Time for reflection in Viborg

Having gone through the Group Matches stage of the Women´s EHF Champions League without a single point has been a huge disappointment for Viborg HK and for many handball fans in Denmark.

At the half way mark of this phase, when Viborg had lost their first three matches, head coach Martin Albertsen told ehfCL.com that the thought of finishing with zero would be “unbearable”. However, this was exactly what happened to the EHF Champions League winners from 2006, 2009 and 2010.

The former Danish champions restored part of the honour in their last group match, even though they lost 26:23 away to reigning trophy holders Budućnost. With less than two minutes left Viborg were close to getting at least one point, having reduced the deficit to only one goal, and therefore it was fair that veteran Rikke Skov could express a certain pride after the match.

“I am really proud of my team. We fought for each and every ball. It was a really cool match, where we played for our honour and were close to winning,” Skov told the club´s website.

This did not eliminate the general disappointment in the club and elsewhere in Danish handball.

Bent Nyegaard, handball expert at the station TV2, put it this way in the station´s website: “Viborg has surprised me a lot. It is a club with proud traditions in the EHF Champions League, and a club who is always determined to perform in that competition. Now they are out of the Champions and even out of all European handball. Before the tournament I expected them to at least be able to win their three home matches, but they have not even managed to do that.”

In Viborg HK director Peter Cassøe has stated that the poor results in the European top flight this season will inevitably have financial consequences due to missing income, and he is not content with the team´s performance in the EHF Champions League.

“We will have to find out if we have the right squad for next season. There is no doubt that it is not acceptable that we finish last in our group. This is the first time in the history of the club that we are not going to play any kind of European handball in the spring,” Cassøe told Berlingske Nyhedsbureau.

At the same time, however, Viborg is sharing the first place in the Danish league with FC Midtjylland, and not everyone seems to feel all that bad about the team´s performances lately. This week Viborg could report to have got 22 new sponsors after the start of this season.