Vienna hosts EHF Executive Committee meeting

The members of the EHF Executive Committee met in the Austrian capital following the draw for the EHF Champions League competitions and on the day of the Men’s EHF EURO 2020 draw.

On the eve of the new club season, the body took the opportunity to look back at the past season and also received reports from the most recent meetings of the federation’s various boards, committees and stakeholder groups.

The success of the Conference of Presidents, which took place ahead of the semi-finals of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 in Cologne, was noted.

Looking ahead to the start of the 2019/20 European club handball season and beyond, the EHF’s executive body reached a number of key decisions.

Teams decided for EHF Champions League 2019/20

Ahead of the meeting, the members of the EHF Executive Committee had already agreed the composition of the men’s and women’s EHF Champions League for the coming season.

The complete list of clubs set to compete in the women’s  and the men’s competitions can be found on eurohandball.com.

Key decisions for top club competitions from 2020/21

A host of decisions relating to Europe’s top club competitions from the 2020/21 season were confirmed following extensive consultation with the federation’s media and marketing partners from 2020, Infront and DAZN, and also stakeholders including leagues, clubs and player representatives.

The decisions include the distribution of places in both the Men’s and the Women’s EHF Champions League competitions, mid-week playing times in the men’s top two tier competitions and also additional requirements for teams entering these competitions.

Complete information can be found on eurohandball.com.

Revised plans for Women’s EHF EURO 2020

A request from the Danish Handball Federation, as co-host of the Women’s EHF EURO 2020 together with Norway, was approved.

The EHF Executive Committee accepted a new playing venue and a revision to the playing schedule. Complete details and an overview of the revised playing schedule will be released in the coming week across EHF channels.

Interest expressed in Women’s EHF EURO 2024

Following the decision to expand the Women’s EHF EURO to 24 teams from 2024, bringing it in line with the Men’s EHF EURO, a number of member federations have expressed their interest in writing in bidding for the event.

Potential bidding nations include: 

• Austria
• Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia – in a joint bid
• Hungary
• Russia
• Switzerland
• Austria, Hungary and Switzerland are also considering a joint bid.

The bidding documentation for the Women’s EHF EURO 2024 will be dispatched at the beginning of July 2019.

Anti-doping: online education for over 2,000 players

Based on its stated objective of increasing the number of players, particularly youth players, receiving information and education on anti-doping matters, the EHF Anti-doping Unit has confirmed that more than 2000 handball players have taken part in the WADA online education tool ‘ADeL’ since April 2018.

It was also confirmed that all doping test results returned to date from the EHF EURO Qualifiers, EHF EURO Cup and the final rounds of Europe’s top clubs competitions have been returned negative.

Beach handball gets new ranking system

Given the positive development of beach handball and the increasing numbers of teams wanting to compete in EHF competitions, the Beach Handball Commission submitted a proposal for a new nations ranking system to decide the allocation of places for its top competitions.

The new system will mirror the current ranking system within indoor handball, where the sporting results of national federations over the past three years are taken into consideration.

There will be one difference: results from youth competitions will also be included in the ranking in order to encourage national federations to register youth teams for the EHF EUROs and also motivate ‘non’ beach handball nations to enter the rankings via YAC competitions.

This ranking system will then be used to define the participating teams for the Champions Cup and the substitute teams for the ebt Finals and EUROs, if required.

The concept will be implemented with immediate effect for the next competitions (e.g. EHF Beach Handball Champions Cup in October).

TRC members continue to 2021

As a sub-committee to the Competitions Commission introduced by the EHF Executive Committee, the Technical Refereeing Committee is responsible for dealing with refereeing issues.

In addition to the chairman (and member of the Competitions Commission) Dragan Nechevski, there are five members with different tasks: Jiri Konecny (CZE), Jutta Ehrmann-Wolf (GER), Oyvind Togstad (NOR), Miroslaw Baum (POL) and Antonio Marreiros (POR).

The current TRC was confirmed by the EHF Executive Committee in March 2017 for a period of two years and a decision on the composition of the committee for the period through to 2021 was required.

At the request of the Competitions Commission, it was agreed that the current members of the TRC will continue through to 2021.

Faroe Islands to receive playing floor

Following a request from the Faroe Islands, in order to support the positive development of its national team, the EHF confirmed that it would donate a Gerflor playing floor to the federation.

Support for European Handball Leagues Board

Financial support for the body representing Europe’s professional handball leagues within the EHF structure was approved.

The SMART Project funding will enable the body to organise knowledge-sharing seminars for leagues from middle-ranking and emerging nations on topics including digitalisation of handball, social media and sponsorship acquisition.

The board will also use the investment to look at how leagues can better work with beach handball in the future.

Venue for next EHF Executive Committee meeting

At the invitation of the Serbian Handball Federation, and chairman of the Competitions Commission, Bozidar Djurkovic, the EHF Executive Committee will meet in Belgrade, Serbia on 18/19 September 2019.