Vienna hosts EHF Executive Committee

The EHF Executive Committee met in Vienna on Friday, 16 March 2018 for their second meeting of the year.

Joining the meeting for the first time was the new chair of the Women’s Handball Board, Nodjialem Myaro, former French national team player and president of the women’s league in France; she has taken up her position early following the election of the previous chair, Narcisa Lecusana, to the IHF Executive Committee.

The meeting was opened by EHF President Michael Wiederer and jointly chaired by Vice President Predrag Boskovic.

Reports were received from the most recent internal EHF board and commission meetings including those of the technical commissions, Finance Delegation, Legal Delegation, EHF Marketing Advisory Board, Professional Handball Board, Nations Board and Women’s Handball Board.

The key decisions for the EHF Executive Commission arising from these meeting as well as the federation’s most recent activities are detailed below:

Media and marketing tender

The EHF President gave an update on the current progress of the negotiations with Infront Sports & Media and Perform for the federation’s long-term media and marketing rights for national team and club competitions.

The EHF Finance Delegation has a mandate to complete negotiations for the EHF EURO and related national team competitions.

Following the presentation made at the Conference of Presidents in Zagreb during the final weekend of EHF EURO 2018, a comprehensive and detailed presentation will be made to the EHF Congress in June.

Competitions

Regulation amendments

With preparations for the new season 2018/19 already underway, a number of amendments to the regulations and proposals for coming seasons were forwarded by the Competitions Commission for consideration and duly approved:

- Place distribution for club competitions: to ensure a uniform distribution of places in the EHF’s club competitions and given the fluctuation in the federations receiving two guaranteed places, it was agreed that from the beginning of 2019/20 season, federations would receive only one guaranteed place for the VELUX EHF Champions League and Women’s EHF Champions League. There will be no change to the process for the allocation of additional places with all federations having the right to request additional places.

- The EHF will have the right but not the duty to replace a team, which withdraws from a club competition after that competition has started.

- Amendments will be made to the EHF List of Penalties to include a one-season suspension for clubs if they withdraw from a competition after the draw has taken place.

- Provision for the use of the electronic team team-out buzzer in EHF competitions. Following the successful introduction of the buzzer by the IHF at events including the Women’s World Championship in December it is also planned to use the system at the EHF’s final club tournaments in 2018.

- The points and ranking system for national teams following the implementation of the new playing system for the Men’s EHF EURO 2020 will be adapted accordingly.

- Qualification pathways for Men’s EHF EURO 2022 were agreed: following the update to the EHF EURO 2020 qualification system, which included the introduction of the Emerging Nations Championship as a qualification route for teams and also a two-phase competition system, the system for the Men’s EHF EURO 2022 has now been agreed.

With a further extension of the proposal based on the request of the Nations Board, qualification to EHF EURO 2022 will see phase one played on a tournament basis in January 2019. Teams not qualifying for this first phase will go through to the Emerging Nations Championship and will have another opportunity to go on to the second phase.

Depending on the number of registrations for EHF EURO 2022, it will be necessary for up to four teams from EHF EURO 2020 qualification phase two to be relegated to phase one of the Men’s EHF EURO 2024.

EHF Calendar 2019/2020

The EHF calendar for the season 2019/2020 was confirmed; this includes the playing dates for national team and club competitions coordinated with national federations and leagues.

Awarding of YAC events

The following bids for younger age category events to be played in the summer of 2019 were approved:

W17 EHF Championship to ITA (Pescara) with 10 participants

W17 EHF Championship to GEO (Telavi) with 10 participants

W17 EHF EURO to SLO (Celje) with 16 participants

W19 EHF Championship to LTU (Kaunas/Klaipeda) with 8 participants

W19 EHF Championship to BUL (Varna) with 10 participants

W19 EHF EURO to HUN (Györ) with 16 participants

EHF EURO events

Men's EHF EURO 2018: the most recent major EHF event, the EHF EURO 2018 in Croatia, was reviewed. The event is currently being evaluated at a number of different levels internally with final figures for TV audiences, digital channels and sponsor/partner exposure currently being prepared.

Men's EHF EURO 2020: the rundown for the Men’s EHF EURO 2020 qualification phase two draw was confirmed. 32 teams will take part in this second phase, playing for the remaining 20 places, with Spain as European champions as well as the three hosts Sweden, Austria and Norway already qualified.

The draw event will take place in Trondheim, Norway on Thursday, 12 April 2018 at 19:00 hrs at Erkebispegarden.

Taking place parallel to the event will be a qualification workshop for national federations. The event will cover organisational matters, marketing and TV requirements and also social media.

EHF EURO 2022/2024 bids

Reports were presented on the bids for the Men’s and Women’s EHF EURO 2022/24, based also on inspections carried out by staff from the EHF Office.

