Great Britain Women score major victory against Slovakia

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The Great Britain Women’s National Team is currently in Poland taking part in EHF Group Qualification Play for the Women’s 2011 World Championships. Through 3 rounds of play, Great Britain has a 2-0-1 record with wins over Cyprus (39-20) and Slovakia (27-26) as well as a loss against Austria (30-20). The win over Cyprus is no surprise, except perhaps for the margin, but the victory over Slovakia is pretty noteworthy. Slovakia is not part of Europe’s elite, but they have a long tradition of playing the sport. To knock them off a neutral court is clearly a sign of British progress.

Going into the final two rounds of games, it’s even possible that Britain could play Poland in a winner take all match on Sunday to qualify for the next round. Austria will need to lose to both Poland and Slovakia for that scenario to play out. A prospect that is conceivable with Poland hosting the event and Slovakia playing Poland close, losing 28-31.

British Handball: Injury Mars Great Britain Win Over Cyprus: http://fastbreak-handballnews.blogspot.com/2010/12/injury-mars-great-britain-win-over.html
British Handball: Last-Gasp Goal Helps GB Women Beat Slovakia: http://fastbreak-handballnews.blogspot.com/2010/12/last-gasp-goal-helps-gb-women-beat.html
EHF 2011 Women’s World Championship Qualification Page: http://www.eurohandball.com/wch/women/2011/round/3/Qualification+Europe

Citizenship and eligibility in an age of mercenaries

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Handball.mforos and various Spanish sports media have reported about a situation that seems to have the potential for becoming increasingly common. With the steady trend for top players to move from handball countries without financially strong clubs and leagues to a number of countries where lucrative contracts and a comfortable living environment can be obtained, the strong sense of loyalty to one’s nationality seems to be diminished.

If one spends many years in a particular country, chances are that the loyalties can become a bit divided. Moreover, certain countries have much more flexible immigration and naturalization laws than others. Austria is one example, and the impact this had on women’s handball was obvious during extended periods. Players recruited to Hypo, especially from the Balkans, from ex-Soviet Union and from Hungary, soon found themselves in a position where they had met the legal requirement to become Austrian citizens and theoretically eligible for the Austrian national team.

Of course, as a way of maintaining some seriousness and to avoid having players switching national teams too often and too conveniently, the IHF and the EHF have regulations that require a reasonable gap. Players cannot just stop playing for one national team, and shortly thereafter, with a new nationality, show up in another event for another national team. But if players and federations have patience and do some planning, clearly there is still room for such changes. Of course, the reactions in the player’s native country are typically not entirely positive…

The probably best known case of ‘migration’ is that of the Belarus native Siarhei Rutenka. He moved to the club Celje in Slovenia, and soon obtained citizenship in accordance with the laws of that country. He most definitively became a valuable member of the Slovenian national team. But as so often happens these days, he moved on to Spain, in order to play for Barcelona. It did not take long for Spanish handball fans, and perhaps also for the Federation, to start ‘drooling’ about the prospects of having Rutenka switch nationality once again and eventually become eligible for the Spanish national team.

But it appears Rutenka developed other ideas. He obtained his Spanish citizenship, as Spain is another country with very easy requirements, but now it appears that he has become nostalgic to the point of ‘completing the circle’. In other words, he has also acquired a Belarus citizenship and really wants to play for the Belarus team, not for Spain. There is, however, one little twist to this, something that Rutenka might have overlooked after his experience with easy switches. He wants to stay in Barcelona, but there is no recognition of dual citizenship between the two countries, so he may be in danger of losing his Spanish citizenship. This in turn may have implications for his future options in terms of place of residence after his days as a handball players are over.

And now a somewhat similar case is beginning to cause frustration in Hungary. One of this country’s most popular and valuable players is Laszlo Nagy, another member of the Barcelona club team. It seems he has now made it clear to the Hungarian federation that they should not count on him in the future. So he might become the player soon eligible to reinforce the Spanish national team instead.

