Strengthening the women’s handball network

It was a day to look back at what has been achieved, but to also formulate the challenges that lie ahead for the European Handball Federation’s Women’s Handball Board (WHB).

On Thursday representatives from more than 30 member federations in the EHF, all of them involved with women’s handball in their respective nation, had come to Vienna for the first EHF Workshop for Strengthening the Women’s Handball Network.

“We wanted to get the feedback from the players, from the clubs, from the federations. We launched the Women’s Handball Board in 2012, and we started with a new strategy and new projects, so now we wanted to hear opinions and also ideas how to move forward in the next four years,” said Lidija Bojic-Cacic, the WHB’s chairwoman.

Listen to the full interview with Lidija Bojic-Cacic

The workshop included a presentation of the WHB’s strategy and action plan but also asked participants to gather in working groups and discuss topics such as how to enhance the image and attractiveness of women’s handball, how to strengthen the EHF competitions and main products such as the Women's EHF Champions League, the corresponding FINAL4 and the EHF EURO, how to enhance the the status of women involved in handball, how to strengthen women’s youth handball and how to improve the status of women’s handball in emerging nations.  

These five topics are the main objectives of the EHF's women's handball strategy.

“We received a lot of ideas for various levels, that means emerging nations, top level handball, EHF EURO events, women in handball. This workshop has been a great opportunity for the EHF and for the future of the Women’s Handball Board,” said Bojic-Cacic.

The WHB’s chairwoman has a clear vision of what challenges lie ahead.

“We have very good products when you look at the EURO and the FINAL4 in the Champions League, but what we should work on in the future is that we have more women as representatives in all bodies of the EHF as well as in the national federations,” she said.

“The main target for us is to have more female coaches, referees, delegates on all levels. We ask for more female leadership in handball.”

The WHB’s first term will come to an end this year and new members will be voted at the EHF Congress in November.

“We want to improve these numbers over the next four years. When we started in 2012 we had seven to eight per cent of female representatives in the boards and the commissions and now we have around 20. I think this a great number, but we also need to encourage women to come and work with us.”