Open goal (turnover or easily recovered missed shot results in an open net): 20%

Likelihood of Team B scoring:
– When Team A is fully ready: 60%
– When Team A is partially ready: 80%
– When there is an open net: 98%

Using these percentages it can then be calculated that the pulled goalie strategy is marginally superior. (For those so inclined the math is in the in the extended text.) With the pulled goalie strategy a team can expect to be up a goal 12% of the time; tied 33%; and down 1 goal 55%. The traditional strategy results in being up a goal 6% of the time, tied 43%, and down 1 goal 51%. Or to think of it in terms of expected value, pulling a goalie results in a -.436 deficit vs. -.45 for the traditional strategy. A razor thin margin for sure, but still a slight nod to the pulling the goalie strategy.

Now we can argue if the percentages chosen are “representative”. Truth be told, they will vary greatly depending on the teams playing. Accordingly, so should the decision on what strategy should be taken. In general, if your defense is not very good under normal circumstances, the more sense it makes to pull your goalie. In other words, if they are going to score against you anyway, you might as well improve your chances to score against them. Conversely, if Thierry Omeyer is in the goal it would be foolish not to keep him in the goal where even an uncontested fast break is no sure thing. This is why I question former Norway National Team coach, Marit Breivik’s use of this tactic. With one of the best teams in the world and a more than competent goalie the odds suggests that this might have been a suspect strategy.

Another question worth contemplating is whether certain clubs might even want to consider playing 7 on 6 full time. And indeed some of the weaker Champions League clubs have done exactly this against the elite clubs for significant stretches of a match. Such a move is very disruptive, but it usually doesn’t take too long for the top clubs to adjust and punish the tactic. Reportedly, the Argentine women have been using this tactic at the World Championships in China, but based on results it hasn’t been too successful.

For more on the math involved see the extended text

For a traditional defense where the goalie stay put it’s relatively simple
Percent Team A scores (5 on 6) – Percent Team B scores (when Team A is fully ready on defense) or simply .15 -.60 = -.45

Or to think of it another way if this situation happens 100 times the resultant outcomes would be
9% Team A: 1; Team B:1
6% Team A: 1; Team B:0
51% Team A:0; Team B:1
34% Team A:0 Team B:0

The calculation for pulling the goalie is a little more complex due to the varying states of defensive readiness and the varying times they face that particular state of readiness:

Percent Team A scores (6 on 6) –
[(% Team B scores against fully ready Team A x % time Team A scores) +
(% Team B scores against fully ready Team A x % time Team B has no fastbreak opportunity) +
(% Team B scores against partially ready Team A x % time Team A is only partially ready) +
(% Team B scores against empty net x % time there is a an empty net)]

.30 – [(.60 x .3) + (.60 x .2) + (.80 x .3) + (.98 x .2)] = -.436

18% Team A: 1; Team B:1
12% Team A: 1; Team B:0
55% Team A:0; Team B:1
15% Team A:0 Team B:0

Egypt reverses decision: Will host African Championships after all

Posted on by

According to the Egyptian website, Yallakora.com, the Egyptian Handball Federation has reversed their earlier decision to withdraw as host for the African Championship next February. On Monday, the Egyptian Federation had notified the African Handball Federation (CAHB) that they would not host the tournament due to lingering safety concerns due to heightened tensions following the controversial Egypt-Algeria World Cup soccer qualifying matches in November.

As a result of Egypt’s withdrawal the CAHB had offered other nations the opportunity to host the event. Morocco, Tunisia and Libya had expressed interest in hosting, but did not formally apply. Instead, it appears that Algeria was the lone bidder for the tournament. Faced with the possibility that the Egyptian team would have to travel to Algeria, the Egyptian Federation informed the CAHB that they would be able to host after all.

Yallakora.com: Egypt is declining in its decision and the governing African Cup of Nations Handball: http://www.yallakora.com/arabic/news/details.aspx?id=104459&Catid=5&region

Women’s World Championships Underway: No heat, No Skype, No Facebook

Posted on by

Day 1 of the Women’s World Championships in China is in the books. The minor surprise of the day is Brazil knocking off France 22-20 in the so called “Group of Death”. The other “outsiders” all lost their matches, although Congo hung tough with Sweden, drawing with them 9-9 at halftime, before Sweden got their act together in the 2nd half.

Perhaps, Sweden’s poor performance can be tied to the lack of heat at the arena and the Chinese authorities blocking of access to Facebook. Both of these problems were noted in Swedish player, Isabelle Gulden’s blog for Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. Apparently, Chinese authorities did not heat during training sessions as a cost saving measure.

Sweden faces Brazil tomorrow in a key match up for both teams.