Time for a True European Handball Super League (Part 1): European capitalists and American socialists

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In this new series of essays, I plan to make the case that it’s time for professional European Handball to dramatically restructure its organization to form a true, European Handball Super League. In short, it’s time to adopt the best features of the American sports model and create a top flight Pan-European league. In part one of this series I won’t go into the detail of what such a league would look like. Instead, I’ll first explore a puzzling dichotomy which suggests that maybe such a dramatic change wouldn’t be as upsetting to the European psyche as many think it would be.

Sometimes you can’t really appreciate how another country does certain things until you’ve lived there a few years. Living in France I learned a few things that surprised me and challenged some notions I had about the superiority of my native country. For instance, I’ll never forget the puzzled looks on the French Hospital staff who couldn’t figure out why we dragged our baby daughter to the Emergency Room in the middle of the night for a high temperature. Silly Americans, don’t you know that you call the doctor and he comes to your apartment for problems like that. Oh, and it costs around 40 Euros. Call me a left wing extremist, but I’m thinking if a few more Tea Party Americans experienced SOS Medecins instead of our wonderful Hospital Emergency Rooms at two o’clock in the morning they’d still be clamoring to repeal the Obama health care plan, but only because it doesn’t go far enough.

Of course, it works the other way as well. The U.S.A didn’t get where it is today, if we didn’t do quite a few things pretty darn well ourselves. And nowhere is this truer than how the U.S. organizes and manages professional sports. Pick any metric you like: attendance, player salaries, TV audiences, etc and without question the American system is overwhelming superior to anything in Europe or the rest of the world for that matter. Professional Soccer is the only sport that approaches American numbers and even then if you compare it to our predominant outdoor sport, American Football, it is still clearly: advantage USA.

I’ve written about this a few times before in a couple of articles on “What’s wrong with European Handball” and periodically in forum discussions that crop up on revamping the Champions League or National Leagues. I’ll have to say I don’t think I’ve won many people over. And with the overwhelming evidence I find it a little frustrating, so I chalk it up to my opening diatribe: If European leagues are what you grew up with you may to have to witness American structures personally before you start to rethink your version of reality.

Still, I find it somewhat bewildering that this “my sports league model is better than yours” argument is all backwards as Europeans should have the American model and vice versa. The reason I say this is that most European nations take great pride in their social programs which include universal health care, generous unemployment compensation and pensions. There’s a price, though, for these European safety nets, as taxes are higher and it’s tougher for an entrepreneur to start a new company. There are fewer rich people, but also fewer folks on the margins of society. Liberte, egalite, fraternite, if you will.

In the U.S. we have fewer social programs and there’s more of a let the strong survive mentality. If you’ve got a great idea or run your company better than your competition, well, then you will profit handsomely. Conversely, if you don’t do things as well, then you could go out of business. This is an over simplification of both models, as entrepreneurs can succeed in Europe and American have a safety net as well. The difference is principally a sliding scale with vary degrees of free market and more socialistic philosophies.

But, when we talk about our different sport structures everything is way out of whack as U.S. Professional leagues have hired Karl Marx as their economics advisor and the Europeans have hired Boss Tweed. In the U.S. we’ve instituted rules that limit how much players can be paid (salary caps), force strong teams to pay cash money to weaker teams (revenue sharing), and help ensure that the best new players join the worst teams (drafts). In Europe, it’s a dog eat dog world with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

The results of these polar opposite structures are stark in their contrast. Nowhere is this more true than the competitiveness of leagues. In Europe, it’s all but preordained which teams have a chance of winning their respective leagues. In Germany, Kiel, Hamburg and Rhein-Neckar Lowen have the biggest budgets and despite some early season success from Berlin they will surely play for the title. In Spain it will be Ciudad Real and Barcelona. In other countries it’s even worse with one horse towns like Montpellier ruling the French league season after season. They were such a big favorite this year that you would have to wager $100 to win $10 if you wanted to bet on them to win the French Championship.

But, the point of this new series won’t be to simply rehash the shortcomings of the European model (Although, undoubtedly they will be highlighted again.) Instead this series will make the case that a modified American model could work in Europe. And not only work well, but work magnificently, dramatically increasing revenue, improving competitive play and perhaps most importantly raising the profile of the sport world-wide. In Part 2 of this series I will outline just how such a league would be structured.

