EHF Executive Committee meets in Bordeaux

The latest meeting of the members of the EHF Executive Committee took place in Bordeaux, France on Wednesday, 16 March with all 11 elected representatives as well as staff members from the EHF Office in attendance.

Reports were received by the Executive including from the last Finance Delegation meeting, which confirmed the financial result for 2015, reporting a better result than had been budgeted.

The financial results will now been examined by external auditors before being reviewed by the EHF Comptrollers in April 2016.

Official ball supplier

The EHF Executive Committee was informed that the contracts with SELECT SPORT A/S, the federation’s new official ball supplier from 1 July 2016, had been signed by both the EHF and EHF Marketing GmbH in February 2016.

It was confirmed that the official EHF EURO ball for the Women’s EHF EURO 2016 will be launched at the draw for the final tournament in Gothenburg on Friday, 10 June 2016.

The new match ball for both the Men’s and Women’s EHF Champions League competitions will be launched at the draw event for the new season scheduled for Friday, 1 July 2016.

SELECT handballs will be used for the EHF’s Younger Age Category events from summer 2016.

Technology in handball

Following initial testing of new technology in January 2016, the EHF Executive agreed to the implementation of further measures during the VELUX EHF FINAL4 in Cologne on 28/29 May 2016. Technology to be implemented includes instant reply video, goal-line cameras and light signals for time-outs and half-time breaks.

Scientific Platform

Regarding the question of the workload for top professional handball players, a topic that has been raised at many levels and discussed within both the Nations and Professional Handball Boards, the Executive confirmed the setting up of a ‘Scientific Platform’, which will examine all aspects of the issue.

Made up of experts in their particular fields, the Scientific Platform will study a whole range of factors that affect the sport’s elite athletes e.g. workload, injuries, medical care, training methods, player development (grassroots to elite) etc. in order to identify, understand and deal with the key issues for the sport.

Wheelchair handball working group

As a result of the success of the European Wheelchair Handball Nations' Tournament on 12/13 December 2015 in St. Pölten, Austria, a wheelchair handball working group will be set up to further develop this form of the sport.

European Week of Sport

Following a successful first European Week of Sport in September 2015, the further participation in the project was agreed.

Beach Handball

The positive response to the Men’s and Women’s 16 Beach Handball EUROs taking place in 8 to 10 July 2016 in Nazare, Portugal was noted.

The competition will be played with 16 men’s and 16 women’s teams. A total of 35 national teams had applied to take part.

Awarded of Younger Age Category Competitions

Following the submission of applications to host Younger Age Category events in the summer of 2017, the EHF Executive Committee confirmed the following competitions have been awarded:

EHF W17 EURO – Slovakia (Michalovce)

EHF W17 Championships – Lithuania (Klaipeda) / FYR Macedonia (Skopje)

EHF W19 EURO – Slovenia (Celje)

2017 will see the first roll-out of the new playing system in the women’s Younger Age Category events with the W17 competitions played with two EHF W17 Championship tournaments and the EHF W17 EURO.

The changes to the playing system have already seen an increase in the number of nations competing.  36 nations have registered to take part in the W17 competitions, 16 for the EHF W17 EURO and 20 for the EHF W17 Championships.

Competition changes

15 minute half-time break – Following a submission from the EHF Competitions Commission, the Executive agreed that from the 2016/17 season all EHF competitions (club as well as national team competitions) will be played with a 15 minutes half-time break.

All matches of YAC competitions within the EHF (qualification as well as final tournaments) will be played with a 10 minutes half-time break.

Women’s EHF Champions League – The Executive agreed to a change in the distribution of start places within the Women’s EHF Champions League.

Instead of the current system where each federation ranked 1-12 received one guaranteed place in the Group Phase, from the 2016/17 season the top two federations will each get two guaranteed places in the Group Phase whilst federations ranked 3-10 will each get one guaranteed place.

There will be no change to the allocation of the remaining four places, which will be awarded by an EHF Executive decision and/or played for via Qualification Tournaments.

New qualification system EHF EURO 2020 – With the expansion of the Men’s EHF EURO to 24 teams and three organising countries from 2020, the EHF Executive Committee approved a new qualification system.

This followed a consultation with the lower ranked nations at an EHF EURO 2020 Qualification Conference as well as with the Nations Board and Professional Handball Board.

In 2020 qualification will consist of eight groups of four teams each with the top two teams as well as the four best third ranked teams qualifying for the Men's EHF EURO 2020.

The defending champions and the organisers (in EHF EURO 2020: Sweden, Austria and Norway) will qualify directly.

For lower ranked nations, the system offers a first qualification phase played home and away at the beginning of November 2016 and in January 2017. The winners go directly to the second phase of EHF EURO 2020 qualification.

Teams will also have the opportunity to play in the European IHF Trophy, the emerging nations tournament, for a second chance of qualification.

Qualification Tournament organisation – In a change to the previous system, the organisational right for the Qualification Tournaments in the Women’s EHF Champions League will not be decided by a draw but according to the seeding of the teams.

Women’s Handball Board

A report from the Women’s Handball Board was received detailing its activities and the support that the EHF has been able to offer a number of initiatives including the awarding of support for the ‘best fostering’ project and the workshop for the strengthening of the women’s handball newtork held in March.

Looking ahead

The meeting concluded with a look ahead to forthcoming events in the EHF calendar including the Conference for Secretaries General, scheduled to take place in Dubrovnik, Croatia 12-14 April 2016.

Topics on the agenda for the conference include the EHF EURO 2020 qualification system, strengthening the sport and also the calendar conference.

The draw for qualification to the Men’s EHF EURO 2018 will take place on Thursday, 14 April at 11:00 hrs within the city walls of Dubrovnik.

The initial programme for the EHF Congress was also discussed. The schedule of events will see the Congress take place on 17/18 November 2016 and the Gala Evening on Friday, 18 November following the conclusion of the Congress.

Next meeting

The next meeting of the EHF Executive Committee will take place in Vienna on 23 June 2016.