Isabelle Gulden Blog posts: http://blogg.aftonbladet.se/bellasvmblogg/2009/12/skype-och-facebook
http://blogg.aftonbladet.se/bellasvmblogg/2009/12/lucia-uttagning

Editor's note: The IHF website may not be the best source of information on a day to day basis, but they do a pretty good job of reporting on their World Championship events. For results, news stories and live ticker of matches: http://www.ihf.info/front_content.php?idcat=327

World Championship Fantasy Game

Posted on by

The Handball123 forum is sponsoring a free online Fantasy Game for the upcoming Women's World Championship. For more information go to this website: http://sportensverden.dk/managergame/index.php?page=home

The rules are similar to fantasy contests in other sports except that you are locked into the players for the whole contest. Entry to the contest closes just prior to the first game on Saturday.

Self promotion through Video Blogging: Alberta Federation leads the way

Posted on by

Promoting Team Handball in nations where the sport struggles for any media attention can be a challenge. In fact, in these nations any article in a mainstream news outlet about the sport is usually a cause of minor celebration. As a result of not being covered, national and regional federations, as well as clubs, usually do a fair amount of self promotion. I’ve written a few times about how important this is https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.540, and about how sometimes the self reporting has been a little bit misleading https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.787.

Recently, the Alberta Women’s team travelled to Chicago to participate in the Windy City tournament. As part of their self-reporting the team posted 5 video blogs on Youtube http://www.teamhandball.ab.ca/league.php?scriptName=LEAGUEINFO&leagueID=12092&leagueInfoID=47877 (Scroll to the bottom). For the uninitiated, a video blog can perhaps best be described as informal video containing information similar to what you might read in a written blog post. In Alberta’s case the video blogs were part travelogue, part “shout out” to the folks back home, and part recaps of the club’s matches. If I were in charge the content provided would have been more related to the matches, but I highly doubt that I was part of the targeted demographic.

So while I might have changed what was recorded, I am intrigued by the possibilities it presents for clubs and federations. As some theoretical examples of what could have been, consider the USA Women’s trip to Poland, the Canadian Men’s Team trip to the Dominican Republic or Australia’s upcoming participation in the World Championships. 5 minutes of recording, consisting of game footage, post game interviews, and sure, why not a little bit of travelogue would be greatly appreciated by the fans back home. And, if we’re thinking about targeted demographics these types of videos are bound to enhance recruiting as perspective players (ages 12-20) get a better glimpse of just what an opportunity these trips are.

Now some of you might say that players travelling on national team trips to important competitions don’t have time to be recording and editing video. Instead they should be resting or preparing for the next match. To which, I say, “Pullease, give me a break!” Maybe things have changed since I took a couple of overseas trips, but I still fondly remember never having more free time to read and play cards in my entire life. Amongst 12-15 players and support staff the workload to create video and web posts would not be overwhelming. More likely, there’s bound to be 1 or 2 tech savvy folks that probably would have to be pulled away from doing it. I contacted the primary creator of the Alberta postings, Sara Cyrankiewicz, and she indicated that she spent about 30 minutes or so editing each clip. Factor in that she’s done it a few times and we’re probably talking about 2-3 hours of “work” for a team before they get better at it through practice.

So the question for Federations out there shouldn’t be, “Can we do it?” Instead, the question should be, “Why aren’t we?”

THN (Jul 2008): Australian Junior Women In Macedonia: Getting Beat on the Court, but Reporting on it in Style: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.540
THN (Jul 2009): Real news from official Handball websites?: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.787
Alberta Sr Women page with link to Youtube videos: http://www.teamhandball.ab.ca/league.php?scriptName=LEAGUEINFO&leagueID=12092&leagueInfoID=47877

Alex Gavrilovic: a true fighter for the global progress of handball (Part 2 of 3)

Posted on by

This is a continuation from an earlier installment. Here the focus is mostly on the current situation in Australia and Oceania.

It is then an interesting coincidence that the Australian women’s team is right now going through their final preparations for the women’s world championship in China. So before we get into today’s interview segment, you may want to try this link to an article on the Australian federation’s web site: http://www.handballaustralia.org.au/National%20Womens%20Team.html#Team Naturally, we wish our Aussie friends the very best of luck in this tough competition!

[i]CA: Having continued to play a key role both in your country and in the region, you took over as President of the Australian Handball Federation in 2006. You recently had to resign from that post, due to your upcoming engagement in London. From that perspective, how would you describe overall the current status of handball in Australia? [/i]

AG: As I noted earlier, the overall status of handball in Australia is still that of a “minor” sport. Participation levels have increased overall, particularly in schools, however, this is not translating into significant junior numbers outside the school system. Handball clubs around Australia remain small and composed of dedicated but under-resourced athletes. The State and National teams are remaining competitive but struggle to get financial support, therefore, athlete “burn-out” occurs, particularly in financial terms, with athletes being asked to contribute too much of their own money in support of their national and international competition

[i]CA: What are the stronger aspects and what are the ones that need particular attention?[/i]

AG: Our strongest aspect is that we have a small but dedicated AHF Board, which, although amateur, provides effective leadership for the sport. As a result, local club and State competition tends to be well run although it is low-budget and low profile. We have some excellent athletes competing but, again, the selection pool is small, therefore, it is difficult to send 16 high-quality athletes to international competition and therefore difficult to be truly competitive on the world scene.