The bidding nations are as follows:

- Men’s EHF EURO 2022: Belgium, Spain and France; Denmark and Switzerland; Hungary and Slovakia

- Men’s EHF EURO 2024: Denmark and Switzerland; Hungary and Slovakia; Germany

- Women’s EHF EURO 2022: Slovenia, FYR Macedonia and Montenegro

- Women's EHF EURO 2024: There is currently no member federation bidding for the event

The EHF Executive Committee approved the various bids subject to certain conditions. The bids will now go forward for a final decision by the EHF Congress on 20 June 2018 in Glasgow.

Anti-doping Unit

The EHF Executive was provided with information on the results of the EHF Anti-doping Unit’s competition testing programme.

All tests in the EHF’s club and national team competitions, including the Men’s EHF EURO 2018, have returned negative.

It was also confirmed that following the positive tests in a younger age category event in 2017, the education programme for youth players will be intensified this summer with national federations also obliged to carry out education programmes with their own national anti-doping agencies.

European League Board

Following an initial meeting of Europe’s handball leagues in Vienna on 20 February 2018, and given that the MoU with European Professional Handball Leagues Association (EPHLA) is due to expire in June 2018, the go-ahead was given for the further development of a new body to represent the interests of all leagues in Europe within the EHF structure.

The first assembly of the new ‘European League Board’ is planned for Friday, 29 June 2018 on the fringes of the draw for the new season of the VELUX EHF Champions League and Women’s EHF Champions League.

Methods Commission

A report was received from the commission chairman, Jerzy Eliasz. He presented a number of new projects to the Executive Committee, which were duly approved.

These include support for a new SMART development project with the Handball Federation of Montenegro and the creation of a mentoring programme for coaches in women’s youth handball developed by the Women’s Handball Board.

Following the success of the European Week of Sport in previous years, a continuation of the programme in 2018 was also approved.

It was agreed that the new technology implemented at EHF events including goal-line, goal-light and instant replay technologies will be subject to further development.

Beach Handball Commission

The proposals submitted by the Beach Handball Commission were confirmed. These included a change to the structure of the younger age category events (number of playing days increased from three to four), the EHF’s financial support for YAC events was increased.

A prolongation of the existing agreement with Trial, the official supplier of beach handballs and line systems, was approved.

The development of the use of technology in beach handball was confirmed, with goal-line technology to be tested at the ebt Finals in Stare Jablonski in Poland and the digital score sheet to be adapted for use in beach handball.

2018 EHF Congress in Glasgow

Preparations for the EHF Congress taking place on 19/20 June 2018 in Glasgow, Scotland were discussed.

The event rundown, including meetings of all technical commissions on 18 June, as well as the agenda were confirmed. The motions to be submitted by the EHF were confirmed and will now be finalised before being put to the vote in Glasgow.

It was noted that the motions relating to structural changes in the EHF after 2020 are based on the recommendations of the working group, led by the former EHF President, Jean Brihault, and made up of representatives of the nations, nominated from Nations Board and Women’s Handball Board, as well as members of the Executive Committee. 

The motions are summarised below:

- New date for the EHF Congress is proposed to avoid conflict in the EHF EURO years; the election Congress in 2020 would be moved from November 2020 to April 2021 with agreement for current mandate for elected members extended by four months.

- Due to development of the role, title treasurer to become vice president finances; the EHF vice president would become the ‘first vice president’.

- One additional member to be added to Competition’s Commission for women’s club competitions; corresponds to 2016 MoU with Women’s Forum Club Handball.

- Creation of a National Committee (Women) with six members representing nations (ranked 1-12; 13-24; 25-36; 37-50). Two members from the committee to join a new Women’s Professional Handball Board.

- Current Nations Board to become National Committee (Men); two members to join the Professional Handball Board (PHB).

- A new Nations Board to be created, made up of representatives of the two national committees.

- Change to age limits: proposed that the IOC standard be introduced, with an age limit of 70 unless Congress extends the mandate, which can only be done once. Three-term maximum remains in place.

- Catalogue of administrative sanctions: it is proposed that the Executive Committee should have the right to approve amendments/adaptations; proposal based on findings from previous experience.

- Creation of a compensation committee (based on the UEFA model) to ensure a transparent approach to decsions relating to financial compensation for elected senior management.

Additional motions were received from the national federations including: Norway: independent chairman to oversee congress; Ireland: protective disclosure advocate; Slovenia: professionalism in the area of officiating; Sweden: advertising on players’ clothing.

Bosnia and Herzegovina also submitted a motion to amend the regulations regarding team leaders. Given that it is within the remit of the EHF Executive Committee to amend regulations it was proposed that this be dealt with at this level and a clarification of the regulations be examined.

Finances

The EHF Treasurer, Henrik La Cour, presented an update on the finances with a better result than expected for 2017. Final documents are currently in preparation, including checks by the auditors and comptrollers, for presentation at the EHF Congress. A revised budget for 2018 as well as the budget for 2019/20 were presented.

Next meeting

The next meeting of the EHF Executive Committee will take place in Glasgow on 18 June ahead of the EHF Congress.