The ordinary October Board meeting of Men’s and Women’s Forum took place in Spain on 4^th and 5^th Oct 2021. Only one of the 25 Board members was not able to attend the meeting. The newly elected Presidents Xavier O’Callaghan (men) and Tamas Szabo (women) welcomed EHF President M. Wiederer as guest. He was accompanied by EHFM Managing Director David Szlezak and Nina Kernmayer.

For the first time ever a Non-European Board member participated in the meeting: Shkumbin ‘Bini’ Mustafa, the President of New York City Handball Club. Also for the first time ever two English representatives were present: Theo Bougouin/London GD (men) and Diaraye Diallo/Olympia London (women).

Further new office holders in the Men’s Forum: Jennifer Kettemann/Rhein-Neckar-Lion (EHFM Finance inspection), Thierry Omeyer/PSG (Board member), Julien Deljarry /Montpellier (Board member), Jan Larsen/Aalborg (Board member), Vedran Supukovic/Zagreb (Board member) and Igor Levshin/Moscow (Deputy Men’s Club Board).

Further new office holders in the Women’s Forum: Alexander Savinow/Moscow (Board member), Alexandru Nitisor/Valcea (Board member), Emil Berggren/Savehof (Board member and WCB member), Jens Genge/Blomberg-Herrentrup (FCH Comptroller) and Radmila Petrovic/Buducnost (WHB member).

The Men’s and the Women’s Forum discussed the situation in the various European Cups. Whilst the media situation is improving, the marketing situation is not satisfying.

Men’s and Women’s Forum prolonged their cooperation until 30^th June 2026. The contract of FCH Managing Director Gerd Butzeck was extended till the same date. Nina Kernmayer was appointed to represent the interests of both organizations in the daily business of EHF Marketing GmbH

The Board was entitled to negotiate a prolongation of the ‘Partnership Agreement’ with the International Handball Federation until 2026.

At the end of the Women’s Forum meeting President Tamas Szabo resigned from his position due to administrative mistakes during the elections.

The 24^th General Assembly of Forum Club Handball with elections took place in Athens on 16^th June 2021. 

A new Board was elected as follows:

ELECTIONS Part I/Board members:

1. Election Board Member Nation ranked 1 (GER)

Elected:

Dierk Schmäschke/Flensburg

Teo Storm/Kiel

2. Election Board Member Nation ranked 2 (FRA)

Elected:

Julien Deljarry/Montpellier

Thierry Omeyer/Paris

3. Nations ranked 3 – 9 (ESP, HUN, MKD, POL, DEN, POR, CRO)

Elected:

CRO Vedran Supukovic/Zagreb

DEN Jan Larsen/Aalborg

ESP Xavier O’Callaghan/Barcelona

HUN Janos Szabó/Veszprem

4. Nations ranked 10 – 18 (ROU, BLR, SLO, SWE, UKR, SUI, NOR, SVK, RUS)

Elected:   

SLO Gregor Planteu/Celje

SUI Peter Leutwyler/Kadetten

5. Nations ranked 19 – 30 (FIN, AUT, TUR, BEL, CZE, ISL, ISR, GRE, SRB, LUX, NED, KOS) 

Elected:

Stathis Papachartofilis/Athens

6. Nations ranked 1-20 in the EHF European-Cup ranking 21/22 (BIH, LTU, BUL, GBR, CYP, LAT, MDA, ITA, MNE, …)

Elected:

ENG Théo Bougouin/London

7. Election of the Non-European Board member     

Elected:

USA Bini Moustafa/New York

ELECTIONS Part II/Office holders:

FCH:

8. Election of the FCH President

Elected:

Xavier O’Callaghan/Barcelona

9. Election of the 2 FCH Vice-Presidents

Elected:

Dierk Schmäschke/Flensburg

Peter Leutwyler/Kadetten

10.    Election of the FCH-Treasurer

Dierk Schmäschke/Flensburg

11.    Election of the FCH-Comptroller

Elected:

Gerd Hofele/Göppingen

12.    FCH Development Group

Chairman: Stathis Papachartofilis

Elected:

Pep Blanchart/Granollers

          Andreas Andreou/Famagusta

          Oleg Lebedev/Minsk

EHF:

13. Election of the 2 Professional Handball Board representatives

Elected:

Xavier O’Callaghan/Barcelona

Gregor Planteu/Celje

14. Election of the EHF Competitions Commission member

Elected:

Gael Pelletier/Nantes

EHFM:

15. Election of the 3 MCB-representatives

     Elected:

    Janos Szabo/Veszprem

    Peter Leutwyler/Kadetten

    Teo Storm

16. Election of the EHFM comptroller

Elected:

Jennifer Kettemann/Rhine-Neckar-Lions

17. Election of the FCH member in the EHF/M-FCH Evaluation Group

         Elected:

Axel Gehrer – no club representative

18. Election of the FCH member in the EHF/M – FCH – Infront – Dazn Strategy Committee:

          Elected:

Janos Szabo/Veszprem

The FCH speaker in the Men’s Club Board Janos Szabo will represent FCH in the EHFM Advisory Board.

