Education in focus for EHF Anti-Doping Unit

For the Head of the EHF Anti-Doping Unit, Professor Hans Holdhaus, the education component is the most important part of the unit’s work. The EHF Anti-Doping Unit, founded in 2012, “is responsible for all anti-doping measures in handball in Europe, so that means all national team events, all club events — Champions League, European League and European Cup, but also beach handball and YAC events. We are responsible for everything concerning the doping controls. This is one part,” says Holdhaus.

“The second part is education — and this is really a very important part. It fits perfectly with Play True Day, which is something like an educational advice. The situation in general is that handball is not really a doping sport, so we have really a very, very low number of positive cases.

“When I look worldwide, in handball, it's 0.4 per cent, which is nearly nothing. And in Europe, for example, last year we had four positive cases — two in beach handball and two in national team events, and all four were so-called ‘unintended cases’. That means they were using a medicine, a medication, or they were using supplements without checking if there is a forbidden substance inside.”

In 2024, the EHF conducted approximately 600 tests. In 2025, there have been around 130 so far.

With responsibility to oversee all EHF club competitions, the day-to-day in terms of testing involves deciding which matches to test. The goal is to test as broadly and non-repetitively as possible, which makes a season encompassing six European cup competitions — the EHF Champions League, EHF European League and European Cup, all in both women’s and men’s — quite a puzzle to ensure all the pieces fit. Once a match is selected, two players from each team participating in that match, chosen randomly, will be tested via urine sample.

The testing protocol is approved by WADA and in line with those of the World Anti-Doping Code and the International Handball Federation (IHF). In the context of handball globally, the EHF is a delegated third party and the IHF are the signatory. All data are uploaded directly to “ADAMS”, WADA’s anti-doping administration and management system. There, both WADA and the IHF can access all EHF test results.

In each EHF competition, including EHF EURO events, the teams progressing further will inevitably be tested more than once. At a EURO, the teams are tested each round — again, with two players randomly chosen per team, rather than a whole squad. On a club level, the teams will be tested as they reach the final stages, following at least one test in the earlier phases of the season.

The EHF has no jurisdiction to manage anti-doping in domestic handball competitions in Europe. That is the role of the National Anti-Doping Organisations (NADOs), and is one reason Holdhaus emphasises the educational component of the EHF Anti-Doping Unit.

“What we are really focusing on is to increase the education programme,” he says. “That's the reason why we also implemented a national anti-doping responsible person. All handball federations in Europe had to nominate an anti-doping responsible person. That's the person which is directly our partner. Whenever we see that there's a problem, we can immediately contact him, and his job is to solve the problems. It’s a relatively new initiative, in early stages, but it’s working.”

In view of the focus on education, the EHF Anti-Doping Unit have extensive material available free on the EHF website. In addition, the Anti-Doping Unit conduct webinars. The collaboration with the responsible anti-doping persons in national federations is a relatively new initiative in its early stages. In March 2026, a symposium for those educators is planned at the EHF headquarters in Vienna.

Holdhaus emphasises educating the educators as a vital focus. This evolving and comprehensive task is undertaken in collaboration with the Council of Europe, which adopted the Anti-Doping Convention in 1989 and additional protocol in 2002. Doping was the first sports-related topic addressed by the Council of Europe. For the Council of Europe, Holdhaus is a so-called “team captain” of a small working group concentrated on how to educate the educators in anti-doping, therefore, he is at the fore of methods for accomplishing that in European handball.

In line with that, anti-doping education also forms part of the EHF Master Coach course, with Holdhaus himself presenting a lecture on the subject to participants. He says coaches also have responsibility in anti-doping.

Handball players across Europe are obligated to complete anti-doping courses early in their career, usually taking place online. However, it is here that Holdhaus believes knowledge gaps may form, as the quality of the education is varied. Very often, players who are being tested for the first time are not aware of what the procedure entails. Holdhaus says that with younger players, the first tests then end up forming part of their anti-doping education.

“It’s [anti-doping education for players] absolutely necessary. It’s a part of the rules. If you don’t know it and you take a medicine because you have a little illness, whatever, without checking the medicine, it could be that you will be positive if there's a doping control. Then the sanctions are two years, four years. In most cases, it's the end of the career, so there's a really high risk and that's the reason why they have to be informed,” says Holdhaus. 

In the case of the positive test, in accordance with the relevant codes, management of the case is passed on to the EHF legal department and is from there out of the hands of the EHF Anti-Doping Unit.

One area Holdhaus finds concerning is supplements: “Another problem are supplements. Unfortunately, studies showed that there is a real big risk. There are many supplements on the market which are contaminated and will lead to a positive case. The Cologne List for supplements help to find out whether the supplement is clean or not.”

Taking an unknown supplement is one common path towards an unintended positive case. As such unintended cases are the ones most common in handball, it is those cases that form the focus of the educational materials and programmes of the EHF.

With comprehensive education, handball in Europe can avoid incidents that end up leading to very negative experiences and even the end of careers. And that is the purpose of Play True Day — to raise awareness of anti-doping topics in order to ensure clean sport, and commit to that.

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