EHF names referees for Men's EHF EURO 2016

Less than one week after the final tournament draw the European Handball Federation has named 14 pairs of referees for the Men's EHF EURO 2016 in Poland.

These 14 pairs will attend a refereeing seminar at the end of August in Vienna. In the weeks following the seminar from the 14 pairs 12 will eventually be nominated for the EHF EURO 2016.

The referees named at this stage are

• Andrei Gousko and Siarhei Repkin / BLR  
• Matija Gubica and Boris Milosevic / CRO
• Vaclav Horacek/ and Jiri Novotny / CZE
• Martin Gjeding and Mads Hansen / DEN
• Oscar Raluy and Angel Sabroso / ESP 
• Stevann Pichon and Laurent Reveret / FRA
• Lars Geipel and Marcus Helbig / GER      
• Zigmars Stolarovs and Renars Licis / LAT
• Vaidas Mazeika and Mindaugas Gatelis / LTU
• Gjorgji Nachevski and Slave Nikolov / MKD
• Duarte Santos and Ricardo Fonseca / POR
• Bartosz Leszczynski and Marcin Piechota / POL
• Bogdan Stark and Romeo Stefan / ROU
• Michael Johansson and Jasmin Kliko / SWE     

The Men’s EHF EURO 2016 will be played from 15 to 31 January 2016. Poland is the 12th nation to host the 12th final tournament since the event was introduced in 1994.

This is first time that a Men’s EHF EURO event has been extended to 17 days overall. The extension is due to change in the playing system for the main round. Instead of three there will be four playing days with two teams always resting on days 1, 2 and 3 – it is only on the fourth playing day that all six teams take to the court.

The arenas selected for this tournament are the newly-built Tauron Arena in Krakow with a capacity of 15,000 spectators, the Ergo Arena in Gdansk (11,000), the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Centennial Hall in Wroclaw (6,500) and the Spodek Arena in Katowice (10,000).