The first ever EHF Grassroots Convention will take place on the fringe of the Men’s EHF EURO 2024, featuring over 25 expert speakers from different roles in handball presenting throughout the one-day event on Sunday in Munich. The topics of the day will cover the latest developments, initiatives and innovations surrounding grassroots sports.

Although the convention is the first focused on grassroots, this area has long been the most important focus for the EHF and indeed the foundation of the majority of the initiatives contributing to the continued development of handball across Europe. The EHF sees grassroots as the most important objective, to support all involved and develop the area further. The Grassroots Convention will help to highlight all levels of and different groups involved in handball, including federations, clubs, schools, children, youth players, parents and fans.

The format of the convention will include four different rooms, allowing participants to select which lectures they attend. There will also be an additional exhibition and networking area, which will see companies and organisations such as BENZ and Handballcampus Munich presenting their products and services, as well as enabling the important forming and strengthening of connections across different regional and international handball organisations that occurs at such EHF events.

Among the speakers who will share their experience and passion for the grassroots of handball are EHF Champions League winner and former IHF World Player of the Year Andrea Lekic, co-founder of ICOACHKIDS Sergio Lara-Bercial, and three-time EHF Champions League winner Carlos Prieto.

Lecture topics will vary extensively and include, among many others, keeping kids engaged in sport, nutrition, developing coaches, fair play, handball in kindergartens and schools, kids handball festivals, handball for people with disabilities, grassroots refereeing and digitisation. There will also be presentations on specific projects and initiatives underway in the EHF and different national federations, including the EHF’s Respect Your Talent, FIBA’s European youth projects and programmes and the HC Novi Beograd story.

The convention will be opened by EHF Secretary General Martin Hausleitner and EHF Methods Commission member Lidija Bojic-Cacic, before the introductory lectures by Methods Commission Chairman Pedro Sequeira focused on the “What and why?” of grassroots, and the “Circle of handball life and the role of the RINCK convention.”

The full programme for the first EHF Grassroots Convention can be found here. The convention will be held at TU Munich in Olympiapark from 9:00 to 16:00 CET on January 14 with over 100 guests having registered. Following the convention, participants have the opportunity to attend the Men’s EHF EURO 2024 group C matches – Montenegro vs Iceland and Serbia vs Hungary – that will be played on Sunday night in Munich. 

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