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CLUB COMPETITIONS Brihault’s general impressions of the event: “Every time I land in Cologne prior to the start of the tournament, the tension is still rising. There is no VELUX EHF FI- NAL4 routine, but annual challenges. But it makes things easier when you have the same partners every year, so you have mutual control of the event.” International handball celebrities have abundantly praised the event. “It is always great to be back in Cologne. The atmosphere is simply brilliant; the fans go off like fireworks in the stands. This is handball at its best,” said Swedish handball star Stefan Lövgren, who had previously served as an ambassador of the event. Francois Xavier Houlet, a former French international and EHF Cup winner with Gummersbach, works together with Daniel Saric and praises the VELUX EHF FINAL4: “This is the temple of handball.” Other famed former pros, among them Marcin Lijewski, Iker Romero and VELUX testimonial Lars Christiansen, also gave the event full marks. “This atmosphere is great, amazing,” said Germany’s EHF EURO 2016 hero Andreas Wolff. Only three weeks earlier, European women’s handball had likewise celebrated a top-level club event. In the Women’s EHF FINAL4 played in Budapest’s sold-out Papp Laszlo arena, 12,000 fans had been treated to thrilling, top-class handball. There, too, the winner of the Women‘s EHF Champions League was determined only by seven-metre throws. The title finally went to the Romanian champion CSM Bucuresti, who beat Györi Audi ETO KC 29-26. Celebrated players were CSM goalkeeper Jelena Grubic, who was voted MVP of the tournament, and the Swedish goal-getter Isabell Gulldén. For EHF Secretary General Michael Wiederer, the combination of tournament, organisation and venue is already a story of success. “Three years ago we were asked by the top clubs of European women’s handball to create an event like we did with the VELUX EHF FINAL4 in Cologne,” he recalled in Budapest. And the EHF went the same way with the pinnacle event of women’s club handball as they did with the male counterparts. “We had a premiere in Budapest and then extended the contract for two more years. Currently we are in the state of negotiations with the Hungarian Handball Federation as the organiser of the event. They would like to have a longterm contract,” said Wiederer. Anyone who looks today at the gigantic scope of these final tournaments, at the many shows and entertainment of- 128
fers around the playing court, at the large crowds in the stands and at the dedication and enthusiasm with which the athletes work throughout the season to get to the place of their desires, can hardly image how modest and complex the beginnings of the European Cup were; how hard and rocky the road was that led to this pinnacle event and that started with the first official game in Skopje on 25 August 1993, at 8.15 p.m., under the auspices of a still young European Handball Federation. In the elimination round of the Women’s Champions Cup, the first whistle was blown by the referee almost “in private“. The match was played by the Macedonian club RK Djorce Petrov Skopje versus the Bulgarian club Lokosport Plovdiv (34-17). The referees Klucso/Lekrinszki were from Hungary. That this dynamic development has been anything but unremarkable is underlined by the history of club competitions in the era before the EHF’s foundation in 1991. The idea of staging such a tournament had already been voiced in 1937, when handball magazines in Austria and Germany called for a “Mitropa Cup for handball” modelled on the then popular precursor of the football European Cup. “What about a Central European cup for club teams?” – This was the question raised by Deutsche Handball-Zeitung when asked what their wishes were for the year of 1952. When UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations, launched their European Cup in 1955, handball soon followed suit – both competitions were the result of an initiative started by the French sports magazine L’Equipe. The European Cup of National Champions, as it was called then, was indeed quite popular at a number of venues. It was obvious, however, that the International Handball Federation (IHF) had problems with the long-term marketing of the competition to potential sponsors or TV partners and with raising its popularity continuously in countries outside Germany. “One should not overestimate the volume of revenues that can be generated by European Cup games,” said IHF Director Friedhelm Peppmeier in 1983. “If you don’t have German contenders in the finals, revenues will go down to zero due to a lack of interest in other countries.” After the EHF had been founded in November 1991, it soon became clear that the European Cup would also be organised under the auspices of the new umbrella organisation. The global IHF had lost any interest in club competitions, as IHF Manag- 129
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25 YEARS EUROPEAN HANDBALL FEDERATI
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118 CLUB COMPETITIONS 156 DEVELOPME
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The key to the success has been the
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Only those who are aware of the pas
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Europe is the cradle of handball Th
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The beginnings of the EHF After the
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MILESTONE MADEIRA OR: THE LONG ROAD
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The vision of a united handball Eur
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one hand and of friends of handball
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THE STRUCTURE OF THE EHF: CONTINUIT
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Whoever enters the European Handbal
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“Handball in Europe has attained
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The founding session, which was ope
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Today, some of the problems that co
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“A handball match may only be pla
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handball in Europe has been created
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STRUCTURE “I have been very impre
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“The presence of handball on toda
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powerhouse in international handbal
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“The EHF works closely with all i
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EHF CONFERENCE OF PRESIDENTS 1998,
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IT TOOK THE EHF EURO ONLY 25 YEARS
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tional handball markets such as Den
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“The EHF and the IHF cannot both
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Another typically European feature:
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“Now, with the Olympics, World an
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“The ECh is the top-quality event
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“Hosting an ECh after Sweden will
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EURO in Slovenia would not be break
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Page 81: has been fostered even further thro
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Page 92 and 93: EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS This is also
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Page 101 and 102: Anybody who wanted to gaze into the
Page 103: Any other examples? - 2006 saw the
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Page 114 and 115: EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS 1992 TO 2016
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Page 119: THE CLUB COMPETITIONS THE META- MOR
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Page 127: Prokop. Between 1989 and 2000, HYPO
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Page 137 and 138: The next major modification of the
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Page 145 and 146: General Michael Wiederer said in Ja
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Page 149 and 150: “It was the purely Spanish 2011 f
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Page 157 and 158: YES, WE CAN! The development of han
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teaching resources, says Höritsch.
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With its breathtaking athleticism,
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It has been a great honour for us t
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Having lived and participated in th
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2014 - party Time Women’s U 19 EU
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