Handball in Australia still needs to reach the “tipping point” to become an established broad participation sport. The link between school handball and club handball is still weak or missing. Proper funding of talent identification, elite athlete development, elite training facilities and access to sports science, “institute” programs, regular high level international competition, etc. are still elements that need attention. Australia organises regular international events which are well-run but remain low profile. In summary: more effort is required in broad participation development, elite athlete development and programs and achieving appropriate funding for the sport.

[i]CA: As in so many other sports, Australian handball is affected by its geographic isolation; are there any real ways of compensating for this handicap?[/i]

AG: Yes there is. Clearly the “major” sports of Rugby and Cricket, for example, are continuing to grow and attract teams from around the world. Their advantage is that they have the membership, profile and exposure which ensures sponsorship and funding levels that can sustain events for which the high cost of travel to and from Australia can be overcome. Ultimately, proper funding can compensate for the handicap.

In the meantime, attracting “major” handball nations to Australia for competition is still problematic due to the high cost of coming to Australia, related to our distance from the rest of the handball world. I don’t know that I can “blame” the IHF for that nor that we can expect the IHF to assist us to overcome this issue directly. However, I know that the IHF is keen for Australia to host a World Championship in due time, therefore, there will be another opportunity for the IHF to support the development of the sport in this way.

[i]CA: Also as in other sports, while struggling with its own development and resources, Australia tends to be needed as the ‘engine’ for other countries in Oceania; how do you see the overall development in recent time in Oceania and what can Australia do in this regard?[/i]

AG: I have already indicated that there has been a resurgence of international competition within Oceania and this has proven to be a real boost for us and the other nations in the region. However, issues related to the leadership of the Oceania Handball Federation have, in my opinion, held the development of the sport at a regional level back for many years. I am pleased to say that the Oceania Handball Federation has recently been restructured, new officials elected and a new Constitution adopted. The IHF have made an even stronger commitment to support international events as a result. The current AHF President, Paul Smith, has been elected to the Presidency of the Oceania Handball Federation, to use his words: “at the insistence of the other Oceania nations”, so you can see that Australia is seen very much in a leadership role.

[i]CA: In soccer, Australia decided to join Asia. (And now we have the effect that Australia has qualified for the 2010 World Cup as one of the Asian representatives, while New Zealand just qualified from Oceania.) Has the same idea ever come up in handball? [/i]

AG: Football in Australia is enjoying a great revival. (even to the common use of the name “football” rather than “soccer”!) It has for a long time been a major participation sports in Australia, but this was not reflected in the sport’s profile or international performance. The recent changes, including better structure at the peak, more funding, a new national competition, commitment to elite level performance etc., have been reflected in the national team’s improved results. This of course has re-invigorated public interest. It is still behind Rugby but getting stronger every year. The national team’s exposure to the Asian competition has significantly lifted performance.

There was an idea to emulate Australian football by having Australian handball join the Asian handball zone. This proposal was rejected by the Asian Handball Federation. I sense a fear that Australian handball will eventually improve like it has in many sports and result in a dominant Australia at the cost of other Asian teams in qualifiers for World Championships and so on. The advantage of not being a member of Asia is that there is a direct Oceania handball spot for World Championships which Australia can fill due to its dominance in the region. Whilst I understand the benefits of more competition via the Asian zone, the reality is that Australia would struggle to qualify for World and Olympic Championships via this zone and therefore, having an Oceania place remains very important and valuable to Australia at this time.

Egypt withdraws as African Championships host: Potential 2 year ban as penalty

Posted on by

The Egyptian Handball Federation announced earlier this week that it was withdrawing from its responsibility to host the African Championships next February 10-21. The stated reason for the withdrawal is Egypt’s security concerns with hosting Algeria so soon after the controversial world cup soccer qualifying matches between the two nations. The two matches, one played in Egypt and the follow on tiebreaker in Sudan have heightened tensions and resulted in violence against Egyptians living in Algeria and vice versa.

The Egyptian Federation had first sought to delay the event until later in 2010, but this request was denied by the African Handball Federation, known by its French acronym (CAHB). With the CAHB refusing to delay the event, Egypt then withdrew as host. The CAHB is now reportedly considering Morocco as a new host for the event, and some sources are either calling for Egypt to be banned from competing for two years citing that CAHB’s own regulations require this punishment.

