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

Only last week, THN reported about the firing of the Head of Administration, https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.915 one of the two top positions in the IHF Office in Basel, moreover followed by the hiring of a well-known crony of the president as a replacement. [u]But now surely it has gone too far![/u] It has just become known, through an official letter to all IHF Council members and through press bulletins http://www.handballwoche.de/artikel/weitere/weltspiegel/news/ekke-hoffmann-kehrt-ihf-den-ruecken/ , that [u]Ekke Hoffmann, the Head of Sports, a real key position in an international sports federation, has seen himself forced to resign, essentially due to the behavior of the notoriously autocratic and meddlesome IHF president[/u]. In part, the resignation also seems caused by increasing interference from the president’s crony in matters for which the Head of Sports clearly must be responsible.

Many of you are likely to know, or know of, Ekke Hoffmann, a person with an ideal background for the position and with the highest level of ethics and integrity. Mr. Hoffmann is an experienced coach at the highest level, including a period in charge of the German women’s national team, and a first rate educator by profession. He has demonstrated a genuine interest in global aspects of the development of handball, with a great sense for the needs and opportunities in the new handball countries around the world. He has also shown a strong ability to contribute in matters such as referee development and rules development.

Mr. Hoffmann is a hands-on person and not a bureaucrat, but at the same time he emphasizes conceptual thinking and careful planning. He is a good manager. In short, any organization like the IHF should consider itself fortunate to have in its employ a person like Mr. Hoffmann. But [u]the president has managed to undermine Mr. Hoffmann’s situation to such an extent that he now feels forced to leave[/u], rather than keeping his high position and collecting his salary for a job where much of the responsibility and the substance is being removed. (How unusual for the IHF, where, by contrast, some elected officials seem to prefer having very little to do, as long as they can have the nice title and all the benefits that go with it).

It says a lot about the impotence of the IHF Executive Committee, and the failure of the majority of the Council members, if a situation such as this one is allowed to evolve, without anyone protesting or at least asking any serious questions. Perhaps, although it is a faint hope, someone in the Council will now decide to ask: how could this happen and what does it say about the president’s methods!? Not that it will cause Mr. Hoffmann to believe in sudden major change and make him change his mind, and not that the president will suddenly become a different person; [u]but just perhaps it could make some people start wondering about the ramifications for the longer term, if there is no change – soon[/u]. I will not hold my breath, but hope is eternal, as they say…

A few months ago, this highly rated referee couple was sanctioned by the European Federation for an ethics violation. As reported by THN, https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.802 they were not in any way accused of biased refereeing or any improper conduct on the court. Rather, the EHF found them guilty of having failed their obligation to report that they had been approached by team officials who had wanted to ’influence’ them prior to an important game, and they had equally failed to report that they found an astoundingly large amount of money in their luggage in connection with their travel back to Germany. The EHF decided on a 5-year ban at the international level. The German Federation, which under the existing regulations strangely is not bound by the EHF ruling, decided on a 9-month ban at the national level.

However, as reported by THN a couple of months ago, https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.861 resistance to the return of Lemme/Ullrich had started to be voiced among club officials in the German League. While everyone recognizes the high standards and the great services provided by Lemme/Ullrich in the past, Bundesliga clubs were apparently concerned that any disputed refereeing decisions by the couple in future games would imply a risk for an unusal degree of controversy, due to the situation that they are facing at the international level.

It now appears that this ‘skepticism’ on the part of the very teams that Lemme/Ullrich would hypothetically be refereeing in Germany, has simply made them conclude that they are better off declining any opportunities to continue their career at the national level. Instead, they have now announced their retirement from refereeing. http://www.handball-world.com/o.red.c/news.php?GID=1&auswahl=23643 They have added, however, that they nevertheless intend to follow through on their appeal of the EHF verdict, as a way of clearing their names.

I am no longer in any official position where it would be up to me to have a formal view on their decision. However, at a personal level I support their decision, as I feel that I, just like many who have admired their skills and performances in the past, would prefer to remember them as the top referees who were in the exclusive category of having been nominated for both the final at a Men’s World Championship (2005) and the Men’s Final at the Olympic Games (2008), nominations which I can guarantee you that they richly deserved. Again at a personal level, I want to thank them for their valuable contributions to world handball during many years.

While much of the international focus right now is on the upcoming EURO 2010, i.e., the European Championship for men, organized in Austria, it should be recognized that both Africa and Asia organize their continental championships next month. In the case of Asia, this involves the men only, while in Africa the men’s and the women’s championships are run side-by-side. Our web site continuously provides pages with the draws, indications of how these events link up with the Men’s and Women’s World Championships in 2011 etc. To see these pages, go separately to our links for 2011 WC Qual (men) and (women), or click here: https://teamhandballnews.com/page30.html https://teamhandballnews.com/page34.html

Several readers have contacted me regarding the Asian men’s championship. Many comments involve concerns about possible manipulations: in the draw, in the refereeing, and in the overall conduct of the games. Such suspicions may be understandable, considering the long traditions of manipulations, including outright corruption, with the qualifying events for the 2008 Olympics as the prime examples. The reluctance on the part of the IHF to carry out a firm and impartial oversight has also been part of the problem.

I may be too optimistic, but I feel there are reasons to believe that this time it will be different. For instance, as regards the draw, there have been comments to the effect that the 4 groups do not look evenly balanced. Well, first of all this often tends to be an issue everywhere, even when all formalities have been respected. Luck is an important component in a draw, and the results from two years ago, while correctly used for the seeding, may not necessarily be the best indication of the current relatively strengths. Moreover, a traditionally strong team such as Bahrain was placed last in the rankings last time, due to disciplinary reasons, so their place in the seeding suffers accordingly this time. As it now is, the top 4 teams from 2008 are indeed heading one group each, with teams 1 (Korea) and 4 (Iran) on one half of the draw, and with teams 2 (Kuwait) and 3 (Saudi Arabia) on the other half.

As regards the refereeing, Asia has fortunately participated strongly in the IHF’s ‘youth movement’ at the top level, and the best of these couples have shown their strength and received IHF training and supervision at recent World Championships at the senior or junior level. For more about the IHF referee training, see my recent article: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.908 It appears that, possibly with the exception of the representatives of the host country, Lebanon, all the participating Asian referee couples are from the younger, more consistently trained group, and not from the ‘old guard’. Moreover, the IHF has appropriately nominated one of its currently strongest couples as a ‘neutral’ couple to be available for key match-ups. Supervision during the event will also be provided by the IHF.

Moreover, I am hoping, and calling on the AHF leadership to ensure, that every effort will be made to restore faith in fair and corruption-free competition also in the Asian continent. So many bad things have been allowed to transpire in the past that surely the AHF leadership will now give priority to protecting the image of the handball sport and its own federation, rather than remaining preoccupied with the perennial ‘East-West’ battle of prestige and politics. The quality of handball is rapidly improving on a broad basis across the Asian continent. The handball world will be watching and will have high expectations. I have also consulted with federation representatives of many of the key participants, and there is indeed a spirit of optimism! May the best team win!