EHF Executive Committee meets at EHF EURO 2020 in Stockholm

The EHF Executive Committee has met in Stockholm on Friday, the day of the semi-finals of the Men’s EHF EURO 2020. It was the EXEC’s first meeting in 2020.

While a number of important decisions were reached, the meeting also served to inform and update the Executive Committee on the final preparations and overall contents of the 15^th Conference of Presidents as well as of the 13^th Extraordinary Congress – both events take place in Stockholm on Saturday.

Furthermore, the EXEC took note of a number of reports concerning meetings being held since 21 November 2019 – when the Executive Committee had last convened – including those of the finance delegation, the EHF’s anti-doping unit as well as the legal management.

Regulation changes for 2020/21 season and EHF EURO 2022 Qualifiers

The Executive Committee approved a number of changes to the regulations for the EHF Champions League from the season 2020/21 onwards as well as for the Qualifiers to the Men’s EHF EURO 2022 which will start in October this year.

On the club competition level, the intense dialogue with the clubs on the forthcoming changes will be continued in the coming months. For the national teams, workshops at the Secretaries General Conference in Bratislava from 21 to 24 April will be the basis for information exchange regarding the new Qualifiers regulations.

New names for club competitions approved

Following the revamp of the playing systems in the European club competitions which were agreed one year ago in Paris, the Executive Committee has formally approved the new official names for these competitions.

The EHF Champions League will keep its name. The current EHF Cup will be renamed to EHF European League. The current Challenge Cup will now be called EHF European Cup.

First European Wheelchair Handball Championship goes to Kristianstad

Acknowledging the final report of the successful organisation of the 2019 European Wheelchair Handball Nations Tournament in Zagreb (13 to 15 December 2019), the EXEC assessed the applications for the first European Wheelchair Handball Championship, scheduled to take place from 18 – 23 November 2020 and with a maximum of eight teams participating.

Assessing the applications of Kristianstad in Sweden and Leiria in Portugal, the Executive Committee eventually awarded the event to Kristianstad.

Further strengthening the status of wheelchair handball, the EXEC also approved a motion submitted by the EHF Methods Commission. This motion sees the status of “EHF Wheelchair Handball Referee” and “EHF Wheelchair Handball Delegate” being created and allows for better and more targeted education being provided for referees and delegates at wheelchair handball tournaments.

Men’s World Championship Qualification 2021

The Executive Committee was informed about the current status of the Men’s World Championship Qualification and the next qualification stages and confirmed the procedure.

Following the end of qualification phase 1, the teams from Lithuania, Romania, Turkey and Israel secured their tickets for the first play-off phase.

There they will face the four lowest ranked teams of EHF EURO 2020. These teams are Latvia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Russia and Poland.

The draw for these play-offs will take place on 30 January. The play-offs will be played between 16 and 19 April. All other teams from EHF EURO 2020, which are not qualified directly for the World Championship 2021, go straight to the second play-off phase which is played in June.

Calendar approved for 2021/22 season

Looking ahead to the season after the next one, the calendar for 2021/22 was approved by the Executive Committee. This calendar sees – to name a few key events – the Men’s EHF EURO 2022 in Hungary and Slovakia being played from 13 to 30 January 2022.

The EHF FINAL4 in Budapest is played from 4-5 June, while the EHF FINAL4 in Cologne is played from 18-19 June and forms the last event of this season.

2020 – a turning point for European beach handball

Headlined “2020 – a turning point for European beach handball” the Beach Handball Commission submitted a strategy paper for the years 2020 and 2021 to the Executive Committee.

2020 will see several new events being added to the beach handball calendar, for example the European Championships in Thessaloniki and Batumi, which will serve as qualification event for the Beach Handball EURO 2021.

With the information at hand, outlining the steps to further professionalise beach handball and turn it into a top sports competition in the fields of TV coverage and event production as well as in technology and innovations, the EXEC approved the action plan and the measures and financial requirements outlined within it.

The next meeting of the EHF Executive Committee will take place in Bratislava on 23-24 April on the occasion of the Secretaries General Conference and the Qualfiers Draw for the Men’s EHF EURO 2022.