SOS Medecins: http://www.sosmedecins.com/index.htm
THN Commentary (20 Aug 06): What’s Wrong with European Club Handball? (Part 1) The Disparity from Top to Bottom: https://teamhandballnews.com/2006/08/whats-wrong-with-european-club-handball-part-1-the-disparity-from-top-to-bottom/
THN Commentary (5 Dec 06) What’s Wrong with European Club Handball (Part 2): https://teamhandballnews.com/2006/12/whats-wrong-with-european-club-handball-part-2/

Cynicism and unsportsmanlike behavior — how far can it go!?

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When you see this heading, perhaps you will find it to be of some consolation that this time I am not talking about incidents in handball. But what I will comment on involves a mentality that suggests that there is no reason why we would not have similar problems in other forms in our own sport. Perhaps the rules in handball do not lend themselves to quite the same behavior, but I am sure also we have some loopholes.

I should not really keep you in suspense any longer. My story involves football/soccer, and more specifically something that happened in a Champions League match between Ajax Amsterdam and Real Madrid, two of football’s most prestigious clubs, a little over a week ago. First I need to explain that in football, unlike in handball, a warning (a ‘yellow card’) is not necessarily wiped out or meaningless once the game is over. In football, whether under FIFA, UEFA or national federations, there are regulations which mean that if a player accumulates a certain number of yellow cards during a competition (or a segment thereof) , then he will be suspended for a match.

So late in the match I mentioned, there were two key players from Real Madrid who knew that if they received one more yellow card before the match ended, then they would be suspended in the next match. And as their team was leading 4-0 close to the end, and as the next game, the last one in the group play, was essentially meaningless, it would be preferable to be suspended for that meaningless match. If they instead played in that match and received another yellow card, they would be ineligible in the next, much more important game, namely the first round of the subsequent knock-out competition.

So, at their own initiative, or more likely at the instigation of their notoriously selfish and cynical coach, they caused (=forced) the referee to give each of them a yellow card for time-wasting, an absurd action in a game that their team had already won. The Amsterdam spectators and the TV commentators immediately understood what was up, and the players got the nasty reaction that they deserved.

But the saddest part came later. When media started criticizing the players and coach, the reaction was totally cynical. “There was nothing strange about it; this is what many players do all the time”, was one of the responses. The coach naturally denied any involvement but defended his players. “Of course we expect our players to behave in the best interests of the club”, was the comment of another team official.

And even worse: in response to newspaper and web reports, the ‘general public’ started weighing in. And I am talking about people with no particular sympathies for Real Madrid but just regular football fans. Most of the comments involved criticizing the media for “making a big deal about it”. Others saw it as a reaction of envy aimed specifically at Real Madrid. Yet others came up with the wonderful suggestion that “the players should be applauded for drawing their yellow cards through harmless action, instead of doing it by kicking the leg of an opponent”. And then there were some who criticized the referee “for not outsmarting the players and (illegally)refusing to give them the yellow cards that they had to be given under the rules”.

I can have some understanding for cynical and unsportsmanlike reactions expressed in the heat of the battle, at the moment something happens. But to find that ‘sports fans’ calmly, a day or two later, find it normal and appropriate to go out of their way to express such opinions, that tells me that regrettably these ‘sports fans’ have very little sense for what sportsmanship is all about, and it tells me that players and referees in any sport must expect to be treated and judged in that kind of fashion. If they act properly, then they must expect to be considered stupid or soft, but if they commit a ‘professional foul’ or an unsportsmanlike act that benefits the team, then they will be celebrated and considered smart.

EHF game of the week: Flensburg at Zagreb (Live and with English Commentary)

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It’s déjà vu all over again this weekend as Flensburg and Zagreb will play each other again. Last Sunday, Flensburg held serve with a 32-29 win at home. This Sunday they travel to Croatia, where Zagreb will look to even things out with a victory. After this match there will still be 4 rounds left, but a Flensburg victory would all but assure them of at least 2nd place in Group D. A victory by Zagreb, however, would level the two sides on points.

