2008 US Team Handball College Nationals Announcement!

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With official endorsement from the U.S.O.C., the U.S. Military Academy at West Point is pleased to announce that we will be hosting the 2008 Men's and Women's College Championships for Team Handball.

The tournament will be held at Arvin Gym at U.S.M.A, West Point, NY from Friday evening, April 4 through Sunday afternoon, April 6.

West Point has first class facilities with two full-size team handball courts, full-time medical training staff and new team handball equipment.

We encourage all teams to confirm soon. The tournament entry fee is only $300 per team. With the current state of the national club tournament in limbo, this is a great, competitive tournament for developing players at a top notch facility.

All participating players must be 25 years of age or younger and affiliated with a school.

Please read the attached file regarding lodging information.

Please contact me with any questions you may have- we are looking forward to hosting you here at West Point.

Thank you,

MAJ Springer

CHRIS SPRINGER
MAJOR, US Army
Assistant Professor of Economics
United States Military Academy
607 Cullum Road
West Point, NY 10996
Office: 845-938-3044
Email: christopher.springer@usma.edu

British Handball Media Blitz

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The British Handball program has had several interesting articles about their program recently. Links to all the articles are available at the Media Watch link on the England Handball webpage: http://www.sportfocus.com/webpro/handball/infopoint/dyncat.cfm?catid=29523

Also, here’s an MP3 file of BBC Radio 2’s interview with British player Huw Goodwin:
https://teamhandballnews.com/request41.html

Left click to listen; right click to download.

Champions League Web Broadcasts (1 and 2 March)

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The EHF is offering 4 matches this weekend. Here’s a summary and a recommendation on which matches to watch.

[b]Saturday, 1 March[/b], 17:00 Central European Time (CET)

FC Barcelona at Celje Pivovarna Lasko Celje needs to win this match to have any chance of winning Group 4. Barcelona is all alone in first place and their remaining two matches are both at home.

[b]Sunday, 2 March[/b]

16:30 CET Portland San Antonio at SG Flensburg Handewitt This is essentially an elimination match for Group 3. Portland San Antonio and Flensburg have only 2 and 1 points respectively and to qualify either side will probably have to win all their remaining games to finish first

17:30 CET
VfL Gummersbach at RK Gorenje Velenje
Ciudad Real is all alone at the top of Group 2 with 6 points, while Gummersback, Velenje and Montpellier have only 2 points. As such this is another elimination game as both sides probably need to win their 3 remaining matches to catch Ciudad Real.

17:45 CET (Taped delayed and available around 19:45)
HSV Hamburg at RK Croatia Osiguranje-Zagreb
A pivotal battle for first place in Group 3. Hamburg won by 3 in Germany, but now they will travel to a sold out arena in Zagreb. The atmosphere should be electric and with no commentating you may need to turn down the volume on your computer or the crowd noise could be deafening. If you can only watch 1 match this is clearly the one you should see.

Link to Videos: http://www.ehfcl.com/men/2007-08/videos

Bahrain Coach: “What We Saw is not Sport”

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Details concerning the controversial Iran-Kuwait match at the Asian Handball Championships are starting to emerge. Among the developments reported in the Gulf Daily News of Bahrain:

– Bahrain’s Coach, Borut Macek of Slovenia, candidly describes the match by saying “What we saw is not sport. If those players did not feel bad about what they did, then I think that they are not good sportsmen.”
– Coach Macek highlights that an Iranian pair officiated their earlier match against Kuwait. This was clearly an error in selection as it is standard practice to assign officials from a neutral country (i.e., a pair from one of the nations in the other group).
– Bahrain is considering a letter to the IOC concerning this issue
– Bahrain is planning to stage a protest outside the Kuwaiti Embassy next Monday
– In a sign that pressure is being applied behind the scenes, Asian Handball Federation (AHF) technical director has Nahar Al Asfoor resigned from his post.

Meanwhile, the Korea Times reports that South Korea, Japan, and China will meet next month in Beijing to discuss a break away Asian Federation.

Gulf Daily News Articles
Bahrain Victim of Kuwait Ploy: http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=210061&Sn=SPOR&IssueID=30345
Match Row Rally on Way: http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=210049&Sn=BNEW&IssueID=30345

Korea Times Article
S. Korea Drubs Kuwait in Handball Grudge Match:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/02/136_19720.html

Men’s Asian Handball Championships: Final Results

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South Korea easily defeated Kuwait 27-21 to win the Men’s Asian Handball Championship. In doing so, they added weight to the allegations that the Olympic Qualifier match played last Fall (a 28-20 Kuwait victory) had been fixed by the officials. In the bronze medal game Saudi Arabia edged out host Iran 24-23. Saudi Arabia joins South Korea and Kuwait as Asia’s 3 representatives to the World Championship next January in Croatia.

