Serbia ready to host another exciting EHF EURO

With a little over two months remaining until the start of the Women’s EHF EURO 2012 in Serbia, preparations are in full swing to organise the 16-nation tournament which takes place from December 4 to December 16.

Heads of the Serbian Handball Federation (RSS) and officials from the European Handball Federation on Wednesday pointed out the goal to emulate and if possible surpass the high standards set by the Men’s EHF EURO 2012 which Serbia hosted in January.

The men’s event filled the venues to maximum capacity in the vast majority of the games across the country and four of the five arenas have been picked again for the women’s tournament.

Instead of two venues, Pionir Hall and Kombank Arena, Belgrade will only use the latter which drew an excess of 20,000 fans for Serbia’s matches in the Main Round and the Medal Rounds. The other three venues are the SPENS Arena in Novi Sad, the Cair Hall in Nis and the Millennium Hall in Vrsac.

RSS general secretary Bozidar Djurkovic evoked fond memories of the Men’s EHF EURO 2012 and expressed confidence that the upcoming event would live up to expectations just as much.

“Having won plaudits from the EHF for organising the men’s tournament in January, we confidently undertook the task of staging the women’s EHF EURO 2012. We will invest every effort to at least emulate and if possible surpass the quality of the men’s tournament,” Djurkovic said at a press conference.

“We expect many fans from the neighbouring countries and Scandinavia to turn up and we will do everything in our power to be good hosts and make all the teams and their fans feel at home in Serbia.

"We’ve launched the ticket sale operation on Monday and we took on board the overall economic situation in Europe and Serbia when we determined the prices. We strongly believe we will have a full house or close to it in every match because we are looking at what should be a highly entertaining tournament packed with the world’s best teams,” he said.

“Around 1,100 Norwegian fans have already booked tickets for the entire tournament and this should entice our fans to turn up in droves during the Preliminary Round.”

Biljana Djokic and Pavle Leventa, officials in charge of ticket allocation and distribution, added:  “A lot of foreign fans have already bought sets of tickets which are currently being sold with a 20 percent discount and if this is anything to go by, they will sell like hot cakes quickly.”

“A total of 15,000 tickets have already been booked. We expect fans from neighbouring countries, namely Croatia, Hungary, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro and Romania, as well as bulks of Scandinavian fans from Sweden, Denmark and Norway, to turn up in droves while we are also pleased that Serbian fans have started purchasing sets of tickets, too.”

Jan Tuik from the EHF and Monica Filxeder, the EHF EURO 2012 coordinator, were also optimistic that the event would not fall short of the expectations set by the men’s tournament in January.

“We face a new but at the same time a familiar situation. We know a lot about Serbia, its cities and the people. We are in a position to do even better than in the men’s tournament in January, which was a great championship.

"We have set high standards and the only way to do a good job is to match them in every department and improve them where possible. We hope to have a full house in every game and every venue,” Tuik mentioned.

Filxeder offered a comprehensive insight into what December’s event is likely to produce. She also praised the RSS for stepping in at short notice when the Netherlands withdrew from hosting the Women’s EHF EURO 2012.

“We have a good starting point for the women’s tournament knowing that a total of 300,000 attended the men’s event live in January. It is really important to build on this excellent (Men's) EHF EURO 2012 and improve where we can so that the women’s tournament is even better, if possible,” she said.

“We appreciate it has been very difficult for the Serbian Handball Federation to set up the stage for another tournament at such short notice, meaning that the whole of EHF organisation has to help out in order to make sure the high standards we have set are fulfilled.

"Ticket allocation, availability and the event’s promotion are time-consuming tasks and I would like to thank the Serbian Federation for stepping in so quickly. We are really looking forward to another great championship here in Serbia,” Filxeder said.