Behind the scenes at the 2013 VELUX EHF FINAL4

Since 2010, the VELUX EHF FINAL4 has recruited volunteers through local partner Stadionwelt to assist in the smooth functioning of the handball festival in several areas – guest service, media, event logistics, transport, hotels and entertainment. For the fourth edition of the VELUX EHF FINAL4, 200 volunteers have been working at the world’s greatest club handball event. 

“Some time ago I thought it was boring just to watch sports so I decided to make my contribution to make an event to a great success,” explains Riccarda Münch (28) who is an old hand.

She’s really excited to be part of the VELUX FINAL4  for the fourth time and after assisting in several areas she is crazy about this year’s entertainment area. On Friday night the student helped the autograph hunters get their autographs at the opening party and on Saturday she will help with the set-up of the award ceremony and be part of the final show.

Michael (35) from Stuttgart is here for the second consecutive year. The driver explained that handball and Cologne were the perfect combination.  Last year he even had the chance to meet the players of THW Kiel. Michael has to make sure that all staff members, delegates and players arrive safely and in time at their destinations.

Julien is a Frenchman who now lives in Poland. He plays handball in the second division there.  Julien is one of the motivated media volunteers who works for the EHF website and enjoys being part of the event for the fourth time. The 27-year-old flew 850 kilometres from Wroclaw to Cologne to assist and to meet his friends he made when he started volunteering in 2010. “We met here at the first VELUX EHF FINAL4 and we come back every year.”

Günter Mertens loves handball and works for the event logistics. It’s his first time volunteering and he’s proud to be very close to the inner workings of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 and wants to experience what it is like to be a volunteer at a big handball event.

Günter has been a handball referee for 26 years and he is looking carefully at the referees during the matches. The 48-year-old assists in one of the most important working area - event logistics. Helping with the transformation of the arena into a true “handball temple” is one of the jobs of the volunteers working in this area.

But also before the matches, there was a lot of preparation to do. Various items had to be moved from A to B, i.e. from storage to the different hotels or to the training halls. 

Most of the volunteers play handball and they all want to look behind the curtain of a really fantastic event.