Final Standings
1) South Korea
2) Kuwait
3) Saudi Arabia
4) Iran
5) Qatar
6) Bahrain (Pending AHF decision on their forfeiture of the 5th place match)
7) Japan
8 ) China
9) United Arab Emirates
10) Lebanon

More Shenanigans in Asia?

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South Korea and Kuwait both won their semifinal matches yesterday so these two rivals will meet on Tuesday in a rematch of their controversial Olympic Qualifier. While this match will technically have no bearing on the upcoming International Court of Arbitration for Sports (ICAS) ruling on whether the results of the first or second Olympic Qualification Tournament should stand, the outcome of this match will give one side some measure of vindication.

But while the ICAS ruling will resolve one controversy a new controversy appears to be brewing. News reports from the Gulf States indicate that Bahrain is deeply upset with the outcome of the Iran – Kuwait match on the last day of Group Play. Buried in an article of the Arab Times of Kuwait, it’s mentioned that the Bahrain Handball Association was fined $200,000 for a fight with the Kuwaiti team following the Kuwait – Iran Group match. On the official webpage of the Asian Handball Championships, the 5th place game scheduled for today between Bahrain and Qatar has no score listed, implying that the game never took place. And finally, the Gulf Daily News of Bahrain is now reporting that Bahraini clubs will meet on Tuesday to decide whether they should sever their ties with the AHF.

Why would Bahrain be so upset after this match?

Well consider the math, which no one can dispute:
– Bahrain had already completed Group play with 6 points. (3 victories: China, Lebanon, and Iran; 1 Loss: Kuwait)
– Kuwait had 6 points (3 victories: China, Lebanon, Bahrain; and no losses)
– Iran had 4 points (2 victories: China, Lebanon; and 1 loss: Bahrain

Therefore, if Iran were to lose or draw the match, Bahrain would secure 2nd place in the group and a berth in the semifinals. If, however, Iran were to beat Kuwait, the standings would have resulted in a 3 way tie between Kuwait, Iran and Bahrain with the next tie breaker being goal differential for the matches between the 3 teams in question. Going into the match the goal differential standings were

Kuwait +2
Bahrain -1
Iran -1

Therefore, the following results were possible:

Iran (win by 1): Kuwait (+1), Iran (0), Bahrain (-1)
Iran (win by 2): Iran (1), Kuwait (0) Bahrain (-1)
Iran (win by 3): Iran (2), Kuwait (-1), Bahrain (-1) [Next tiebreaker is total offensive goals]
Iran (win by 4 or more): Iran (3), Bahrain (-1), Kuwait (-2)

So if Iran and Kuwait were to conspire on the final score, there’s only one possible outcome (Iran win by 1) that would allow Kuwait to keep 1st place (and avoid Korea in the semifinals), put Iran in 2nd place and send the Bahraini team home. The same Bahraini team that sided with South Korea and Japan on the Olympic Qualifier controversy. And that was the final outcome of the game.

How did events unfold?

This is where the dispute lies and we have yet to see any formal reporting on the match itself. Unconfirmed reports indicate that Kuwait was leading 31-25 with 6 minutes remaining before Iran went on a 10-3 run to pull out a miraculous come from behind victory 35-34 victory. And the most inflammatory claims are that the Kuwaiti goalie appears to have purposely allowed goals and that other Kuwaiti players purposely allowed turnovers to help Iran in their comeback.

Commentary: Undoubtedly, this is only the beginning of yet another controversy in Asia. And once again without video proof, it’s impossible to determine the legitimacy of these claims. Let’s hope that someone takes advantage of you tube.com to post video to dispel the rumors. Let the whole world see the last six minutes, so they can decide for themselves.

Arab Times:
http://www.arabtimesonline.com/kuwaitnews/pagesdetails.asp?nid=12814&ccid=10

Gulf Daily News Article: http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=209867&Sn=SPOR&IssueID=30343

Official Asian Handball Championship Webpage: http://www.asianhandball2008.com/Table.html

USOC NGB Certification Decision still on hold…

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From the desk for Eric Parthen:

"For those of you who have called, thank you. I apologize for not getting back to you but up until now, I’ve had no new information to report. In addition, my phone is ringing off the hook with inquiries and to speak to each of you individually would not be productive use of time because a final decision has not yet been made and each individual may hear the message differently and that could lead to confusion in the team handball community (i.e., articles in the Desert News, etc.)

