In recent years, both some individual countries and the Asian federation finally began to realize that they had to change (some) of their old habits to avoid being left behind by the other continents in the area of refereeing. In particular, the traditional favoring of older, ‘over-the-hill’ referee couples in the continental competitions has gradually been outweighed by the IHF’s emphasis on bringing up new, talented referee couples through the IHF’s Global Referee Training Program.

Asia will now send two couples (Iran and UAE) of the new generation to the Men’s World Championship in Sweden next January. At least one other couple (KUW) is at about the same level. A handful of additional couples have shown promise in Junior and Youth World Championships. The only country not really contributing, certainly in relation to the perennial strength of their teams, is Korea. It seems they prefer to send their young talents into coaching instead of refereeing, an attitude that seems somewhat lacking in solidarity.

BUT, some other habits seem harder to change. I do not really want to go back and rehash the situation involving the Olympic qualifying in 2008, more specifically the atrociously biased refereeing in the infamous Korea-Kuwait match, where a Jordanian referee couple managed to set a record with 40 blatant errors in favor of Kuwait and 0 errors in favor of Korea. This couple was permanently barred, an action that I personally remember only too well as being criticized by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) as being too soft! But the reality is that, unlike a criminal court, the IHF does not have the jurisdiction to take any other action. The IHF decision and the reaction of the CAS were duly noted by the senior representatives of the Asian Handball Federation who were present at the time.

HOWEVER, when the reports from the Asian Games were beginning to come in a couple of weeks ago, I was not the only one who noted with astonishment that one of these Jordanian referees had been nominated and brought to the Asian Games by the Asian Federation. Presumably this was seen as a good opportunity due to the absence of IHF observers… Not just was this referee present with his new partner; they were also the only couple who consistently received games of major importance. This culminated with the bronze medal game for the men. A disgraceful demonstration by the Asian federation that they do not regret what happened two years ago, and that they do not care about the authority and decisions of the IHF. Perhaps one should even assume that the invitation to the Asian Games in Guangzhou was a way of thanking the Jordanian referee for following instructions two years ago???

The women’s competition had a really unexpected final outcome, as the highly favored Korean women failed to make it to the final. They lost 28-29 against a surprisingly strong Japanese team in the semi-finals. It seems the Koreans forgot to utilize their strength as a team and tried to win the game through individual plays. In the meantime, the Chinese women had a relatively easy time in defeating Kazakhstan in the other semi-final by the score of 24-18. Perhaps also this result constituted a bit of a surprise, although the Chinese team had played at a consistently strong level throughout the event.

In the final, the Chinese confirmed their impressive form, by pulling away easily in the second half to a clear 31-22 win against Japan, after a narrow lead at half-time. Korea presumably wanted some revenge in the bronze medal game, and they went on to crush Kazakhstan with 38-26, after having started at full speed right from the beginning. It will now remain to be seen if this shocking outcome for Korea, with a third place behind both China and Japan, is just a temporary setback or the beginning of a tougher battle for the top spot in Asia in coming years. At least it may suggest that both China and Japan will have to be reckoned with in the next World Championship.

The men’s final promised to be an interesting fight between Korea and Iran, but also here the Koreans ‘put the foot to the gas pedal’ from the outset. The half-time score was 16-9, and even if Iran scored the first four goals in the second half, Korea knew how to respond. Soon the margin was 30-21, and only towards the very end did the Koreans allow Iran to reduce the margin to the more respectable 32-28. Japan relied on speed and fast-breaks to stay ahead of Saudi Arabia throughout the bronze medal game, with a final result of 27-20.

Finally, for the sake of a narrowing of the gap between East Asia and the Gulf Region in the polarized handball scene in Asia, it is interesting to notice that India showed some progress with a 9th place among the men and an 8th place among the women, after some gradually more respectable results. Thailand came in 7th among the women.

It was perhaps anticipated that the semifinal Iran-Japan would be a very close game, but the Japanese seemed to move ahead towards an easy win when the score was 13-7 after 20 minutes. However, by the intermission the Iranians had almost caught up (15-16), and then the entire second half was a 'seesaw' battle. Iran scored the final goal for a 30-29 win during the very last minute.

In the final on Saturday, the Iranians will want to seek revenge for the 27-32 loss against Korea in the group play. Korea had absolutely no problem with Saudi Arabia in the other semi-final, winning comfortably with 41-19. Perhaps the Saudis expended all their energy on the final day of the group play, where their fate depended on other teams, or perhaps they simply were not good enough in comparison with the real top teams. But at least they will get a second chance to win against Japan in the bronze medal game.

