Referees begin preparations for EHF EURO 2012

An elite group of top handball referees met in the Austrian capital over the weekend (31 August - 2 September 2012) as they began their preparations for the Women’s EHF European Championship in Serbia in December.

15 referee pairs took part in the 2012 EHF Referee Seminar in Altmannsdorf Hotel, close to the EHF Office. For the event in December the group will be reduced down to 12 for the event, with an announcement due in mid-October.

The seminar involved briefings from mental performance coach Jürgen Boss alongside team building, and physical testing by Prof. Hans Holdhaus, including a shuttle run test and lactate testing. Prof. Holdhaus also delivered an inciteful lecture about physical preparation.

Marko Sibila, who is an EHF Coaching lecturer and coaching himself in Maribor, held a lecture which dealt with the concept 'how to read the game' from the referee's perspective. Sibila also went into depths about fostering the relationship between coaches and referees through a mutual understanding of the game. 

Each referee will receive a personal physical training plan with online performance monitoring and personal updates to their programmes when required.

The course was led by newly elected Chairman of the EHF Competition Commission, Leopold Kalin, and member for refereeing, Dragan Nachevski. Additional lectures dealt with cooperation with delegates and also understanding the team coaches' perspective during matches.

Of the 15 pairs of referees, seven have come through the EHF’s Young Referee Programme. There are seven female referee pairs amongst the selection, underlining the EHF’s continuing commitment to the development of female referees and officials.

In September 2009 the EHF carried out a similar and successful event with 30 referee pairs and also organised a referee event in 2011 in preparation for the Men’s EHF EURO, which was played in Serbia in January 2012.
 

Participating in the 2012 EHF Referee Seminar were the following referees:

Brkic / Jusufhodzic (Austria)
Gousko / Repkin (Belarus)
Crnojevic / Kostecki-Radic (Croatia)
Opava / Valek (Czech Republic)
Lythje / Christiansen (Denmark)
Bonaventura / Bonaventura (France)
Horvath / Marton (Hungary)
Stolarovs / Licis (Latvia)
Brehmer / Skowronek (Poland)
Santos / Fonseca (Portugal)
Florescu / Duta (Romania)
Maric / Masic (Serbia)
Brunovsky / Canda (Slovakia)
Marin / Garcia (Spain)
Delle / Engberg (Sweden)

About EHF Competence Academy and Network (EHF CAN)

The event was organised by EHF CAN, the European Handball Federation’s educational service. EHF CAN develops and delivers sport specific educational and training programmes in order to ensure that coaches, officials, athletes and administrators in Europe and worldwide have access to the highest quality education and ‘handball know-how’.