So, with that said, here is what I’m willing to release at this time…..

· The USOC Board of Directors met this past weekend and discussed the staff recommendation for recognizing a new NGB for the sport of team handball.

· The USOC Board had a productive discussion however; they have not finalized a decision. Their decision is contingent upon receiving some additional information.

· USOC staff is working to gather the additional information per the Board’s request and will have that information to the Board later this week.

· Upon receiving the information, we anticipate the Board will finalize its decision quickly.

· Once the USOC Board decision is final, I will communicate directly with Dieter and Mariusz first before talking to anyone else. They have led the respective applications and deserve to be the first to be notified.

I hope this information is helpful and I appreciate your patience.

Best regards,

EJP"

Asian Handball Championships (Semifinalists Set)

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Group play is over at the Men’s Asian Handball Championship and 4 semifinalists will now battle it out for Asia’s 3 tickets to the 2009 Men’s World Championships. In the final match Friday, host Iran needed a victory over defending champion Kuwait in order to advance. The hosts eked out a 35-34 victory creating a 3 way tie for first place with Kuwait, Iran and Bahrain all level at 6 points a piece. As Kuwait beat Bahrain, Bahrain beat Iran, and Iran beat Kuwait, the tiebreaker came down to goal differential in their 3 head to head competition. Proving that every goal counts in group play the final standings were

Kuwait (+1)
Iran (0)
Bahrain (-1)

So for group A, Kuwait finishes 1st in the Group, Iran takes 2nd, and Bahrain is 3rd.

In Group B, South Korea won all four of its matches to take 1st place. Saudi Arabia, courtesy of their victory over Qatar finished in 2nd place. Qatar which had qualified for the 2005 Championships finished 3rd and Japan, which had tied Saudi Arabia earlier, finished in 4th place. The United Arab Emirates was winless and took 5th place in the Group.

Seminal Matches for Sunday, February 24
Kuwait vs. Saudi Arabia
South Korea vs. Iran

[b]Where’s Yoon?: [/b] Korean star Kyung-Shin Yoon scored 15 goals on Wednesday night, but he was no where near Isfahan, Iran. Instead of playing for South Korea he was helping his club side Hamburg win a key Champions League match against Portland San Antonio. According to German media reports, Yoon and his club Hamburg had disagreed on his participation in the Asian Olympic qualifier in Japan. Speculation is that he is not testing Hamburg’s good graces and the importance of the Champions League matches are taking priority. Additionally, Yoon has indicated that he will probably retire at the end of the season and therefore would not participate in Croatia. Finally, as Korea has shown they can probably place 1st-3rd without his services

[b]Olympic Qualifier Rematch?:[/b] Both South Korea and Kuwait will need to take care of business in the semifinals, but the Championship game could very well be a rematch of the controversial Olympic Qualifier. The IHF has had control of the tournament and a Ukrainian and Russian pair have been officiating many of the matches. One of those pairs will surely officiate the semifinals and final, so in theory there should be no bias in those matches.

Official Site Results: http://www.asianhandball2008.com/Match.html

Champions League Broadcasts this Weekend

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The EHF live streaming is on again this weekend. The schedule includes a Women's match

Saturday, 23 February, 14:20hrs (Central European Time (CET))
Slagelse DT vs Viborg HK

Saturday, 23 February, 16:15hrs CET
Pick Szeged vs FC Barcelona

Saturday, 24 February, 15:50hrs CET
GOG Svendeborg TGI vs Celje Pivovarna Lasko

North America (East Coast) = CET – 6 hours

The two Men's matches should be interesting as all four clubs are in Group 4 and all four clubs are tied at 2 points, with the home team winning in each of the first two rounds. Barcelona is a 3 goal favorite on Saturday and Svendborg is a 1.5 goal favorite on Sunday.

Also, it's not obvious, but the entire games can be watched on demand. So if your time zone doesn't support a convenient live viewing, you can watch the match later at your leisure. To watch the match click on the tiny icon in the center next to the match results. Unfortunately, the EHF has set up this link right next to the score of the game so you will either need to be very careful with a sheet of paper or have someone else click the icon for you.