The women's groups were finalized today, without any surprises. R.O. Korea defeated Kazakhstan with 25-17 and China had the upper hand against Japan, 25-19. This means that the semifinals on Thursday will have the matchups Korea-Japan and China-Kazakhstan. This will be followed by the medal games on Friday, just as for the men.

After the completion of the women's groups, it is now also clear that Taipei and D.P.R. Korea will square off for 5th place, while India and Thailand will play for 7th place. On the men's side, the neighbors Qatar and Bahrain will fight it out for 5th place, whereas China and Kuwait will have to be content with a battle for 7th place.

Yesterday it became clear that Iran would join Korea as the top teams from men’s group B. Today, the fight for the remaining two slots was settled through the matches. Japan won the first game against Saudi Arabia with the surprisingly clear margin of 36-28. This seemed to put the Saudis in an almost hopeless position. But the next match, Qatar-China, ended with a 25-25 tie, i.e., exactly the result that helped the Saudis into the semifinal.

Group A: JAPAN 8 pts, SAUDI ARABIA 7 pts, Qatar 7 pts, China 6 pts, India 2 pts, Mongolia 0 pts
Group B: KOREA 8 pts, IRAN 6 pts. Bahrain 4 pts, Kuwait 2 pts, Hongkong 0 pts.

On the women’s side, it is becoming obvious that R.O.Korea and Kazakhstan will qualify from one group, while China and Japan so far have lived up their favorite roles in the other group. The only remaining obstacle is for China to defeat D.P.R. Korea tomorrow.

Finally, back to the men’s competition, it should serve as encouragement for the future when India in the final group match, after four straight defeats, were able to crush fellow newcomer Mongolia with 56-22.

It has been an unfortunate ‘tradition’ for many, many years that manipulation through the refereeing has been a topic in continental Asian competition. The worst example was presumably the events in the qualifying tournaments for the 2008 Olympic Games, especially the infamous men’s game Korea-Kuwait. Therefore, last February in the Asian Championships, which served as qualification for the men’s World Championship next January, it was a pleasure to note a complete absence of accusations and controversy.

But now it seems that it might be ‘back to normal’ again. In a key game yesterday, Bahrain played Iran, and after Bahrain’s earlier loss to Korea in the group play, this was the last chance for Bahrain to qualify for the semifinals. It was a close game, but reports from the Danish coach for the Bahrain team suggest that, in the second half, the strange referee decisions deprived Bahrain of any chance to win the match. There are comments from the coach both in Danish media and in the ‘Gulf Daily News’. The coach admits that, to make things worse, his players were unable to ‘keep a straight face’ and lost their concentration in their frustration over the refereeing decisions. http://www.haandbold.com/nyhed/internationalt/dansk-traener-frustreret-over-asiatiske-skandalekendelser http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=291929

Of course, even against the background of the ‘traditions’, one would not want to jump to conclusions on the basis of views from the coach of the losing team. But I have now obtained opinions from neutral observers who are present in Guangzhou, and their reports suggest that the problems were in fact greater than the coach is stating. It seems there was a clear impression that the referees acted under some kind of pressure, and that their decisions sometimes seemed related to the result of the match at a given moment.

However, the real and undisputed indication the Asians are acting without scruples is the following: at the time of the legal process following the infamous Korea-Kuwait match, culminating in a Tribunal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the IHF took a clear decision that [u][/u]the referees in the match would be permanently banned[u][/u] from refereeing at the international/continental level. Indeed, I personally confirmed this position, with the Asian leadership present, when I was the IHF witness in the Tribunal. But when now there is an Asian event, without any external supervision from the IHF as there is no qualification for IHF events involved, [u][/u]it is shocking but perhaps not entirely surprising to detect that the Asians have taken the opportunity to nominate one of these Jordanian referees for the Asian Games[u][/u]. With his partner, he refereed a key game between China and Saudi Arabia a couple of days ago!

In my mind, this demonstrates an attitude of total disregard for IHF decisions, for the worldwide opinion and image, and for any sense of decency. One can only hope that matters do not go further downhill from here on, during the Asian Games and in future events….

