EHF Court of Handball upholds Swiss protest

The EHF Court of Handball has released its decision following a protest from the Swiss Handball Federation subsequent to its sixth round Group 6 qualification match for the 2019 Men’s World Championship against Bosnia Herzegovina on 13 January 2018.

The protest lodged related to the eligibility to participate by one of the players of the Bosnia Herzegovina team, whose name did not appear on the match report signed by both teams ahead of the match.

Bosnia Herzegovina won the game 21:15. Until now, the result has not been officially confirmed by the EHF.

In reaching its decision, the EHF Court of Handball found that responsibility for ensuring the accuracy of the match report, and therefore confirming the list of players eligible to play in the match, lies with the match officials of the respective national federations.

 In signing the match report, the official from Bosnia Herzegovina therefore confirmed its accuracy and the federation was responsible for the fact that an ineligible player took part in the match.

The result of the match has now been confirmed 10:0 in favour of the Swiss federation.

With this result, Switzerland receive two points and have now qualified for the next round of qualification (with six points compared to Bosnia Herzegovina with four).

According to the draw for the play-off match conducted on the final weekend of the Men’s EHF EURO 2018, Switzerland will now meet Norway.

Matches will be played 8 to 10 June and 12 to 14 June 2018 on a home and away basis. The winner will qualify directly to the 2019 Men’s World Championship in Denmark and Germany.

The parties have the right to appeal the decision to the EHF Court of Handball. Deadline to lodge this appeal is Wednesday, 21 February 2018 at 11:00 hrs.