Michael Wiederer on the future of European women's competitions

The second day of the Women’s Competitions Conference threw off with a presentation on the potential of women’s sport in the future, delivered by Deloitte’s knowledge and insights lead, Jenny Haskel, which was a great introduction to the keynote speech by the EHF President, Michael Wiederer.

The current status of European club competitions, which ideas are on the table and how the development of the game is perceived by the umbrella federation were just some of the topics touched on in the keynote. 

Wiederer said the key question was why the EHF thought it was necessary to examine the status of its competitions.

“We need to harmonise between the different interests of the stakeholders and their activities and needs; the clubs also have their interests,” he added.

Wiederer said Europe was a critical part of the international handball world, adding: “Whatever we change, we have to also take care of those competitions run on a national level.”

As with the men’s competitions, Wiederer emphasised that there needed to be more clubs able to compete at the highest levels, with more diversity among winners.

Pointing out it was important to know where the sport has come from, he said EHF Champions League Women’s winners have come from 11 nations in the 31 years since the competition was founded, with only 14 clubs winning titles.

“Isn’t it important that we have more clubs on a certain level?” Wiederer asked. “We need to promote the number of clubs on a high level in order to strengthen the product, and for that we need to work on our system, we need to find out what’s best for the clubs to be motivated to take part, not only for financial reasons, but also for sporting reasons.”

Wiederer looked back at the development of the competitions and the playing systems over the years, inviting discussion about future playing systems and noting that changing one element might have a knock-on impact on another area.

“It’s almost impossible to create something that doesn’t have an impact in other directions,” Wiederer said, noting: “More matches does not necessarily mean a better result.”

Possible competition structures were presented to groups to discuss in breakout sessions, examining what women’s handball has at the moment, what it wants and what is it able to have in the future. Wiederer invited further discussion to determine what was reasonable and possible.

“Improvement is only possible if the environment of the matches is improving; if we have suitable halls, if we have full halls; if the understanding of the clubs is that their contribution to the overall product is of significant importance,” Wiederer concluded.

Photos © Eva Manhart