A delegation of the US Team Handball Federation with CEO Dieter Esch, President Brad Krassner and Managing Director Steve Pastorino attended the 13th ordinary meeting of GCH on 31st January in Vienna.
The delegation presented its plans to develop Handball in the USA. GCH member clubs will study the possibilities, how to support the development of the European Sport ‘Handball’ in the big sport market of North America. GB
World class player Oleg Veliki passed away during the EURO 2010. During the 13th General Assembly in Vienna the new GCH-member Rhine-Neckar-Lions proposed to host a Charity match in favor of the family of the former Ukrainian and German International. The GCH member clubs agreed unanimously and decided to release at least one player each to create a ‘GCH World Selection’.
HSV Hamburg, the last club of Veliki, plans to organize a Charity match on the same purpose against the German National Team.
Both events will be coordinated between the Clubs in favor of Kataryna and Nikita (6) Veliki. GB
Please find the following press information on the IHF-Homepage:
Historical moment for Handball
2010-01-29
On the fringes of the 9th Men’s European Championship in Austria a high potential working group met in Vienna on 28 January.
On initiative of the IHF President Dr Hassan Moustafa, representatives from the IHF, from the continental federations, national federations and, for the first time in handball history, representatives from four top clubs, met to discuss the future calendar of international handball and the involvement of the stakeholders into international handball in general. Specifically, proposals for an implementation of a releasing fee, an increase of the prize money and for a launching of an appearance fee were discussed. The members of this group of experts agreed basically on the following points:
1. Coordination of the international competition calendar
2. Launching of a releasing fee system
3. Launching of an insurance system for players during the World Championship
The meeting participants supported the steps of the European Handball Federation to create a Professional Handball Board, integrating the current stakeholders, National Federations, Clubs, National Leagues, and Athletes, permanently dealing with issues regarding professional handball in Europe.
The International Handball Federation basically supports the idea of building a forum of expert’s representing the professional handball and is always open to the problems the members of the handball family might have, but not for subgroups who are not affiliated to the IHF.
The experts who met today created the following working group which will work out the details of the individual points:
• Sandi Sola (Representative IHF)
• Dr Mansourou A. Aremou (Representative of continental federations)
• Alexander Toncourt (Representative EHF)
• Ulrich Strombach (Representative of national federations)
• Patrice Canayer (Montpellier HB, General Manager)
The results of the elaboration of this Working Group will be presented and discussed on the fringes of the Final Four of the EHF Men’s Champions League on 29/30 May 2010.
The meeting was held in an open and positive atmosphere and the participants emphasized their interest in the development of the sport handball on all fields.
Today for the first time during the Presidency of Hassan Moustafa the International Handball Federation (IHF) invited club representatives to discuss about Calendar issues. In the presence of the Continental Federation Presidents and various National Federations Presidents (CRO, FRA, GER, ESP) the participants from BM Ciudad Real, THW Kiel, HB Montpellier and RK Zagreb took the chance to raise further questions, such as ‘Compensation for release of players to the national team’ and ‘Insurance in case of injury during World Championships’.
It was achieved a common opinion about the fact that the
– International Calender has to be harmonized
– Compensation for release of players has to be discussed
– a solution regarding the insurance problem has to be found.
IHF agreed to continue the work on the mentioned issues.
As the working group is no body of the IHF, no decisions were taken in Vienna. GB/UD
The Super Globe, the official World Championship for Club Teams, will take place in Quatar for the next 4 years. According contracts were signed by IHF President Hassan Moustafa during the last weekend.
This year the tournament will take place from 17.-21. May 2010, 8 days before the EHF Championsleague final. IHF spreads this information via own Homepage.
The clubs were not at all involved in the decision taking process. GB
For the first time in history the EHF will pay compensation to Clubs for the release of players to the national teams. Due to a statement of Secretary General M. Wiederer the Executive Committee will be requested to take an according decision next Friday.
Although the amount (400.000 Euros) is not the result of negotiations between EHF and Clubs, GCH welcomes the decision and regards it to be a step in the right direction. The commitment was made by EHF during the negotiations of EHF and GCH. GB
On 18th January 2010 one of the most successful handball clubs in the world, the 8 times Women Championsleague Winner Hypo NiederÖsterreich from Vienna/Austria (Hypo NÖ) lodged a complaint at Vienna Court, challenging the monopoly of IHF/EHF and § 20 – 23 of the IHF Transferregulations. The club indicates that IHF/EHF have no legal basis to oblige the club to release players to various National Teams.
Hypo NÖ complains about the fact that the National and International Federations do not pay any compensation to the club. At the same time the club is obliged to insure the player salaries against injury on the Clubs account, whilst the players are working and earning money as employees for the various Federations.
The complaint is split into two parts, one refering to players to be released to the Austrian National Team and the second refering to players to be released to other countries (ie France, Brazil, Norway).
As a consequence Hypo NÖ demands to be exempted from the obligation to release players to the various national teams or at least to receive an appropriate compensation.
The club intends to inform the international press during the final weekend of the EHF Euro 2010 in Vienna about the complaint in detail. GB
Am 18.1.2010 hat der 8-malige Frauen Championsleague Sieger Hypo NiederÖsterreich (Hypo NÖ) Klage beim ‘Landesgericht für Zivilsachen Wien’ eingelegt und das Monopol von IHF/EHF angegriffen, sowie die Internationale Transferbestimmungen § 20 – 23 in Frage gestellt.
Die Klage ist zweigeteilt und bezieht sich einmal auf Österreichische und einmal auf Nicht-Österreichische Spielerinnen. Hypo NÖ beklagt, dass der Österreichische Verband, dritte nationale Verbände, die EHF und die IHF Erträge generieren, indem sie auf Clubspieler zurückgreifen. Der Club trägt das Verletzungsrisiko und ist zudem verpflichtet die Spieler auf eigenen Kosten gegen Verletzung zu versichern, ohne hierfür eine Entschädigung zu erhalten.
Hypo NÖ beantragt bei Gericht festzustellen, dass der Klub nicht verpflichtet ist, Spielerinnen auf Anweisung der Vebände zur Nationalmannschaft abzustellen.
Ersatzweise wird das Gericht aufgefordert, die Verbände auf Zahlung einer Abstellungsentschädigung zu verurteilen.
Eine ähnliche Beschwerde hatte die GROUP CLUB HANDBALL EEIG am 1.4.2010 bei der Europäischen Kommission in Brüssel eingereicht.
Am kommenden Wochenende will der Club im Rahmen des Finalwochenendes der EURO 2010 die Öffentlichkeit im Rahmen einer Pressekonferenz über die Einzelheiten der Klage informieren. GB
Dear Mr. President, dear HSV Handball Supporters,
on behalf of GROUP CLUB HANDBALL EEIG I want to express our sincerest condolences on the loss of Oleg Veliki.
He was a great fighter and one of the best handball players in the world.
We acknowledge and appreciate the support, HSV Handball in general and the HSV fans in particular gave to Oleg during the last years.
He will always be in the heart of all of us.
With heartfelt sympathy
GROUP CLUB HANDBALL EEIG
Joan Marin/President
Initiated and promoted by Ralf Uhding, Board Member of the Toyota-Handball-Bundesliga, GCH President Joan Marin invited the President of the US-Team Handball Federation, Dieter Esch and the Managing Director, Steve Pastorino, to the 13th ordinary General Assembly of GCH, taking place on 31st January 2010 in Vienna.
The US-President and the GCH Member Clubs will study the possibilities of future cooperation. GB