On January 23, THN provided an English translation https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.930 of an article that was published in the well-known German magazine ‘Der Spiegel’. In this article, it was noted that the IHF president, Hassan Moustafa, had been under a personal contract with the Sportfive marketing agency, with a remuneration of 602,000 Euro, during a period for which Sportfive had won a contract with the IHF for the TV rights to all IHF events. ‘Der Spiegel’ had obtained a copy of the contract between Moustafa and Sportfive, and also a confirmation directly from Moustafa.

Clearly, for Mr. Moustafa to obtain a very vague, but lucrative personal contract from Sportfive while at the same time the IHF is selling its valuable TV rights to the very same company, in a competitive bid situation, smacks of [u]conflict of interest[/u], to put it mildly. That some observers will take it a step further and start talking about kick-backs is rather understandable, especially as they feel that Moustafa has shown over the years that he has no understanding of, or regard for, the concept of ‘conflict of interest’. This remarkable state of affairs was picked up by handball media around the world, for instance in the major handball web site ‘Handball-World’. http://www.handball-world.com/o.red.c/news.php?auswahl=23915&GID=1

Not surprisingly, the IHF president found it necessary to try to counter these damning reports. On January 26, the IHF issued a press bulletin regarding the Spiegel report to back up statements the president had made. This press bulletin, however, was only provided to German news outlets, https://teamhandballnews.com/request64.html and has not been posted on the IHF website. The impression is that the IHF avoids giving its own press bulletin too much publicity, in an attempt to keep the exposure of the whole matter as limited as possible. This does not tend to be the methods of someone who has nothing to hide.

But the key points of the press bulletin are worth noting: in the face of the existing evidence, the president does not attempt to deny the existence of the lucrative contract. Instead, he tries to downplay the issue with rather hilarious arguments. For instance, “he was at this time [u]primarily a businessman[/u] with a Cairo-based company, with which Sportfive had obtained a contract, and [u]his position with the IHF was in any event just an honorary one[/u].” Well, while the president may feel that this attempt to portray his relative priorities may provide some kind of excuse, it all too well reflects precisely what his critics have said about the priority he has given to personal enrichment, in contrast to his treating the development of world handball as a small matter on the side.

It is also somewhat amusing that the press bulletin closes with the comment that the “the IHF has come to the conclusion that Moustafa in all respects has acted correctly”. I think it is universally understood that an IHF Media Officer will describe an ‘IHF conclusion’ in the way that the autocratic president orders it to be described… The typical reactions of knowledgeable people to both the initial revelations and the attempt at a rebuttal are well captured in the web site of the well-known German investigating journalist Jens Weinrich, http://jensweinreich.de/?p=6273 who also criticizes sports media in handball-crazy Germany for not giving the matter quicker and more prominent coverage.

An interesting twist to the whole story is that the Director of Sportfive during the period through 2009, when Sportfive had both the IHF TV rights and the personal services contract with Moustafa, was a Robert Mueller von Vultejus, who has since abandoned Sportfive in favor of a rival entity, UFA Sports, a subsidiary of the important German media group RTL. UFA Sports, which was established as recently as in 2008, was in early 2009 ready to jump into the competition for the IHF TV rights for the new quadrennial 2010-13. Somewhat to the surprise of the sports media world, [u]UFA managed to beat out Sportfive and other competitors and gained the rights for 2010-13[/u]. http://www.handball-world.de/o.red.c/news.php?GID=1&auswahl=23203 These results were announced in connection with the IHF Congress in June 2009. At the time, it may simply have seemed that this ‘coup’ could be ascribed to the experience acquired by Mueller von Vultejus when dealing with the IHF while at Sportfive.

But after the most recent revelations, the new regime at Sportfive is perhaps beginning to wonder if there’s more to the story as they have indicated that they are now examining the events involving Sportfive’s relationship with the IHF and Moustafa. They are bound to be asking if their former Director brought his questionable practices with him to his new company and therefore whether the bidding was really won fairly by UFA, as now is being forcefully claimed by Mueller von Vultejus. Perhaps the bidding was not as ‘sealed’ and confidential as it should have been!? Persons connected with the IHF who are familiar with the process would understandably be unwilling to risk their situation by speaking openly, but it would not come as a shock if one day it came out in the public that UFA had indeed been given a chance to [u]ensure[/u] that they had the winning bid…

Finally, on a personal note, I would like to say that it is painful to have reasons to keep writing negative things about the IHF. But my loyalty is to [u]handball[/u], its image and success, and to the people who work in an honest and selfless way for handball, [u]not[/u] to the IHF and its current regime.

