Croatian Handball Federation parts ways with men’s head coach Babic

Croatian men’s handball does not get out of the news.

Three days after Croatia lost the match for third place at the World Championship against Slovenia on Saturday, a defeat that was preceded by an equally tough loss against Norway in the semi-final only 24 hours earlier, the federation dismissed men’s head coach Zeljko Babic and his staff on Tuesday.

“It was a unanimous decision of the federation’s board that there’s no further trust to continue working with Zeljko Babic,” said President Tomislav Grahovac.

The federation’s decision also sees men’s handball coordinator Ivano Balic, assistant coach Petar Metlicic and goalkeeper coach Venio Losert losing their jobs. All contracts were terminated with immediate effect as of 31 January.

Just 11 months before EHF EURO 2018 kicks-off in Croatia, the home team does not have coach.

However, Grahovac mentioned that potential successors have already been discussed and a decision will be reached within one month.

“The new coach will choose his assistants and the complete staff. We will talk with candidates in the days to come. We have formed a commission which will talk to them,” he said.

Men’s EHF EURO 2018

The Men's EHF EURO 2018 will be played from 12 to 28 January 2018. The host cities are Zagreb (preliminary round, main round, final weekend), Varazdin (preliminary round and main round), Split (preliminary round) and Porec (preliminary round).

Tickets can already be bought on www.ehf-euro.com.