A voice and representation for the players

At present more than 1300 male and female handball players from four different continents, all signed by European clubs, are represented by the European Handball Players Union (EHPU). The organisation was founded in 2008 during the European Championship in Norway and is the body that represents professional handball players in Europe. 

After the implementation of the Professional Handball Board (PHB), the EHF and EHPU started to include the players’ union as part of the Professional Handball Board. On the fringe of the 2011 edition of the VELUX EHF FINAL4, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by both parties. 

Since then, the EHPU is represented in the PHB by President Marcus Rominger (Germany) and Vice-President Emeric Paillasson (France). At the EHF Congress 2014 in Dublin, Rominger was elected as Deputy Chairman of the PHB.

“We are very happy to be part of this board and to be recognised by all other stakeholders of handball, as it is important to hear the voice of the players regarding all major decisions in European handball,” says Secretary General of the EHPU Simon Misiak Friis (Denmark), whose role is funded in part by the EHF Infrastructure Support Programme. “We have a very mutual and fruitful cooperation with all stakeholders involved in the PHB.”

Seven national player unions and growing

EHPU is composed of the seven national player unions of Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Norway, Spain and Sweden, and it is the clear will of EHPU to increase the number of national unions: 

“We are in close contact with Croatia, Romania and the Netherlands to join our organisation. Besides that, we are looking forward to reaching out and also helping the Polish and Hungarian players,” says Misiak Friis. “EHPU is constantly trying to help the development of new national unions in order to represent all professional handball players.”

In general, EHPU is trying to raise its voice for the players where they see challenges. One item Misiak Friis says the EHPU will be looking at in the future is the high number of injured players prior to the EHF EURO 2016:

“Events like the EURO should include the best players – this is the mutual opinion of all sides – but this time the number of top stars that are out seams really high, so we have to analyse the reasons. Maybe our sport became too tough, or maybe it is just a consequences of the hard program for the players.”

The Protect Integrity Campaign

One of the major subjects in all unions for the past year has been match fixing. Therefore, this is also an important focus point for EHPU. This has been managed mainly through an educational programme: 

“We unions go to the clubs to talk with the players about the rules of betting, as a huge number do not know what is allowed and what not. We all definitely need to be aware of this threat, which has causes many problems in sports other than handball, but can rapidly become a problem if we don’t educate,” says Misiak Friis. 

EHPU’s member Unions have been, and will be, a part of the Protect Integrity Campaign, organised by EU Athletes and motivated by the slogan: “You love your sport, don’t gamble with it” (www.protect-integrity.com). 

Other tasks of EHPU are particular proposals on rule changes. For example, that after a concussion, goalkeepers should be allowed to wear special helmets. 

“A lot of protection materials are allowed in handball, why not those?” asks Misiak Friis. 

In addition, the EHPU was contacted by the International Olympic Committee, as no IHF Athlete’s Commission has been founded so far, and this should be done in line with IOC regulation. 

“This is one of the things where we need to use our contacts with the players to help the IHF, so we can have the voting done with success in Rio during the Olympics,” says Misiak Friis. “This is something everyone should be aware of, and we hope the players will take part in spreading the massage: that this is very important for us all.”