Boost for women's handball in Europe
Boost for women's handball in Europe
20 months after the EHF Congress in Copenhagen voted for the Professional Handball Board in men’s handball, the women’s equivalent was installed at the EHF Congress in Monaco on Friday.
With a large majority (47 votes for, 2 votes against, 1 abstention) the EHF member federations cleared the way for this new platform, by changing the statutes.
The WCH will include all major stakeholders including national federations, clubs, leagues and players.
The Chair of the Women’s Handball Board will have a seat on the EHF executive, and will be nominated by the new members of the Board.
The general idea of a Woman’s Handball Board (WHB) was formulated after the Professional Handball Board in men’s handball had been created.
Women's handball - key issue
Led by EHF Executive member Arne Elovsson, a steering group for the development of women’s handball was founded – and presented their results during the last Meeting of Presidents, held during the 20 Year Anniversary of the European Handball Federation in November 2011 in Vienna.
One of those ideas was the implementation of the Women’s Handball Board.
The promotion of women's handball is one of the major tasks the new President of the European Handball Federation, Jean Brihault, has set himself.
He commented: “The gap between women’s and men’s handball has grown in recent years partly because of the rapid development of men’s handball. The development of women’s handball is a key issue we need to work on in the future."
His hope is that in the future, the Women’s Handball Board will evolve to become more like the Professional Handball Board in the men’s game
First members elected
The consequence of the implementation of the WHB is that the former Women’s Club Committee and the Women’s National Team Committee ceased to exist in the EHF statutes.
The first members of the Women’s Nations Board were elected in Monaco: Tina Fensdal (DEN) will represent the nations ranked 1 to 6, Lidija Bojic Cacic (Croatia) will represent the nations ranked 7 to 25 and Pirje Orasson (EST) representing the nations ranked 26 to 50.
The three additional members of the WHB will be elected by the different stakeholders, namely clubs, leagues and players.
