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“Spain has taught us to remain firmly<br />
in control. We have since been working<br />
on media concepts that involve the host<br />
while at the same time safeguarding European<br />
interests,” said Secretary General Michael<br />
Wiederer after the 2000 ECh in Croatia.<br />
Since that time, the manifold activities<br />
conducted in organising an ECh by the EHF<br />
as owner of the event, by the organising<br />
committee, the hosting national federations,<br />
media and TV partners as well as the<br />
sponsors have been closely coordinated.<br />
One concrete consequence of the unexpectedly<br />
low spectator figures in Spain<br />
in 1996 was the change of the venues<br />
originally planned for the 1998 ECh. The<br />
games were moved from Rimini and Pesaro<br />
to Bolzano and Merano in order to attract<br />
more supporters from Germany. Another<br />
example: inspections held prior to<br />
the 2000 ECh showed that Split was excessively<br />
prone to windy and foggy conditions,<br />
which prompted the EHF to decide against<br />
the port city on the Adriatic Sea in order<br />
to avoid problems with the timetable.<br />
The 1996 tournament in Spain was<br />
marked by the politically sensitive return<br />
of the Yugoslav team, which after the Balkan<br />
wars had been excluded from international<br />
tournaments for several years. The<br />
Spanish team, on the other hand, showed<br />
first signs of its great potential by reaching<br />
the final. There, however, the home team<br />
lost narrowly 22-23 against the strong<br />
Russian team. Two years later, in Italy in<br />
1998, the tournament was marked by a<br />
strong showing of the Swedes led by playmaker<br />
Ljubomir Vranjes. After beating title<br />
defender Russia in the semi-finals (27-24),<br />
they kept the – again strong – Spanish team<br />
under control and won 25-23, carrying off<br />
the second continental title to Scandinavia.<br />
When EHF officers looked back on the<br />
EHF’s first decade in 2001, they were able<br />
to note the development of the European<br />
Championships with pride and satisfaction.<br />
That moving the tournament to winter<br />
had been the right decision had already<br />
emerged at the 4th ECh in Croatia. After<br />
many dramatic encounters, which culmi-<br />
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