The Board of FCH appointed in the first meeting the following Deputies to the Men’s Club Board:

Jesper Larsson/Kristianstad

Vedran Supukovic/Zagreb

Arkadii Ellarian/CSKA Moscow

Robert Molines/Montpellier was elected as the first Honorary member of Forum Club Handball!

Congratulations to elected FCH Board members and office holders!

Athens, 16.6.21

The FCH Board decided in an Extraordinary Board meeting to move the 24^th General Assembly from Cologne to Athens. The meeting was supposed to take place on the fringes of the F4 event on 12^th/13^th June 21. As it is not possible to organize the assembly due to Pandemic restrictions in Cologne, the FCH Board adopted a proposal of AEK Athens to organize the assembly in Athens on 15^th/16^th June 2021. Additionally the FCH Board decided to support the travel costs of the participants. For detailed information please contact office@forumclubhandball.com or visit our page ‘Next General Assembly’.

The 13^th General Assembly of Women’s FORUM CLUB HANDBALL decided on 26^th January 2021 not to remunerate player agents for international transfers any longer, if the agent represents the interests of the player. This decision corresponds to the decision of the Men’s FORUM CLUB HANDBALL, taken during the 23^rd GA on 29^th Dec 2020 and avoids a conflict of interests for the agents.

In the future Player Agents shall be paid by the player, if the agent represents the interests of the player.

Men’s and Women’s FCH are aligned in the handling of this question.

The ‘European Handball Players Union’ and the ‘European Handball Players Agents Association’ were informed accordingly.

Existing contracts between FCH member clubs and agents remain valid. The new regulation is intended to start for international transfers on 1^st July 2021.

Due to the Corona restrictions the 23rd General Assembly of Forum Club Handball will take place via ZOOM call on 29th December 2020 from 9:30h – 14:00h. The FCH member clubs are requested to contact the FCH office in order to receive the link for the meeting. More Infos, see: MEN Forum Club Handball, Next General Assembly

For a couple of years FCH follows the development of the relationship between clubs and player agents in various sports. Various initiatives in Handball, Football and other sports which tried to regulate the activities of agents remained without positive result,

Licensing systems were invented and ignored, as agents always have the possibility to cooperate with lawyers. As a consequence they do not need a license.

Today usually player agents represent the interests of players and get paid by the club. In the future the agents shall be paid by the player, if they represent the interests of the player.

This proposal was developed by the FCH Board and will be discussed during the next FCH General Assembly end of December. If the proposal is supported by the clubs, it will be forwarded to the various bodies of European Handball Federation. The new system shall start in July 2021, but clubs shall apply the new way of acting as of January 2021.

As the situation in Europe is improving step-by-step after the Corona crisis, FCH scheduled the next meetings. The FCH Boards (men and women) will meet in Spain on 19/20th October 2020 to discuss the consequences of European Lock-down in spring/summer 2020. The 13th Women General Assembly will take place on the fringes of the EHF Euro in Oslo/NOR on 18/19th December 2020.  The 23rd Men’s General Assembly will take place just a few days later on occasion of the last VELUX EHF Final4 in Cologne/GER on 28/29th December 2020.

Davor Stojanoski, former Manager of RK Vardar and twice winner of the EHF VELUX Champions League, resigned from his position as Board member FCH. RK Vardar is under new leadership as of 1st July 2020. FCH President Gregor Planteu thanked Stojanoski for his contribution to European Club Handball and wished him all the best for his future.

Davor Stojanoski, long standing Board member of Forum Club Handball, resigned from his position on 30.6.2020. FCH thanks Davor and his club RK Vardar for their contributions to European Handball. With Manager Davor Stojanski RK Vardar won the Champions League twice. As of 1st July 2020 the club will be named RK Vardar 1961 under new leadership.

During the last days the various FCH-Boards consulted on consequences of the Corona-Virus. The Boards unanimously recommended all member clubs to share the expected losses 50%:50% with the players. This solution shall be applied all across Europe for the period until 30^th June 2020. “We think this to be a fair solution. The clubs need the understanding of the players to overcome this difficult situation for Handball!” is the common opinion of the FCH-Presidents Gregor Planteu/Celje and Zsolt Ákos Jeney/Budapest.