Today the IHF President tries to deny any impropriety in the matter of his mixing personal business arrangements and his key role in the IHF business arrangements with the former TV rights holder of the IHF, Sportfive. Of course, when ‘conflict of interest’ appears to be an unknown concept to a person, then it is easy to deny any wrongdoing. However, THN will shortly come back to this matter, especially as new revelations are not unlikely. For instance, the new Sportfive management has stated that investigations continue regarding the dealings between their former director and Moustafa.

But this is not the only matter these days where poor judgment is reflected in the IHF decision-making. For instance, as has been proudly announces, the IHF will in a few days host a [b]'working group' meeting[/b] on the urgent issue of the strained [b]competition calendar[/b] and the strained relations between IHF/continental/national federations and clubs/players. But even when finally taking a first step on this important matter, the IHF does it in a way that has invited criticism. For such sensitive matters it is crucial not to put one’s foot wrong regarding procedures and participation, if one wants to get all parties concerned to feel ‘ownership’ of the outcome. Criticism has been heard on several aspects.

First, the focus is exclusively on [u]men’s[/u] handball. Clearly, the women’s handball suffers from the same problems regarding the congestion in the competition calendar and the pressures on the top players. Perhaps it may practical to have two separate meetings, but [u]if[/u] there is such awareness and sensitivity on the part of the IHF, then one indicates up front that ‘the corresponding issues for the women’s handball will be dealt with separately’. But there is no hint of that, so naturally this has caused claims of discrimination. Moreover, while clubs have been invited, there is no direct representation for the key persons in this whole matter, i.e., [u]the players[/u]. The usual mistake has been made in assuming the interests of the clubs and the interests of the players as individuals coincide. As recent THN articles have underscored, this is certainly not how the players view the matter.

Then one needs to ensure that there is no sense of a biased [u]hand-picking[/u] of participants. Croatia, France, Germany and Spain are the only countries represented, both for federations and for clubs. (As it happens, three of these countries are also represented in the IHF Executive.) The line must be drawn somewhere, and we are not suggesting that, for instance, the Irish or the Maltese should have been invited, but surely a somewhat broader inclusion genuinely strong handball countries would have been helpful to the process. Similarly, why would IHF get involved in hand-picking clubs, when there is a well-known and formal entity representing the top men’s clubs, namely the GCH!? Nevertheless, we can only hope that the IHF learns it lessons of politics and procedures as the effort moves along.

Another issue is the mysterious and secretive (although by insiders fully anticipated) appointment of a new [b]Managing Director[/b] in the person of Mrs. Amal Khalifa. The issue is not that the IHF has chosen to go back to the traditional method of having one person at the top, as opposed to situation of having two parallel positions of Head of Sports and Head of Administration. Following the most regrettable departure of Ekke Hoffmann, who found his situation increasingly untenable, it was a natural move to appoint a Managing Director. But while the President and the Executive have the ‘excuse’ that the By-Laws give them the right to be in charge of the IHF Office, it smacks of abuse of power, nepotism and lack of professionalism, when it just suddenly appears that the faithful old ‘servant’ of the President starts signing documents as Managing Director.

The ‘stealth’ involved is the same as when Mrs. Khalifa first arrived as Head of Administration, replacing Mr. Geissler who had been let go. For months, the IHF made no announcement, and in fact continued to give the explicit impression that Mr. Geissler was still in charge. For a position as vital to the IHF as that of Managing Director, clearly a genuinely professional and international search process is warranted. There is not likely to be shortage of highly qualified candidates, all of whom would be without the baggage of Mrs. Khalifa as a long-term ally of the President. Moreover, Mrs. Khalifa does not appear to have any of the background that would have matched an appropriate job description and advertisement. And then the final clincher: after the IHF Council had agreed that at some point the Managing Director position was going to be reinstated, they found themselves caught unaware by the specific appointment just like the rest of the handball world.