Reports in the Algerian daily, La Tribune, allege that Egypt’s decision not to host are not related to security concerns, but instead are related to insufficient funds to stage the event. Additionally, La Tribune also reported that the Egyptian team was not prepared and that delaying the event was simply a ploy to allow more time to get their team in order.

The African Nations Championship is the premier handball event in Africa and serves as the qualifier for the Men’s and Women’s 2011 World Championship. As the event serves as a World Championship qualifier the International Handball Federation (IHF) could potentially intervene in this dispute. Notably, the President of the IHF, Dr Hassan Moustafa is also a former President of the Egyptian Federation.

AFP: Egypt not to host handball tournament in Algeria spat: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iF7mx4nDAv4qFGnS_5SzZCStt3mg
Reuters Africa: Egypt opts out as handball host over Algeria tension: http://af.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idAFJOE5AT0BF20091130
La Tribune (Algeria) (26 Nov 09): Egyptian Maneuvers: http://www.latribune-online.com/evenement/26043.html
La Tribune (Algeria) (29 Nov 09): Egypt, up against the wall: http://www.latribune-online.com/suplements/sportsup/26071.html
DZ Blog (Algeria) (2 Dec 09): Morocco: Egypt must be sanctioned: http://www.dzhand.net/index.php?post/2009/12/02/Le-Maroc-exige-de-sanctionner-l%E2%80%99Egypte

More about ‘handball’ in football and about what football can learn from handball

Posted on by

In the last couple of weeks, both John Ryan and I wrote about some twists to the unfortunate story where France appeared to qualify for the football World Cup at the expense of Ireland, following an undetected ‘handball’ in a critical moment. We noted the connections to some issues regarding handball, such as the usage of technology. Find our articles here: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.886 https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.885

Now this issue and another one from the football qualifying have blossomed and have gained a direct to connection to handball. First, it is a bit laughable but not surprising, that suddenly FIFA President Blaetter has become a great friend of the UEFA idea to use extra ‘goal line judges’, something that he had previously ridiculed. Now this idea will suddenly be discussed for the 2010 World Cup. See one of the news stories on this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1230290/Sepp-Blatter-calls-extraordinary-meeting-FIFA-chief-probes-fallout-Irelands-World-Cup-play-defeat.html

But some of you may also have observed that the qualifying fight (literally) between Egypt and Algeria, in the end won by the Algerians, had led to something close to a state of war between the two countries. And lo and behold: rather than letting sports serve as a way of patching things up, sports events are now being used as a weapon in the fight. As recently announced, see posting on the IHF web site, http://www.ihf.info/front_content.php?idcat=57&idart=2196 the draw was made for the men’s and women’s African Championship to be held precisely in Egypt in February. Now the Egyptians wanted at least a postponement, especially as Algeria is one of the participating countries, but the African Confederation refused this request and instead ordered that the event be held elsewhere! See news reports: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/091129/world/sports_egypt_algeria_diplomacy

John, and other self-proclaimed football haters, stop reading here! Going back to football rules and regulations while I am at it, I cannot refrain, as an old football referee, to make fun of two areas where old-fashioned thinking in football has left them with rules that fail to pick up on simple and successful ideas in handball!

I am talking about the well-known situation in football where a player’s injury causes the game to be stopped even though there was no foul or other reason for a stoppage. How does one then resume the game? Well, one ‘forces’ a team to kick the ball out-of-bounds, after which the opponents voluntarily, and accompanied by thunderous applauds, throw the ball in to the opponents to restore the order. Such eminent sportsmanship!? No, utter nonsense! Introduce the handball principle whereby the team that was in possession gets to restart with a free-throw. Of course, a direct free-kick in football can be somewhat more dangerous and advantageous in football, but an [u]indirect[/u] free-kick is surely a safe and innocent way of getting underway again. But, no, says, FIFA, ‘it is unconscionable’ to use a free-kick when there has been no rules violation. Does this ‘terrible breach of principles’ bother us in handball? Certainly not: the restart with a free-throw is perfectly natural and simple.

Another area where football can learn from us: when the referee whistles for a free-throw against the team with the ball, a handball player knows he has to drop the ball immediately and move away from it. Or else he is out for 2 minutes. There were some faint protests against this ‘bureaucratic’ rule when it was introduced many years ago, but now people are happy about the discipline that it has achieved, precisely the discipline that is so totally lacking in football in the corresponding situation. Players routinely kick or throw the ball away some distance, to get more time to set up before the opponents can take the free-kick. Of course it is a violation, but the established praxis is for the referees, also at the elite level, to close their eyes and accept this unsportsmanlike and irritating feature. So do not tell me that ‘little’ handball cannot be a forerunner in dealing with rules situation. And many football fans (and referees!) envy us for this firm rule. Too bad only that the mighty FIFA is too important to follow our good lead…