On a happier note, it is interesting to note the strong coverage in major media in India for the efforts of their inexperienced and so far winless men’s team. Here are some links: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/16th-asian-games-2010/india-news/India-loses-against-Saudi-Arabia-in-Handball-at-Asiad/articleshow/6937936.cms http://www.indianexpress.com/news/3-punjab-girls-in-asiad-handball-squad/708309/

Tomorrow is the start of the women’s competition. The standings in the men’s competition so far are:
Group A: all teams with 3 games: Qatar 6, Saudi Arabia 5, Japan 4, China 3, India 0 and Mongolia 0. Group B: Korea 8 points after 4 games; all other teams with 3 games: Iran 4 points, Kuwait 2, Bahrain 2 and Hong Kong 0.

The handball tournament in the Asian Games in now underway. As I anticipated earlier, there were several 'mismatches' between experienced teams and weaker opponents but also a couple of closer games.

In Group A, Qatar defeated Japan by 33-27, after 17-17 at half-time. By contrast, Saudia Arabia crushed Mongolia by 69-17and China had an easy time defeating India by 41-21.

In Group B. Bahrain showed good form in preparation for the World Championship, by beating the long-standing rival Kuwait by 27-25 after a strong second half. Rep. of Korea had little difficulty in beating Hong Kong by a clear margin, 52-13. Iran had a bye on the first day in this group.

One of our friendly readers in Korea also helped us with the information that Kazakhstan has been added as a last-minute entry in Women's Group A. Yes, it did seem a bit surprising that the Kazakh women would not participate, considering their strength in recent years.

Asian Games Official Website (Handball Schedule and Results): http://www.gz2010.cn/info/ENG_ENG/ZZ/ZZS103A_HB@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ENG.html

As I am trying to recover from the shock after having seen John Ryan contaminate our web site a couple of days ago by talking about some kind of nonsense activity, that regrettably has not been stamped out or at least banned from its outrageous use of the label ‘handball’, I will try to get all of you, and myself, back on track with the real thing.

The 16th Asian Games had their opening ceremony in Guangzhou, China, on Friday and the handball competition will start on Saturday, at least as far as the men are concerned. The Asian Federation’s web site has offered very little information, whereas some other web sites have shown contradictory information regarding tournament format and playing schedule. It seems relatively certain, however, that the competition will start with the following preliminary groups:
Men A: Qatar, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, India and Mongolia;
Men B: Kuwait, Iran, Rep. of Korea, Bahrain and Hong Kong;
Women A: Rep.of Korea, Taipei, Thailand and Qatar;
Women B: Japan, China, India, P.D.R. of Korea;

The first day of competition has a couple of intriguing match-ups, Kuwait-Bahrain and Japan-Qatar. While the women’s brackets seem to be leading up to rather predictable results, the men’s side should offer a really strong fight for the positions in the medal round. Korea, Japan and Bahrain are in the midst of their preparations for the World Championship in Sweden in January, but several of the other participants are likely to want to show that they are at least as strong. Title defender is Kuwait who won the final against Qatar in 2006.

The participation of Kuwait is somewhat ‘mysterious’. Early in the year, the IOC suspended the Kuwait Olympic Committee. Soon afterwards, some international sports federations, including the IHF, decided to follow this example on an entirely voluntary basis, so the Kuwait Handball Federation was suspended. There have been no indications that these bans are being lifted. And for instance, a strong Kuwaiti referee couple apparently could not be considered for participation in Sweden. However, in some rather absurd way, it appears that the Kuwaiti team was given permission to participate, but on the condition that the flag of the country could not be used!!! The IOC has sometimes given individual athletes the right to participate in Olympic events, on a ‘stateless’ basis and under a neutral flag. But it does seem quite weird that a team can represent its suspended federation under the name of its country… Perhaps we will get a plausible explanation one day!?

The Asian Games have become a major event in China, in the aftermath of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, with vast amounts of modern facilities, not just for the official 28 Olympic summer sports but for a very interesting spectrum of other sports. Americans may find it interesting that baseball is on the program, although of course baseball is these days much more a sport for Asian and Latin American start players than an ‘American pastime’; and then in all fairness, cricket is also on the program. Rugby and squash are undoubtedly intrigued about having a chance to participate. Bowling and chess have also been given an opportunity, and it may not be difficult to understand why dragon boat racing is on the program. More unknown internationally are sebaktakraw and kabbadi, but at least kabbadi seems to have some similarities with handball, especially in the sense of training movement without the ball. http://www.kabaddiikf.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabaddi

As results become available from the handball tournament, we will try to provide some updates, at least for the purpose of washing that awful taste out of our mouths following John’s serious sabotage.