The third issue is one that normally never comes out in the open. It concerns the [b]monetary compensation[/b] granted to IHF officials. The president will now be earning a salary, but the amount has not been revealed. Apart from that, the compensation takes two forms: first there is an annual honorarium for all council members, in recognition of the work they are supposed to perform; this amount differs from one position to another, as it is taken into account that some positions carry a much heavier burden throughout the year. Of course, one really wonders how much work the continental representatives actually carry out on behalf of the [u]IHF[/u]. For the most part, they represent the interests of their respective continents and also carry out the bulk of their work in and for their respective continents/federations. The individual amounts are confidential.

In addition, each IHF official receives a ‘per diem’ for each day spent in meetings, conferences and especially World Championships (including the travel time). This is not a per diem in the sense that it is supposed to cover the expenses for hotels and food. This is provided separately. So the per diem is really nothing other than ‘pocket money’. The rate used to be the same for all categories, but some years ago it was increased for council members. It was explained internally that this was just another, less conspicuous way of providing money, in lieu of increasing the rates for the honorarium. Last December, however, the Council granted itself a hefty increase to 400 Sw.Frs. per day, whereas the rates for all other IHF officials, such as commission members, lecturers and referees, were set in the range 100-200 Sw.Frs., depending on the level of the event involved. This means that those who, generally speaking, do the least amount of work during a World Championship get substantially more than the ‘working people’.

Of course, when judging these provisions, one must keep in mind that that there is no compensation for the loss of the regular income of the individuals concerned. This argument may be less relevant for an official who was volunteered to be elected for a position, but it may be more so for those, like referees, who are brought in to do a very necessary job. But the fundamental concern is that of a lack of a clear rationale, transparency and accountability. Moreover, to the extent that some key officials in elected/volunteer positions do carry out a very large amount of work, not just during events but throughout the whole year, this may often be the result of a huge lack of professional, hired resources for technical positions at the IHF Office. This is another reason why the recent move towards a set-up with ‘one big chief’ and lots of ‘foot soldiers’ goes completely in the wrong direction.

The current international competition calendar calls for the men’s and women’s World Championships to follow the pattern of always taking place in January and December respectively. The same goes for the European men’s and women’s Championships. As is right now happening in Austria, it means that a large proportion of these events are held in winter climate, especially, as is often the case, when they are organized in Central Europe or the Nordic countries.

While handball, of course, is playing these events indoors, it still means that the organizers, the participants and the spectators have to reckon with the complications and the caprices that the winter weather may cause. It may have an effect on the scope for recreational and social activities between games, but normally it is related to the issue of transportation to and from match sites and training etc. Rarely does it have an impact on the conduct of the games. But it does happen!

From my personal experience I can mention a situation where snow and ice on power lines caused temporary electrical failure and a commensurate postponement of matches. I also remember a scary episode where a bus with a team skidded off the road, although fortunately without any injuries as a result. But once inside the handball arena one tends to be able to assume that everything will be OK.

In one relatively recent case, the Men’s World Championship in Tunisia in January 2005, it seemed rather safe to assume that the climate would give us a break from any worries about the impact of cold temperatures. But we were less than well-informed about typical temperatures, and we were also surprised by the state of the hall for one of the four preliminary groups. We encountered a situation where the temperature inside the hall was so low that we spent a week shivering and getting numb, despite learning quickly about the need for bundling up with all the warm clothes we could find.

Coat, scarf, cap and gloves were needed between games and during half-time, for those of us who were on IHF duty and had to sit still during three consecutive games, looking proper in blazer and tie on world-wide television. The players were fine as long as they were moving, but there were several intended substitutions that never materialized, because the players on the bench did not have time to shed all the layers of clothes before it was too late. The two teams that seemed to take it in more in strides were the cold-weather veterans from Iceland and Russia. But not even they were prepared for what would happen precisely in the game between the two of them.

Nothing seemed amiss during the warm-up, but it soon became clear as the game started, especially with quick steps and changes of direction needed for the attacking players outside the 9-meter line on one side, that something ‘slightly unusual’ was going on. The Icelandic team mysteriously skidded around and lost the ball on the attack several times early in the game. Frequent time-outs and wiping did not help. Finally I had to conclude that more drastic measures were needed and the game was halted. A discussion with the organizers suggested that their normal cleaning methods, suited for a wood floor, had inappropriate been used for the artificial playing surface. Nothing could really be seen, but apparently the cleaning residue, combined with the frigid temperature and condensation caused by sweating players, made for a surface that behaved like a sheet of ice.