Link to videos: http://www.ehfcl.com/men/2007-08/videos

Kosovo Independence Will Require EHF and IHF Decisions

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The breakup of the former Yugoslavia continued this past week with Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia. This declaration was recognized by several countries, including the USA, France, Germany, the UK and Italy. But other countries, including Serbia, Spain and Russia have indicated that they will not recognize Kosovo as an independent state.

On a sporting level, the IOC has indicated that they will wait for UN recognition before granting Olympic Status. While IOC recognition is important, it is not a requirement for either the International Handball Federation (IHF) or European Handball Federation (EHF) to recognize Kosovo for membership. Already, the EHF has granted Kosovo Associate Member status which has allowed Kosovo clubs to play in European competitions. Last year a Serbian club was fined and forfeited a match for refusing to play a Kosovar club. In other instances Kosovo-Serbian matchups have been staged on neutral sites. As Handball is one of Kosovo’s top team sports they will undoubtedly press the EHF for full membership. As a precedence, EHF recognition of Montenegro was very swift and allowed Montenegro to qualify and participate in the European Championships only a year and half after obtaining independence. Montenegro’s independence, however, was less controversial then Kosovo’s, so it will be interesting to see how the EHF responds.

Wikipedia Article on Kosovo Declaration of Independence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_reaction_to_the_2008_Kosovo_declaration_of_independence

Washington Post: IOC: Kosovo Olympic Team Unlikely: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/18/AR2008021801072.html

Serbian Handball Association Commentary on Kosovo being granted Associate Membership in the EHF:
http://www.kosovakosovo.com/forum/index.php?change_lang=en&id=3064

Greenland Cleared to Participate in PATHF Junior Tournament

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Greenland has received notification from the PATHF that they now will be allowed to participate in the PATHF Junior Women’s Tournament scheduled for March 10-16, in Argentina. As reported earlier, the PATHF appeared to be stonewalling Greenland by not providing scheduling information concerning the tournament. Additionally, formal correspondence between the PATHF and the IHF concerning Greenland’s membership status implied that the PATHF had not recognized the IHF Court of Arbitration ruling that Greenland should be reinstated as a full PATHF member.

The notification that Greenland received, however, dispels that notion and fully acknowledges Greenland’s right to play in the upcoming tournament. But while Greenland is cleared to play for this tournament, the PATHF still maintains that Greenland’s status as a PATHF member still needs to be fully resolved either through the IHF appeal process or other legal action. The PATHF, however, concedes that until such time a ruling reverses the current status quo, Greenland is a full member and will be allowed to participate in PATHF tournaments.

Greenland Saga Continues (Jan 08): https://teamhandballnews.com/comment-n444.html
IHF Ruling: Greenland Reinstated as Full PATHF Member (Nov 07): https://teamhandballnews.com/comment-n410.html

Pick Szeged – GOG Svendborg Video

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[html] Pick Szeged edged GOG Svendborg 34-33 in a Champions League match over the weekend. Svendborg tied the score on a fluke goal with about a minute left that left Pick Goalie Nenan Puljezevic wondering if he had just cost his team the game. He got his redemption moments later however, when he blocked a penalty shot then joined his team on the offensive end of the floor where his entry into the 6 meter area distracted the Svendborg defense leading to an easy goal and the 34-33 victory.
You Tube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD7ql72db2I
EHF feature on Nenad Puljezevic: http://www.ehfcl.com/men/2007-08/article/11157/I+analysed+all+players+years+ago
EHF write up on match: http://www.ehfcl.com/men/2007-08/article/11167/Decision+in+the+last+second [/html]

Forum Added to the Site

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[html] Recently our site got a couple of extensive post in the comments section from a couple of former USA Handball Presidents. While the commentaries were interesting they were, in my opinion, too long and not related to the story. This isn’t the first time our comments section has degenerated into long and involved discussion that‘s somewhat misplaced. While we don’t want to stifle debate, we would like, however, for the news section to remain a news section.

To solve this quandary we’ve added a forum to the website. The link is there at the top of the page and the forum will be the venue for protracted discussion and debate. When you want to vent on a particular topic and/or debate handball issues this is your venue. This doesn’t mean that you can’t comment on a particular article, but let’s try and keep the comments short and germane to the article. A great example of how the article comment section should be used is Yaz’s tip on registering for the EHF video streaming.

And of course another benefit of the forum is that you can pick the topic, within reason. All that we ask is that you keep it civil. We hope this plan makes sense and we hope that members take advantage of the forum to air their views and share information. [/html]