Board meetings take place at EHF Office

Several board meetings have been taking place at the EHF Office in Vienna since Monday, with the members of the Nations Board, the Professional Handball Board, the EHF Marketing Advisory Board and the Women’s Handball Board all gathering in the Austrian capital.

The Nations Board, responsible for men’s handball, figuratively speaking threw off the meeting session on Monday afternoon.

The upcoming Men’s EHF EURO events – Poland 2016, Croatia 2018 and in particular the triple-organiser-event of Sweden/Austria/Norway 2020, the first EHF EURO which will see  24 teams competing – were in the focus of the board’s discussions.

Some emphasis was laid on how to adapt the qualification system for the future EHF EURO events which will see more nations participating at the final tournament.

It was positively noted that the introduction of a new playing system for the younger age category events is already bearing fruits with the record number of 42 teams that have registered for the Men’s 18 European Championships next year.

This means that three final tournaments, one being called the Men’s 18 EHF EURO and three being called the Men’s 18 EHF Championships, will take place in August next year.

Memorandum of Understanding signed

Following the Nations Board meeting a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the European Handball Federations, represented by President Jean Brihault and Secretary General Michael Wiederer, and the European Professional Handball League Association (EPHLA), represented by President Frank Bohmann and Vice President Peter Gentzel.

The MoU complimented the agreements which had been renewed already in 2014 with stakeholders such as European Handball Players' Union and Forum Club Handball.

Signed the Memorandum of Understanding: EHPLA-President Frank Bohmann (left) and EHF President Jean Brihault

These three stakeholder groups plus Morten Stig Christensen and Philippe Bana from the Nations Board, EHF President Jean Brihault, Secretary General Michael Wiederer as well as Arne Elovsson and Ralf Dejaco from the EHF Executive Committee make up the Professional Handball Board (PHB) which gathered on Tuesday.

The PHB is the platform instigated to represent the interests of the stakeholder groups representing the handball clubs, players and leagues.

The focus of Tuesday's meeting was in particular the new playing system for the VELUX EHF Champions League which will come into effect from the 2015/16 season.

Following the basis decision taken by the EHF Executive Committee in December 2014, the clubs were informed directly of changes, such as admission criteria and distribution of finances, at a workshop ahead of the Last 16 draw at the end of February.

As the registration documents for the new season have to be distributed in April and May, these changes will be confirmed by the EHF Executive Committee at its meeting on 26/27 March in Valencia, Spain.

The final decision on the entrants rests also with the Executive Committee and will be made at its meeting on 19/20 June 2015. This will be followed by the group phase draw on 26 June.

The PHB also paid special attention to the European Handball Manager education - the initiative had furthermore been praised before by the Nations Board.

The new programme, which is jointly organised between the EHF and the German Sports University Cologne, starts later this year and will be offered in alternating fashion in German and English.

Furthermore developments in international handball, such as the IHF's Championship for Emerging Nations, were discussed from the perspective of the stakeholders in European handball.

Strengthening handball in Europe

Current marketing issues in the Women's as well as the VELUX EHF Champions League and its corresponding FINAL4 events were the centre of discussions at the EHF Marketing Advisory Board at which its members exchanged their views on strategic questions how handball can further strengthen and improve its position on the sports market.

Marketing issues were also part of the NB as well as the PHB meetings which led to the decision that a marketing workshop with stakeholders as well as experts coming from outside will be held on Friday, 29 May 2015 in Cologne.

The series of key meetings concluded with the Women's Handball Board which held its last session on Wednesday.

Proposals were discussed how to raise the efficiency and effectiveness of the Women's Handball Programme as well as how to strengthen women's handball in Europe.

These proposals included among others an evaluation and discussions of the future development of the EURO ambassador programme, player surveys among the 16 nations that participated at the Women's EHF EURO 2014, club surveys among the Top 50 women's handball club as well as the pros and cons of smaller balls (size 1.5).