A normally reliable method for this is to apply alcohol in large quantities; fortunately not vodka or scotch, which might have been harder to find, but the industrial variety. After some search, and then a period of intensive scrubbing and drying, the game could finally be resumed after a half-hour delay. Not an ideal situation in a game broadcast live abroad, but fair conditions and, above all, player safety must be paramount. Our Icelandic friends caught up and had the game tied at half-time, but in the end the experience may have caught up with them and they lost the game.

A change in the competition calendar is being sought by many of the major federations and clubs for good reasons, and the episode above may provide additional arguments as to why this might be advisable…

I commented just last week https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.922 that I was fed up with writing about Prokop and with the EHF’s handling of the entire matter. It has also seemed clear to many observers, that a shameful end result of the process, in the form of a much reduced sentence, could regrettably be expected. And this was indeed precisely what happened! As indicated in the EHF announcement, http://www.eurohandball.com/article/012825/ECA+decision+on+the+Prokop+case Prokop’s suspension was cut back from 3 years to 1 year, the fine was reduced from 45,000 Euro to 10,000 Euro, and the lifetime ban from elected or honorary functions within the EHF was completely removed.

This decision of the EHF Court of Arbitration was announced at the beginning of this week. Since then, I have been ‘flooded’ with mail and phone calls from handball people who are outraged about the decision. However, as the decision was shrewdly published one day before the start of EURO 2010, it appears that most handball web sites and publications have been too busy to notice or comment on what happened. Therefore, I feel obliged to help convey to our readers the most appropriate message from among
those that I did find on the internet, namely from the Danish web site ‘Haandbold.com’. The link follows here, http://www.haandbold.com/nyheder.php?id=19670 and for those of you who do not find the Danish language so easy to manage, I will summarize.

Jesper Harborg of Haandbold.com commented that “ideally we are all equal, but in the real world some are more equal than others; the EHF has handled the matter complete incorrectly.” He goes on to remind that the EHF had already permitted Prokop’s illegal action of sitting behind his team’s bench and giving them instructions, in the games following his suspension, and he says that this illegal action should instead have served as an argument for [u]adding[/u] to the initial punishment.

Harborg further comments that “it is suspicious that the final decision came only just [u]after[/u] the Champions League group play was finished… and that one cannot leave aside the thought that if Hypo had needed one more point to qualify, i.e., the point that had been deducted from them, then one can one wonder what the Court of Arbitration would have decided on this particular aspect”. It has really gone quite far when a respectable and knowledgeable handball journalist sees reasons to make this kind of remark.

The article in Haandbold.com also makes the comparison with another very reason case, where the 5-year suspension of the accused persons was confirmed and unreduced by the Court of Arbitration. Harborg comments that “he does not even want to speculate openly about the reasons” when he compares this with the fear that EHF demonstrates when it comes to taking action against Prokop and Hypo. He finishes by saying that “should it ever happen that Prokop gains another position within the EHF, then any remaining belief in the system would be gone”, and that “it is already now difficult to shake off the impression that ‘nothing bad must happen to Hypo’, and one shudders when thinking about the possible reasons for this”.

I thank Jesper Harborg for expressing so eloquently what many think and for sparing me the need for a lengthy expression of my own frustrations and anger on this matter!

Austria is a country with longstanding and proud handball traditions, and the handball fans are now excited about the prospects of having an absolute top event take place in their midst over the next two weeks. The fans are likely to contribute to an atmosphere where the recently less than successful Austrian men’s team will be urged to put up a strong fight. One of the most prominent and devoted fans will be Erwin Lanc, IHF President during the period 1984-2000.

Erwin Lanc certainly did not disappear from the public domain when he left the IHF. He continued through 2008 as president of the prestigious International Institute for Peace (IIP), an organization that he had personally revived in 1989. He remains active there, for instance through lecturing, as well as in other international organizations, especially with an emphasis on achieving better relations with the Arab world. Of course, before he came to the IHF, Erwin Lanc had had a long and distinguished career in politics and in the Austrian government, crowned by his tenure as Foreign Minister.

