With its decisions, the EHF Executive Committee in April traditionally lays the foundation for the coming European handball season – and the present meeting made no difference in this regard.
The meeting took place with a plethora of additional EHF activities surrounding it, among those were the meeting of the EHF EURO Delegation on Thursday morning, the final tournament draw for the Women’s EHF EURO 2024, the Heads of Refereeing Convention which started on Friday as well as the meeting of the EHF’s comptrollers which analysed and signed off on the EHF’s financial conduct in 2023.
Furthermore, the EXEC session was preceded by the stakeholder meetings in early April, i.e. those of the Professional Handball Board, the European Handball Leagues Board, the Nations Boards and the Women’s Handball Board, with the Executive Committee taking in the inputs and making it a part of its decision-making processes.
Club competitions
With the 2023/24 club handball season entering its business end these weeks, the Executive Committee already started setting the tracks for 2024/25.
While the playing systems as such will remain the same in the coming season, the EXEC dealt with the several motions related to the EHF’s club competitions.
For the EHF European League Men, the EXEC confirmed a motion relating to the limitation of teams (max. 4) coming from one country. It also confirmed a change in the qualification path for teams of the EHF European Cup Men requesting an upgrade to the EHF European League – those teams will not be seeded directly to the EHF EL group phase but will have to play a qualification instead.
Additional motions confirmed by the EXEC related to the colour of dresses, mandatory match recording in case no TV signal is available (i.e. in the qualification to the EHF European League and the EHF European Cup), enhanced access to clubs for content production purposes, late-entry regulations for players coming from a non-European club as well as the elimination of the obligation for the home clubs in the EHF Champions League Men and EHF European League Men to provide tickets to the away team at a symbolic price only.
The corresponding changes will be implemented in the respective competitions’ regulations for the 2024/25 season.
National team competitions
With several reports outlining the success of the Men’s EHF EURO 2024 beyond the court – a cumulative TV audience of 1.2 billion, a live TV audience of more than 60 million, a reach on digital channels of more than 750 million and more than one million fans in the arenas at the 65 matches played – the EXEC had the opportunity to review the championship in Germany and draw conclusions for the upcoming editions of the EHF’s flagship national team event. On this topic, it was noted that all doping samples taken at championship returned negative.
On the day of the final tournament draw for the Women’s EHF EURO 2024 an outlook and the status of the preparations for the first women’s championship with 24 teams was provided. Especially the tournament’s final weekend in Vienna (14-15 December 2024) looks set to bring the European handball family to the Austrian capital, with an Extraordinary Congress for the awarding of the EHF EUROs in 2030 and 2032, the EHF Excellence Awards gala, and the inauguration of the European Handball House, the EHF’s new office, all scheduled to take place alongside the final matches.
Looking ahead to the Women’s EHF EURO 2026, the EXEC confirmed the qualification path to the final tournament. The five hosts – Poland, Romania, Czechia, Slovakia and Türkiye – together with the three top-ranked teams of the Women’s EHF EURO 2024 will play the EHF EURO Cup, divided in two groups of four. For the Qualifiers it is foreseen that following a phase 1, 24 teams (six groups of four) will compete for the remaining 16 places at the final tournament.
Changes in the registration procedure for the Men’s EHF EURO 2028 Qualifiers were also confirmed, and in brief the timeline for the bidding process to the EHF EUROs in 2030 and 2032 was discussed. 13 different federations expressed their interest to the EHF; formal applications must be submitted by 1 June 2024. The EXEC will confirm the bids at its September meeting, the awarding will take place on 14 December in Vienna.
Younger age category events
Two motions related to the EHF’s younger age category events had been tabled to the EXEC for the April meeting. Following the respective discussion, the EXEC approved to lift the compulsory one-match suspension for players after a direct red card at YAC EHF EUROs which from now will result in normal legal procedures.
The EXEC also approved that the daily rates for the younger age category event shall be increased as of 2025. Preceding the decision, the topic had been intensively discussed at the EHF Conference for Secretaries General in March as well at the stakeholder meetings in April as one option to increase the number of possible hosts for YAC events.
Beach handball
The EXEC took note of the latest planning for the 2024 events, with the draw for EHF YAC16 Beach Handball EURO and the EHF Beach Handball Championships 2024 being conducted on Wednesday [LINK], one day prior to the EXEC. Both events will be held in Varna, Bulgaria, and the corresponding cooperation agreements between the EHF and the Bulgarian Handball Federation were also signed on Wednesday.
European Handball Master Plan
The Executive Committee took note of the European Handball Master Plan status report for the first quarter of 2024. 15 different projects are supported. As the newest edition, the EXEC approved a project submitted by the Portuguese Handball Federation which focusses on the introduction of mini handball in primary schools and the education of PE teachers and trainers. With Israel, Cyprus, Albania, and Serbia, an additional four federations have submitted applications.
Sustainability
The EXEC was informed on the first meeting of EHF’s Sustainability Board, chaired by EXEC Member Franjo Bobinac, which took place on 28 January in Cologne, Germany. As first steps, priorities will be clustered according to the needs of the EHF, federations, clubs, and fans. The task of the EHF is to offer guidelines, education, create visibility and awareness, and share best practice examples. A vision statement has been worked on which shall be published. Within this long-term vision, goals until 2030 shall be defined.
Grassroots Charter
The project to introduce a Grassroots Charter for European handball was discussed by the EXEC. The idea has its origins at the first EHF Grassroots Convention which took place in Munich in January; additional input was sought by the federations at the Conference for Secretaries General in March.
Grassroots shall be defined as the non-professional and non-elite way of playing handball, and the focus is on people who are there for the love of the game, where the fun element is above competitiveness. The charter shall serve the purpose of being able to support, monitor, measure and eventually reward the EHF member federations for their activities with the goal of developing grassroots handball as the foundation of the sport.
The EXEC confirmed the approach and gave its mandate for the further development of the charter. A final version shall be presented at the EHF Extraordinary Congress on 14 December in Vienna.
EHF Finances
The Executive Committee was presented with the final accounting figures of the European Handball Federation for the business year 2023. The audit of the documents at hand had been finalised on 9 April 2024 and was presented to the EHF Comptrollers on 17 and 18 April 2024. With no additional remarks, the final figures were approved. The index adaptations of the fees according to the decision of the 2023 EHF Congress were approved.
International Handball Federation
Only two days prior to the meeting of the EHF Executive Committee in Vienna, the IHF Council had convened in Paris. EHF President Michael Wiederer and First Vice President Predrag Boskovic informed the EXEC on topics and discussions of interest including i.e. the rule changes coming into effect on 1 July as well as on changes by the IHF to the regulations for referees, i.e. raising the age limit for referees from 50 to 55.
While the EHF activities continued on Friday with the Heads of Refereeing Convention, the EXEC session closed with an outlook on the upcoming EHF events and meetings. The EXEC will next convene on 21 June in Oslo.
