Vienna meetings for technical commissions

The EHF’s technical commissions met at the EHF Office in Vienna from 3 to 5 September 2015 for their third round of meetings of the year.

Technical Delegation

The chairs of the various technical commissions (Competitions, Methods and Beach Handball) opened proceedings with a meeting of the Technical Delegation and discussed cross-commission issues and their middle to long term activities.

A key topic was the further development of coaching licencing, including key aims as well as linkages to master coach and pro-licence qualifications.

The meeting reviewed the successful seminar for referees and delegates held 28-30 August 2015 in Vienna. The preparation workshop for the Men’s EHF EURO 2016 in Poland saw 14 referee pairs taking part.

The meeting also looked at improvements for the coming season in the delegate system with the introduction of a hall information manual, checklists and improved reporting processes.

The third EHF Scientific Conference, taking place in Bucharest 13-15 November 2015 under the patronage of the European Society for Sports Traumatology, Knee Surgery and Arthroscopy (ESSKA), was discussed.

The group further highlighted the positive cooperation agreements in place with the Sport University Cologne for the European Handball Manager qualification and University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for the Champions Cup in beach handball.

Competitions Commission

The main focus of the Competitions Commissions, chaired by Leopold Kalin, was the further development of a proposal for the qualification system for the Men’s EHF European Championships leading up to 2020 and beyond, when the final tournament will be expanded to 24 teams.

A proposal will now be prepared and forwarded to the EHF Executive Committee for further consideration at its meeting in Bucharest on 12 November 2015.

The Commission reviewed the events of the summer including the FYR Macedonia and the Women’s 19 EHF EURO in Valencia, Spain and Women’s 17 EHF EURO in Skopje. The successful organisation of these events was noted.

Club competition related matters on the agenda included further preparations for the merging of the Women’s EHF Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup from the 2016/17 season.

Finally, the Competitions Commission confirmed that from this season in the Group Phase of the VELUX EHF Champions League, referees and delegates may be nominated to groups in which teams from their own nation are playing. This change will ensure that the federation's top match officials may be nominated across all four groups of the VELUX EHF Champions League.
 

Methods Commission

Under the chairmanship of Jerzy Eliasz, the Methods Commission reviewed its new and on-going projects, which include the development of SMART Projects with Estonia, Lithuania and Belgium; Foster Project with Belgium and France and also signing of the Rinck Convention with Belgium at the upcoming EHF Conference of Presidents in Bucharest on 14 November 2015.

Preparations for the 2015 European Wheelchair Handball Nations Tournament, scheduled to take place 12 to 13 December 2015 in St. Pölten in Austria were presented.

The involvement of the EHF and national federations in the #BeActive European Week of Sport taking place from 7 to 13 September 2015 were discussed. A number of federations including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Netherlands and Poland and are carrying out activities and special initiatives.

It was confirmed that there would be a more active promotion of street handball in the future in cooperation with Goalcha.

Coach licencing and the introduction of pro-licencing in the future was also a major point of discussion, a number of nations already cooperating with the master coach courses.
 

Beach Handball Commission

The Beach Commission, led by chairman Ole Jorstad, confirmed that in the European Beach Tour (ebt) additional points would be awarded to teams also organisation a junior tournament as part of their event.

A total of 13 team (12 teams plus one substitute team) are registered for the Champions Cup, scheduled to take place 2-9 November 2015 in Gran Canaria. Nine women’s teams are registered so far and the deadline for applications will be extended to 21 September 2015.

It was confirmed that the regulations for the European Championships would be fine-tuned to cover the wearing of incorrect playing kits and numbers. A proposal is to be forwarded to the EHF Executive.

The Commission also approved the use of extended scouting for future beach events and noted that an e-book covering the 2015 EHF European Beach Handball Championship would be issued in October 2015.