But as President Lanc amply demonstrated during his years of leadership in the IHF, handball has indeed a special place in his heart, and it very much continues to be on his agenda. He still follows handball closely, both on the international scene and through his old local club, the WAT Margareten (‘aon fivers’). In fact, he and his wife Chris recently accompanied the team to Sweden, but their support could not help prevent an early exit of their favorites from the EHF Cup Winners’ Cup.

When now the EURO 2010 gets underway, Erwin Lanc will not just sit back as a spectator and enjoy the VIP treatment he deserves. No, he has been enlisted by the Austrian organizers to assist them in connection with the many ceremonial and ‘diplomatic’ functions that always go hand in hand with a major sports event. But I am sure he will still have the time to enjoy the games, diplomatically correct in applauding all good performances but still very much keeping his fingers crossed for success on the part of the Austrian team. It is certainly nice to observe that he is ‘still going strong!’

I thought I had written enough about Prokop, as I really prefer almost any other topic. But the conspicuous disregard that he and the EHF together have shown for the EHF’s punishment of him, handed out for his recent revolting behavior in a game against Metz in the Champions League, https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.858 https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.859 makes it necessary to speak up again. Before I continue, however, I would ask you to look at the following photo http://sporten.tv2.dk/haandbold/article.php/id-27775472.html so that the situation is clear to you.

When EHF decided on the punishment for Prokop and Hypo, https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.866 I generally thought that the length of the suspension for Prokop was about right, but that the lack of a suspension for the club was outrageous, especially in comparison with other EHF sanctions for more bureaucratic violations. The mere thought that Hypo might be able to qualify for the next round in this year’s event is really appalling.

But back to the immediate issue: it was already reported in Norwegian newspapers https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.883 (by one of Hypo’s own players! ) after a previous game, that Prokop circumvented the prohibition against his being in contact with the team during a game, by being in mobile phone contact with colleagues on the team bench. I guess the EHF President does not read Norwegian newspapers, as there was no reaction from the EHF after these reports.

And it also seems that it did not cause the EHF to take any special precautions, by giving reminders to the Delegate or the referees in last week’s Hypo game against Aalborg. How else could it be explained that no action was taken when Prokop had the audacity to sit right behind the Hypo bench, without any attempt to conceal his contacts with people on the bench. One might even have thought that the EHF might dispatch its own special observer to the game, considering the highly unusual circumstances and the large amount of publicity. But perhaps there were no EHF officials available in Vienna that day…

The real disgrace is however what Aalborg representatives were told by the official EHF spokesperson a couple of day later, when they brought up their concerns about the incident. It was admitted that Prokop should not have been allowed to sit where he was, but “that was the fault of the Delegate and the referees”, who apparently had either not been sufficiently instructed, or else were not the right persons to be nominated for that game. And the final comment was to the effect that, “as the atmosphere of the game was so nice, there would be no basis for any action afterwards”!!!

I sincerely hope that the EHF attitude and action will be entirely different tomorrow in the final group game, which will decide the fate of Hypo, Aalborg and Metz. Or should one perhaps expect that Prokop will sit on the bench this time, without EHF objections? If so, then in future years it would be simpler to give Hypo the trophy at the start of the season and let the other teams compete for a consolation prize…

When one is dealing with organizations that do not care much about transparency, and when furthermore political deals and personal friendships might be involved, then it is not always easy to understand the objectives and justifications of what is happening.

On January 1, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that it had suspended Kuwait’s Olympic Committee (KOC). The official letter from the IOC talks about a failure on the part of the Kuwaitis to take action that had been agreed upon, but does not get into details and does not spell out the consequences. In subsequent statements, however, the IOC clarified that Kuwaiti athletes and officials are barred from the Olympic Games, and that Olympic funding will no longer be made available to the KOC. It seems that this does not put a whole lot of pressure on the Kuwaiti authorities, as they can probably manage quite well without a modest IOC funding, and as it is an understatement to say that the upcoming Olympic winter games do not affect Kuwait greatly. In other words, the IOC decision would be rather toothless unless there is more to it.