It’s also worth pointing out that as there is a real possibility these two sides may finish the 10 rounds of group phase level on points. Should that happen, the goal differential between the two sides in their head to head games will decide seeding heading into the round of 16. Just something to keep in mind if Zagreb has a 2 goal leading heading into the closing minutes.

The match is at 5:30 PM (Central European Time), 11:30 AM (U.S. East Coast) on Sunday, 28 November. Zagreb is 1.5 goal favorite.

On Demand broadcast at ehfTV: http://www.ehftv.com/ec/cl/men/2010-11/video/001250

There is also a tape delayed broadcast on the MHz Network in the U.S. at 4:00 PM (U.S. East Coast). For information on how you can watch MHZ see this http://www.mhznetworks.org/mhzworldview/carriage/

Asian refereeing — good progress ruined by bad politics

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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???

Asian Games: Chinese women and Korean men win the Gold medals

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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.

Iran defeats Japan in dramatic semifinal – plays Korea in the final

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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.

Asian Games — Japan-IR Iran and R.O.Korea-Saudi Arabia in the men’s semifinals

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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.

The situation of Kosovo suddenly highlighted

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Kosovo currently has a special status in handball and in sports more generally. Only a handful of international sports federations have granted Kosovo status as a full member. Several other sports use the concept of ‘associate member’ or hold off while allowing their continental federation in Europe to take the lead. In Europe, Kosovo has ‘associate member’ status in the European Handball Federation and participates in cup competitions, but the IHF does not yet recognize Kosovo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Membership_of_Kosovo_in_international_sports_federations

Most sports follow the lead of the International Olympic Committee, which in turn has the principle of waiting for the United Nations to bestow the status of independent state. Serbia has refused to recognize the independent status of Kosovo, and the United Nations Security Council has so far provided for a kind of interim, international administration. In recent months, however, there has a been a ruling from the International Court of Justice, to the effect that Kosovo did not violate any international laws when unilaterally breaking away from Serbia in 2008. This has given reason to optimism in Kosovo but has made Serbia determined to plead its case in the United Nations General Assembly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_recognition_of_Kosovo

In the meantime, Kosovo teams have played their games in EHF competitions without incidents. But now the inevitable happened: in round 3 of the 2010-11 Women’s Cup Winners’ Cup, the Kosovo participant KHF Kastrioti was drawn against the Serbian team ZRK Knjaz Milos. Playing these games ‘home and away’ in Kosovo and Serbia was not quite a realistic option, so in collaboration with the EHF the decision has been reached to play both matches in Skopje, FYR Macedonia on November 20 and 21. http://www.eurohandball.com/article/13502

Let us hope, first, that these matches will be played in a spirit of sportsmanship and without any incidents, and then that the more important basic issue of the status of Kosovo will soon be resolved in a mutually agreeable manner!

EHF game of the week: Zagreb at Flensburg (Live and with English Commentary)

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The Champions League is back this weekend with a key match between Zagreb and Flensburg. Both teams are currently tied for 2nd place in Group D with 6 points apiece. Flensburg has 3 wins and a loss against group leader Ciudad Real while Zagreb has 2 wins and 2 draws. They drew Ciudad Real at home, but had a bad draw against winless Sarajevo. The two teams will play back to back matches with Flensburg travelling to Croatia next weekend. It’s likely that Ciudad Real will win the group, so these next two matches should be pivotal in deciding which side finishes second. Flensburg is a 2.5 goal favorite.

The match is at 3:30 PM (Central European Time), 9:30 AM (U.S. East Coast) on Sunday, 21 November

On Demand broadcast at ehfTV: http://www.ehftv.com/ec/cl/men/2010-11/video/001249

There is also a tape delayed broadcast on the MHz Network in the U.S. at 4:00 PM (U.S. East Coast). For information on how you can watch MHZ see this http://www.mhznetworks.org/mhzworldview/carriage/

Asian Games – Refereeing ‘issues’ reappear

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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.