Shaping a common future
Shaping a common future
It has been a long process and it may take time for the various interest groups of European Handball to come together and speak with one voice. And while every party sharing the same beliefs might not sound completely realistic, having a common approach to matters is not far away anymore.
The Professional Handball Board, a strategic forum for the future of handball, will be in the focus of the 10th EHF Ordinary Congress in Copenhagen. Vice President of the EHF, Jean Brihault, as well as Forum Club Handball President Tomaz Jersic talked to Eurohandball.com about it.
Jean Brihault: The idea is to include all stakeholders – clubs, players, leagues, national teams - of handball in the decision making process on a democratic basis. Bringing them together would help all interest groups acquire a global knowledge of our sport, not only focusing on the interests of one group.
The Professional Handball Board would fulfil this role effectively as it would advise on all matters in our sport. This would be its consultative function, while the elected Chairman of the PHB would be member of the Executive Committee, the actual decision making body of the EHF.
The Professional Handball Board, as we are talking about it at this stage, would be the representative body of men`s handball, but it is the clear intention of the Executive Committee to form the women`s handball counterpart of this body as rapidly as possible.
Eurohandball.com: While certain stakeholder groups are ready for entering the PHB, others may be not. How quickly do you think this body can come to life as part of the EHF structures?
Jean Brihault: We will start the process immediately though the structure may not be complete. When all stakeholders will be united in this board, they can elect a chairman. In the meantime, consultations with the body can start rapidly.
However, it is necessary that the stakeholder groups see the positive development and react quickly to this.
Eurohandball.com: You have met these interest groups yourself during this process. What reactions did you encounter?
Jean Brihault: Regarding the clubs, I need to say that they have always contributed very honestly to this process. Also, the nations are ready to form the Nations Board, which can be the basis for their participation in the PHB.
I met the representatives of the players during the EHF EURO 2010 in Innsbruck and they showed keen interest in the procedure.
And while the leagues are also interested, we must not forget that the situation can be very different from nation to nation in this respect. We need to find a good solution, because we do not want to leave anyone out…
Clubs looking forward to PHB
The President of Forum Club Handball, Tomaz Jersic, is also positive about this development inside handball structures:
This is a great step respect to the situation today: now we have a number of committees, but they do not come together. This is the key to solving our problems.
Eurohandball.com: PHB will be a consultative body and the Chairman will be part of the actual decision making body, the Executive Committee. Are you satisfied with such a structure?
Tomaz Jersic: I think the whole structure will be helpful for us. Certain members of the ExeC will be taking part at the meetings, the President and the Secretary General as well without voting rights, which means that the ExeC will be familiar with our ideas that will be later forwarded for decision making to them. So I believe that PHB will have the power to propose and affect things.
Furthermore, it is very important that all representatives in the PHB will be nominated by the stakeholder groups themselves. This ensures the democratic basis for the body.
