106th EHF Executive meeting in London
106th EHF Executive meeting in London
The EHF Executive Committee met in London on Saturday 24 September at the invitation of the England Handball Association.
Following a tour of the London 2012 Olympic Park in East London on Friday, the EHF Executive also met with officials from the British Handball Association and held discussions with the England Handball Association regarding the development of handball in the UK.
EHF President, Tor Lian, opened the meeting and thanked their English hosts for their invitation, praising them on the progress they had made as the London 2012 Games approaches.
The meeting began with a review of a busy summer of events in the European handball calendar, which included Youth and Senior European Beach Handball Championships in Croatia, the Women’s 17 European Championship in the Czech Republic and the Women’s 19 European Championship in the Netherlands.
Technical Commissions, Nations Board and Professional Handball Board
The Executive dealt with matters arising from the meetings of the Technical Commissions, which met in Vienna on Friday 16 and Saturday 17 November as well as meetings of the Nations Board on Monday 19 September and Professional Handball Board on Tuesday 20 September.
In particular the upcoming organisation of the EHF Seminar for Club Managers, an initiative of the Professional Handball Board, was noted. This will take place in Vienna from 4 to 6 November and will focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR).
As a resulting of the Nations Board and the Professional Handball Board meetings, the EHF Executive approved a proposal that from the 2012/13 season national team players will need to be provided with insurance to cover their salaries to their respective clubs should they be injured on national team duty. This insurance will be provided by the EHF for its final events, by the national federations for their own national team activities, while clubs activities are covered by the clubs themselves.
European Cup
The development of the new EHF European Cup, the revamped second tier of men's European club competition, which will see the amalgamation of the EHF Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup to be launched from the 2012/13 season, was discussed in detail.
A decision was reached on the organisation right of the “Final Event”. This two-day event will be hosted by one of the clubs qualifying for the Quarterfinal phase of the competition.
Further decisions relating to the new EHF European Cup will be made in January 2012 following an evaluation of the TV and marketing factors surrounding the new competition.
European Championship qualification for “15th place”
The Men’s EHF EURO 2014 in Denmark will be the first European Championship where only the host nation will qualify by right. The reigning champions will no longer be allocated a place.
The question of how the “15th team”, the place formerly allocated to the reigning champions, was discussed following a recommendation of the EHF Competitions Commission.
The qualification process will remain unchanged – seven groups of four teams will continue to play for the fourteen places allocated.
The new system will see the addition of a new qualification round for the third placed team in each group to decide the final remaining place.
Following the conclusion of the group matches, a ranking of the third placed teams (seven teams) will be calculated. This ranking will only include the results of the matches against teams placed first and second in the respective groups. The results against the fourth placed team will not be considered.
The top two ranked teams will then play home and away (the top ranked team having home right in the second leg) to decide the winner. The two matches will be played within 10 days of the conclusion of the group matches.
YAC regulations
The regulations for the Younger Age Category competitions, both qualification and final tournament, as put forward by the EHF Competitions Commission were adopted.
Anti-doping
The EHF Executive discussed the issue of anti-doping and agreed that the EHF, in line with the majority of European sports federations, should take a lead on this important issue to ensure the correct and fair carrying out of competitions and the development of the sport.
It was therefore decided that EHF anti-doping procedures should be created based on the WADA and IHF anti-doping regulations, reflecting the needs of European competitions and EHF legal procedures.
Furthermore an EHF Anti-doping Unit will be created, which will independently, and on the basis of the WADA anti-doping code, take over responsibility for all anti-doping matters including athlete whereabouts, competition and out of competition controls as well as knowledge management and education in Europe.
European Championship bidding
The bidding documents for the EHF European Championships in 2016 as well as for a number of Younger Age Category events in 2014 and 2015 were considered and approved by the Executive.
The complete list of applications is shown below. The EHF Congress in Monaco in June 2012 will ultimately decide the successful nations (click for related news article):
2016 Men's European Championship
17 to 31 January 2016
Croatia, Poland, Sweden, Norway
2016 Women's European Championship
4 to 18 December 2016
Sweden, Turkey
2014 Men's 18 European Championship
14 to 24 August 2014
FYR Macedonia, Poland
2014 Men's 20 European Championship
24 July to 3 August 2014
Austria
2015 Women's 17 European Championship
13 to 23 August 2015
FYR Macedonia
2015 Women's 19 European Championship
23 July to 2 August 2015
Turkey
Approval of Women’s Regional Handball League
The EHF Executive approved the organisation of the Women’s Regional Handball League, a cross-border league between women’s teams from Slovenia, Montenegro, Serbia and FYR Macedonia.
20 Years Anniversary of the European Handball Federation
Secretary General, Michael Wiederer, informed the meeting about plans for the 20th Anniversary of the federation, which will be celebrated on Thursday 17 November 2011 in the Eventhotel Pyramide in Vösdorf, Vienna.
The event will bring together many of the main stakeholders in European handball including players, coaches, representatives of member federations, partners, media and other invited guests to look back at the achievements of the EHF in the past 20 years.
The event will also present an opportunity to look to the future, with a Conference of Presidents, where a number of projects will be presented including the Women’s Handball Development Programme, the development of a new EHF corporate identity and also a presentation of a comprehensive study on the handball market.
The event programme also includes a series of workshops for invited guests on a range of topics include coach licensing, women’s handball, club competitions, media, beach handball, EURO, the game in the future and also handball and the law. There will be a Gala Evening, followed the next day by the Conference for Secretaries General, meeting of the AIPS Handball Commission and the start of the EHF Scientific Conference.
Next meetings
The EHF Executive Committee approved the calendar of meetings for 2012 for all EHF bodies.
The next meeting of the EHF Executive will take place during the course of the 20th Anniversary from 16 to 18 November 2011 in Vienna.
