ehf_25yers_book_webversion

In the same year, EHF officers showed
a fine sense of things to come when they
issued invitations to the 1st EHF Beach
Handball Experts Seminar held at Marsala/ITA
on 28 August 1996. This early
exchange of ideas, organised jointly with
the Italian Handball Federation, made the
EHF a pioneer of this discipline, which had
been launched in Italy at the initiative of
current EHF member Dejaco. Lecturers
discussed topics such as “EHF Beach Handball
Philosophy” (J. Guerrero), “Course objectives,
Rules, Activities” (T. van Linder)
and “Technical Development of Beachhandball”
(S. Montagni). Workshops were
conducted on rules, refereeing and training
for handball played on sand. The outcome:
the desire to cooperate with the global
federation IHF, the installation of a permanent
working group on beach handball,
the wish for the introduction of binding
rules, the compilation of a beach handball
calendar and the launch of international
tournaments under EHF control.
One year on, the EHF already offered an
enormous range of events and professional
development options. On the fringes of
the 3rd EHF Congress 1996 in Athens, a
workshop on ‘Women in Handball’ was offered,
conducted by Tor Lian (NOR). Working
with the French Handball Federation
(FFHB), the EHF organised the Top Coaches
workshop in Paris-Bercy, which provided
important input for the future training
of coaches. In addition, a workshop was
held on the topic “the EHF Office”, plus a
first Conference for Secretaries General,
the Lecturers’ Course Europe (in Alanya,
Turkey) and two EHF Referees’ Courses Europe
(in Gabrovo, BUL and Nitra, SVK).
In addition, well-attended workshop
groups discussed matters such as “Handball
Marketing in East European Countries”
and “A Concept for Referees Education and
Training”. Equally productive was the “Media”
Working Group held on the fringes of
the 1996 Women’s ECh at Herning with
experts such as TV commentators Gulyas
(HUN, TV), the rights specialist Anders
(SUI, CWL), and the journalists Pfeistlinger
(AIPS/AUT for printed media), Uhl (GER/
photo), and Vom Wege (GER/radio).
Many of the thoughts and ideas that
emerged from this brainstorming session,
in which EHF President Staffan Holmqvist
also took part, are current practice today.
The first EHF/IHF coordination meeting
on beach Handball was held already on 20
October 1996. Since that date, the two
umbrella organisations have been in close
consultation with each other on this matter.
The declared target of holding an EHF
tournament for beach handball as early
as 1997 proved overly ambitious, however.
Since 2000, however, the year that
saw the inaugural tournament at Gaeta/
ITA, EHF Beach Handball European Championships
have been a fixture on the EHF
event calendar. The first European champions
came from Germany (women) and
Spain (men).
In the meantime, a binding set of rules
has been developed and a European
Beach Tour introduced for club teams.
Since 2001, special courses have been
held for beach handball referees and
delegates at regular intervals. Since 2008,
a Beach handball Commission has been
regulating fundamental questions of beach
handball within the EHF. And, of course,
this discipline has gained added attraction
for many young handball players since the
International Olympic Committee (IOC),
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