So not surprisingly, the government entity in charge of sports in Kuwait, the Public Authority for Youth and Sports (PAYS), frantically sought to obtain clarification about the impact on [u]non[/u]-Olympic sports activities nationally and internationally. And this is where the confusion, or dare I say obfuscation, begins. The IOC charter simply states that “the IOC Executive Board determines in each case the consequences for the NOC concerned and its athletes”. If one then asks the IOC about the specific case of Kuwait, the answer is: “it is up to each International Federation to take the measures they deem appropriate vis-à-vis their national federation.” In other words, supposedly, there is then [u]no requirement[/u] that the IHF take action and there is not even any pressure on the IHF to do so.

So why then did the IHF take action? Well, unfortunately there is absolutely no clarity in the IHF letter that was sent on January 6 to the Kuwait Handball Federation and made public in Kuwaiti news media. There is just the most general reference: “following the IOC decision… the IHF decided to suspended handball in Kuwait in all categories (championships, matches, players, trainers, referees etc.)” and then there is an almost gratuitous statement that “the Kuwait authorities did not respect the IOC charter… and therefore obliged the IOC [u]and the IHF[/u] to take this decision”. But, there is nothing in the IOC charter that makes the IHF ‘obliged’, the IOC states that “it is up to each International Federation…”, so what gives here?

The first thing that comes to mind is that given the history of a cozy relationship between the IHF President and Sheikh Ahmad (IOC member, Member of the Olympic Council of Asia, and in a leadership position of the Kuwait Olympic Committee for decades), it would never occur to the IHF to [u]volunteer[/u] to take any action that would go against the interests of the KOC. Either there would be some reason why the IHF cannot refuse to take action [u]and/or[/u] such action might in fact be in the best interests of the KOC and Sheikh Ahmad.

How could this be? Well, it surely must be embarrassing for the Sheikh to find that, despite his dominant position in the Olympic movement, he cannot prevent the PAYS and the Kuwaiti parliament from taking (or failing to take) action that causes the KOC to get into such serious trouble with the IOC. So would it not, in fact, be a good thing, if IHF action were to make the IOC suspension more tangible and threatening? After all, in just a few weeks the Asian Men’s Championships (also a World Championship qualification) will start. The Kuwaiti men’s team is one of the favorites and everyone in Kuwait will surely want them to be able to participate and do well. That seems to amount to real pressure on government bureaucrats and politicians, and might cause them to speed up the necessary action in order to have the IOC suspension lifted.

But what are then the real concerns of the IOC? Well, the problems with Kuwait have persisted for more than two years, so the suspension did not come out of the blue. Some further digging unveils a ‘forewarning’ letter from IOC dated December 9, 2009. Here it is clear that IOC has run out of patience and has given a final December 31 deadline. They note that there has been no implementation of the new sports laws that had been developed jointly by the IOC and the PAYS. Quite to the contrary, the PAYS had instead issued a decision that removed and replaced the Boards of several sports clubs in Kuwait. The IOC views this as a prime example of the type of government interference that it does not tolerate, so the IOC expresses “extreme disappointment”. Moreover (and here comes the interesting part), the IOC stated explicitly that, should a suspension have to come into force, “the IOC would immediately [u]coordinate with the various International Sports Federations[/u] concerned in order to have a [u]joint action[/u] that would result in the suspension of the whole Olympic Movement in Kuwait”.

This suggests that while the official position of the IOC is that federations like the IHF may do whatever they want, behind the scenes, the IOC has long since warned the KOC and the PAYS that the IHF and other federations will be ‘asked’ to cooperate. This begs the question what options the IHF really had but, as I said above, it may not matter much because IHF action may have been just what the KOC would find helpful in any event. Isn’t the world of international sports (politics) just fascinating in its transparency and simple logic…!?

Letter from the IOC President to the KOC, dated January 1, 2010: http://www.sarkha.org/images/KUW%20-%20NOC%20suspension%20-%20IOC%20letter%20-%201.January.2010.pdf

Letter from the IHF to the Kuwait Handball Federation, dated January 6, 2010: http://www.alraimedia.com/Alrai/Resources/ARticlesPictures/2010/01/12/03.52.01.jpg

Letter from the IOC to Kuwait, dated December 9, 2009:
http://www.sarkha.org/Letter_ioc.pdf