During the last months several times the questions was raised which sports shall be part of the Winter and which sports shall be part of the Summer Olympics.

In an LINKED IN article the IOC clarified its position on this topic today:

The IOC EB decided that there should be no crossover of summer sport disciplines onto the sports programme of the French Alps 2030 Olympic Winter Games. However, the question of adding summer sport disciplines to the Winter Games will be addressed in a second phase of the F4F process, for the editions after 2030.

EHF Marketing and INFRONT mutually agreed to part ways. The partnership which started in 2020 will end in June 2026 after 6 years. INFRONT will continue to be EHF partner for the EHF EUROs until 2030.

Almost all major TV contracts are signed till 2030. Accordingly it will be now the job of EHF, EHFM and the clubs to prepare for the period as of 2030. GB

In June 2025 the Head of International Relations Tamas Szabo from AUDI Györi ETO KC was elected as member of the FCH Board and as FCH representative to the EHF Competitions Commission. As he left the club about one month later, the FCH Board decided during its ordinary Board meeting in Mallorca on 14th October 2025 that he will be replaced by Zsolt Abrok/Debrecen VSC. Abrok is for about 10 years in the management of the club which participated in European League and Champions League numerous times.

Today the first meeting of the new 4-years-cycle of the EHF Professional Handball Board took place. The playing system for season 25/26 and the calendar for the upcoming seasons was discussed.

FCH President Xavier O’Callaghan was re-elected as chairman of the EHF Professional Handball Board. Nicolas Larsson/Sweden, the president of the European league organisation, was re-elected as deputy chairman. GB

31.7.25 Long standing FCH Board member Tamas Szabo leaves ETO AUDI Györi with immediate effect. Szabo imformed FCH accordingly today.

FCH President Zsolt Akos Jeney thanked Tamas Szabo for his continuous support of FCH. During the last election in Budapest, Tamas Szabo was elected as FCH representative to the EHF Competitions commission.

Accordingly the next General Assembly, taking place in Rotterdam on 13th December 2025, will see elections, replacing Szabo as Board member FCH and as EHF Competitions Commission representative. GB

During the 31st FCH General Assembly, celebrated in Oslo on the fringes of the IHF World Championship, the clubs dealt with the IHF Regulations for Transfers between Federations, Article 9, § 2: … A player may only conclude a contract with another club if the player’s contract with his/her existing club has twelve months or less remaining. …

The Clubs discussed the regulation and regard it to be neither legal, nor realistic. Accordingly FCH will approach EHF/IHF to delete this regulation.

On invitation of FCH the leadership of FCH and EHF will meet on 9^th October 2023. EHF will be represented by President M. Wiederer, the 2 Vice-President P. Boskovic and H. La Cour, Secretary General M. Hausleitner, CSO M. Glaser and CFO B. Binder. EHFM will be represented by Managing Director D. Szlezak and his Deputy N. Kernmayer.

All Board members (men and women) of FCH will be present.

The major topic of the meeting will be the long-term cooperation with agency partner INFRONT and the future alignment of the European Cup competitions.    

The Danish TV Station TV published a documentary on match-fixing in Handball on 5^th July (part I) and 12^th July 2023 (part II).

Match-fixing can not be accepted by any sports bodies, as it harms the integrity and therefore the basis of any sports. This holds true for IHF, EHF, National Federations, Leagues, Clubs, match officials, team officials, referees and players.

FCH requests its member clubs on regular basis to follow the rules of EHF and National Federations, prohibiting betting of players and team officials on the outcome of Handball matches.

Attempts of match-fixing shall be reported to EHF or anonymously to https://report.whistleb.com/ehf. The link to the reporting platform is not available via the EHF website as this could allow tracking of individual IP addresses and the potential identification of the individual.

SPORTRADAR is a company monitoring the betting market on behalf of the various stakeholders, ie Federations, Leagues and Betting companies. In 2018 SPORTRADAR produced  a report on suspicious betting activities/match-fixing in Handball.

The report says itself that it does not contain any proofs for match-fixing in European Handball. Anyhow it contains indications on suspicious referees/refereeing.

The report was discussed on various levels in EHF and FCH. It was agreed to

1. present the materials to the Austrian police authorities
2. professionalize the EHF refereeing system
3. present the materials to the internal EHF legal system

Concerning 1.: The Austrian authorities provided the materials to Europol for further investigation.

Concerning 2: EHF and FCH started to discuss changes in the refereeing system. One of the outcomes of these discussion was the decision that as of the season 19/20 the EHF Competitions Committee member  Refereeing Dragan Nachevski was no longer responsible for the nominations of referees in European Cup competitions.  

Concerning 3: The matches were analyzed by EHF and FCH experts without finding indications for match fixing. As there were no proofs, no legal case was opened in 2018/19.

FCH wants to underline that all decisions were taken jointly. During the whole period a permanent exchange of information between the EHF and FCH took place.

FCH welcomed and supported the steps, taken by EHF.

The core of the documentary is a conversation in January 2020 between the former EHF Competitions Commission member Refereeing Dragan Nachevski and an actor, pretending to be a chinese business man with interests to register a Chinese Handball team in SEHA league. The conversation was recorded by TV2 with a hidden camera.

During the conversation the actor/businessman makes attempts to involve Nachevski in match-fixing. The attempts are denied by Nachevski.

At the same time Nachevski continues speaking to the actor/businessman in a friendly manner. He did not inform the European Handball Federation about the conversation for three years.

EHF received of a video copy of the conversation from TV2 on 23^rd May 2023. The Executive Committee of EHF decided to release Nachevski from his in duties in an extraordinary meeting with immediate effect only two days later – on 25^th May 2023. The Court of Handball opened a case against Nachevski.

FCH welcomes the decision of the EHF Executive Committee.

At the same time FCH wants to underline that a European body like the EHF can not and should not take measures on the basis of unproven allegations. EHF acted consequently and transparently at all times.

FCH calls on EHF to take all necessary measures to avoid match-fixing in the future.

The 16th General Assembly of Forum Club Handball (women’s clubs) and the 26^th General Assembly of FCH (men’s clubs) will take place in June on the fringes of the EHF Champions League Final4 events in Budapest/women’s clubs on 5.6.22 and in Cologne/men’s clubs on 19.6.22.

FCH invited the President of the International Handball Federation (IHF), Dr. Hassan Moustafa. FCH and IHF intend to sign the prolongation of  their Partnership agreement during these meetings.

The host of both Final4 events, Michael Wiederer, President of the European Handball Federation, will address the participants and inform on the latest developments in European Handball.  

In Cologne the Japanese Handball association will be represented by Yoshihide Watanabe, acting President of Asian Handball Federation and Honorable Chairman of Japan Handball Association, Roland Nemes., Councilor, International Relations, Japan Handball Association and Yoshiki Hirabayashi, Secretary General of the Japan Handball Association.

FCH and the JHA intend to sign a Memorandum of Understanding, promoting the cooperation between European and Japanese top clubs.

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.