At the beginning of the meeting, the EXEC took note of previous meetings’ summaries including the minutes of two meetings of the Finance Delegation which took place in December and January. As part of this, a detailed calculation and an update of figures for the business year was provided.
For the final audit of the business year 2021, the necessary documents and figures will be delivered to the external audit company at the beginning of February; the meeting of the EHF Comptrollers is scheduled for the end of April.
Contracts to be signed for European Handball House
As part of the business report, presented by EHF Secretary General Martin Hausleitner, the EXEC received an update on the plans for the EHF’s new offices, the European Handball House.
Detailed financial information and calculations were given as well as the current construction plans shared. With the information at hand, the EXEC gave the mandate that contracts can be signed and next steps can be taken.
The Executive Committee also received the latest reports from the Anti-doping Unit and from the EHF’s legal management.
Updates from the Technical Commissions
The Executive Committee received the activity reports from the Technical Commissions, summarising the latest developments and decisions.
For the Methods Commission it was noted that Georgia and Ukraine have signed the “RINCK Convention” agreement at Extraordinary Congress in November. In the middle of December, a webinar was organised with the nations participating at EHF EURO 2022, granting them insights how they can benefit and use the player and ball tracking data collected by the EHF’S partner Kinexon during the event. At the EHF EURO itself, the first module of the EHF Master Coach Course took place with 24 participants in attendance.
As part of the motions submitted, the EXEC confirmed a SMART programme for Albania which is focused on the development of tournaments and matches for children. In cooperation with the EHF Office, the Methods Commission has revised the EHF Lecturer system, and the EXEC confirmed the new EHF Experts Group.
Furthermore, the chairman of the Methods Commisssion, Pedro Sequeira, presented the commission’s approach to e-sports with further steps to be developed.
With regards to beach handball, the EXEC also received the commission report and was updated on the status of planning for various beach handball events in 2022 and 2023.
Club and national team competitions
Besides the overarching event report, the Executive Committee received a detailed update on the Men’s EHF EURO 2022 on the eve of the semi-finals.
Taking reference to the many news published during the EHF EURO and in particular to the report of the Tournament Management, a detailed analysis of the tournament will be conducted in order to shape the preparations for the Women’s EHF EURO 2022 in Slovenia, North Macedonia and Montenegro.
Special focus was given to the first meeting of “EHF Younger Age Category Competitions Think Tank” which met in Budapest for the first time on Thursday. A first report was received and next steps determined which will include a close cooperation with the National Federations to be fostered in more detail at Conference for Secretary Generals at the end of March in Berlin.
Several motions were passed by the Executive Committee with regards to the Qualifiers for the Men’s EHF EURO 2024. Those included the requirement for LED boards on court’s short sides, the possibility for the home federation to place additional LED boards left and right of the benches, the mandatory implementation of the centre circle in line with the respective change of the IHF Rules of the Game, amendments in the coordination of satellite bookings and the initiative of the EHF to implement a “Match of the Round” with additional activities.
The EXEC also confirmed the calendar for the 2023/24 season. Granting the players additional rest days ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, the EHF FINAL4 Men is brought one week forward and will be played on 8 and 9 June.
European Handball Foundation
Following a presentation of the initiative to implement a European Handball Foundation to stakeholders on 27 January, an in-depth discussion took about the project. In future, projects shall be supported with additionally generated funds.
EHF Marketing & International Partners
Receiving the notes from EHF Marketing’s General Assembly which took place in November, the EXEC was also updated on the current business year of EHF Marketing as the 2021/22 season has reached the halfway mark.
On the international level, the most recent council notes from the International Handball Federation were received and discussed.
This included a letter from the Handball Forum of Europe to the IHF which addressed the topic of athlete uniforms in beach handball in order to grant flexibility within the new regulations which came into effect into on 1 January.
An update was also given on the business activities with the EHF’s media and marketing partner, Infront and DAZN Group.
The meeting concluded with an overview with the upcoming events which included
- The Conference of Secretaries General and Men’s EHF EURO 2024 Qualifiers draw on 29 and 30 March in Berlin
- The draw for the Women’s EHF EURO 2022 on 28 April in Ljubljana and
- The EHF Conference of Presidents on 23 and 24 September 2022 in Luxembourg
