EHF Executive Committee meeting in Austria

The EHF Executive Committee gathered in Vienna on Friday, 24 March for its third meeting since elections in November 2016. Following two months of internal preparation, including meetings of the technical and legal commissions as well as stakeholder boards and the EURO Delegation, a broad range of decisions were reached by the 11 members of the EHF’s executive body.

New EHF Secretary General confirmed

Following the election of Michael Wiederer as EHF President, the federation is to have a new Secretary General from 1 August. Based on the recommendation of an external recruitment agency and the panel that handled the final round of interviews – made up of the EHF President, Vice President and Treasurer – the appointment of Martin Hausleitner, who is currently the Secretary General of the Austrian Handball Federation, was confirmed.

Six nations to host in 2018

The organisation of the EHF’s Younger Age Category events scheduled for summer 2018 was agreed, with the events to be played as follows:

M18 EHF EURO to Croatia (Varazdin and Koprivnica)

M18 EHF Championship to Austria (Tulln)

M18 EHF Championship to Georgia(Tbilisi)

M20 EHF EURO to Slovenia (Celje)

M20 EHF Championship to FYR Macedonia (Skopje)

M20 EHF Championship to Montenegro (Podgorica)

Changes to playing system in Women’s EHF Champions League to be evaluated

At the request of the EHF Competitions Commission, it was agreed that the current playing system in the Women’s EHF Champions League would be evaluated with a view to a possible change from the start of the 2018/19 season. The advantages and disadvantages of a playing system with two groups of eight teams playing in a group phase, followed by quarter-finals and then a FINAL4 are to be examined.

Playing schedule VELUX EHF Champions League

In a change to previous seasons, agreement was reached on a proposal that will provide more flexibility in the planning of the playing schedule of the VELUX EHF Champions League. From the coming season, it will be possible for the EHF to adapt the playing schedule to accommodate arena availability, TV requests and club issues before publication of a final schedule.

EHF Champions League in the future

An extensive discussion took place regarding various initiatives concerning the construction of the VELUX EHF Champions League and in particular the competition's future marketing strategy. EHF Marketing, who are responsible for the marketing and implementation of the VELUX EHF and the WOMEN'S EHF Champions League as well as for the corresponding EHF FINAL4s, currently hold an agreement with MP & Silva for the competitions' media rights until 2020.

In 2016, interest of various agencies was noted for an enlargement of the EHF Champions League competition system. This was tabled to the Executive alongside reports of EHF Marketing the EHF's competitions department. The EHF will carefully analyse the situation in order to further develop the product, optimise its income structure while at the same time preserving the integrity of the European competition structure.  

Infront Sports & Media presentation

The EHF’s long-standing media and marketing partner, Infront Sports & Media, made a short presentation of its activities and staff members working on the EHF EURO events since 1994 to the Executive Committee. The presentation was led by Infront Sports & Media’s Executive Director for Summer Sports, Stephan Herth.

EHF EURO marketing rights

It was noted that the Nations Board, Professional Handball Board and also the EURO Delegation, all of which met in Vienna at the beginning of March, had discussed the future of the EHF EURO events and in particular the media and marketing rights after 2020 when the current contract with Infront Sports & Media expires. It was agreed that a final strategy for this process would be developed and agreed at the next meeting of the Executive in June 2017.

Bidding process for EHF EURO 2022/2024

The meeting was informed that the bidding process for the Men’s and Women’s EHF EURO events in 2022 and 2024 has already been begun with National Federations informed of the timeline for applying to host one or more of the events.

Federations now have until 1 May 2017 to inform the EHF of their interest in hosting the men’s or women’s championships with bidding documents to be supplied by 1 July 2017. Deadline for the submission of completed application documents is 1 November 2017. The events will be awarded at the EHF Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland in June 2018.

New playing dates for W17 EHF Championship

A decision by the EHF Competitions Commission was confirmed with the W17 EHF Championship in FYR Macedonia now to be played 31 July to 6 August (instead of originally planned 14 to 20 August).

Finances

The new EHF Treasurer, Henrik La Cour, and Chief Finance Officer, Andrea Moser, reported a better result than previously forecast for the EHF in the past year. He confirmed that the accounts would now be audited and checked by the EHF Comptrollers.

Additionally it was confirmed that the deposits held by the EHF from the National Federations would be adjusted according to each nation’s participation in EHF competitions.

Women’s Handball Board

The action plan presented by the Women’s Handball Board for the period 2017-2020 with a particular focus on a number of projects and initiatives to raise the profile of the women’s game was approved.

Calendar

The Executive looked ahead to the upcoming events in 2017 including the Conference for Secretaries General on 19/20 April 2017 and the Women’s EHF EURO 2018 Qualification Draw (21 April) both in Paris, the Scientific Conference to be held in Vienna on 17/18 November and the IHF Congress from 10 to 13 November 2017 in Turkey.  As a result of the rescheduling of the IHF Congress it was confirmed that the EHF Conference for Presidents had been postponed. The conference will now be held on the final weekend of the Men’s EHF EURO 2018 in Croatia.

Following consultation with federations and stakeholders, the EHF calendar for 2018/19 was approved and adopted.

New shirts for referees

The Executive Committee approved the initiative to develop together with the EHF’s equipment supplier, Salming, special clothing for the EHF's referees that are intended to be produced in a neutral colour.

Technical Refereeing Committee members confirmed

A total of 17 nominations from 16 countries were received for places on the Technical Refereeing Committee, which is chaired by Dragan Nachevski, member of the EHF Competitions Commission responsible for refereeing.

The following members were confirmed for 2017/18: Jiri Konecny (CZE) – responsible for Young Referee Programme; Jutta Ehrmann-Wolf (GER) – responsible for female refereeing; Oyvind Togstad (NOR); Miroslaw Baum (POL) and Antonio Marreiros (POR).

As a result of the nomination and in accordance with the statures, Jutta Ehrmann-Wolf will be replaced as a comptroller by substitute, Robert Prettenthaler. At the next EHF Congress, taking place in June 2018 in Edinburgh, a new substitute comptroller will be elected.  

The list of EHF lecturers for 2017/18 submitted by the Competitions, Methods and Beach Handball Commissions was also agreed. Additionally, 19 experts were added to a new EHF scientific network.

Next meeting

The next meeting of the EHF Executive Committee will take place on 23/24 June 2017 in Zagreb on the fringes of the Beach Handball EURO and EHF EURO 2018 Final Tournament Draw.

Executive Committee members

The EHF Executive Committee, elected in November 2016, comprises the following members:

President - Michael Wiederer / AUT (centre)
Vice President - Predrag Boskovic / MNE (2nd from the left)
Treasurer - Henrik La Cour / DEN (5th from the left)
Chairman Competitions Commission - Bozidar Djurkovic / SRB (5th from the right)
Chairman Methods Commission -  Jerzy Eliasz / POL (4th from the right)
Beach Handball Commission -  Ole R. Jorstad / NOR (left)
Member -  Stefan Lövgren / SWE (right)
Member - Gabriella Horvarth / HUN (4th from the right)
Member - Anrijs Brencans / LAT (3rd from the right)
Representative Professional Handball Board -  Xavier O'Callaghan / ESP (3rd from the left)
Representative Women’s Handball Board - Narcisa Lecusanu / ROU (to 2018) (2nd from the right)