During the last ordinary FCH Board meeting, taking place in Spain 7th/8th October 2024, the FCH Boards (men and women) decided to put the support for US Team Handball on hold.
FCH does not agree to the circumstances, surrounding the resignation of the USTH Managing Director Martin Branick and the decision to appoint Michael King as his successor.
FCH informed the International Handball Federation accordingly.
On 7./8th October the boards of Men’s Forum and Women’s Forum met fot the annual Board meeting in Spain. The cooperation with agency partner INFRONT was discussed.
The club representatives decided to prepare properly for the upcoming EHF Competition Conferences in spring 2025.
On the fringes of the meeting Gregor Planteu was selected as successor of FCH Managing Director Gerd Butzeck. Planteu is scheduled to start working in July 2025.
The European Handball Agents Association (EHAA) and FCH signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the beginning of the 30th General Assembly of FCH, celebrated in Cologne on the fringes of the EHF TRUCKSCOUT24 Champions League F4 on 9th June 2024.
The MoU underlines that the IHF Regulations on transfers have to be applied. In particular FCH member clubs shall operate with licensed agents only. The agents agreed to charge their clients which are usually the players (but may also be the clubs).
On the picture from left to the right: Women FCH President Zolt Ákos Jeney, Men FCH President Xavier O’Callaghan, EHAA President Marko Boskovic, EHAA Chairman of the Board Andrej Golic, FCH Managing Director Gerd Butzeck.
For the first time ever Forum Club Handball will celebrate a General Assembly with participants from 5 continents. The fist non-European club to enter FCH was ‘The worlds Handball club New York City’ (America), followed by Detroit, Zeekstar Tokyo (Asia), CalHeats San Francisco, University Sydney (Australia). For the first time ever an African Club will join the meeting: Famous SC Zamalek from Egypt will be confirmed as new member during the meeting on 9th June in Cologne.
The first ever Australian team becomes member of Forum Club Handball. The multiple participant of the IHF Super Globe SYDNEY UNI HANDBALL signed the membership documents and was accepted by the FCH Board.
Accordingly at the moment FCH has members from America, Asia, Australia and Europe. Further expansion to Africa is to be expected.
Radmila Petrovic is no longer President of Buducnost. Accordingly she was withdrawn as member of the EHF Women Handball Board. FCH thanks Radmila for her contribution to European Club Handball. A replacement for Radmila Petrovic will be elected during the next 20th General Assembly of Forum Club Handball in Budapest on 2nd June 2024.
Forum Club Handball is an organization, representing the interests of European Top Handball clubs vis-a-vis European Handball Federation EHF, International Handball Federation IHF, European Union and others.
FCH is registered as an NPO (registered club, eingetragener Verein) in Cologne/Germany. Potentially the office can be everywhere in Europe.
The Managing Director of Forum Club Handball organizes the meetings and is the first contact person for member clubs, EHF and IHF. The ideal candidate should have a strong Handball background/network, good knowledge of English and Microsoft Office.
The new FCH Managing Director has to coordinate and balance the interests of the various stakeholders in Handball. He will be appointed in October 2024 and start working in June 2025.
Short-form applications with CV shall be addressed to office@forumclubhandball.com until 1st of May 2024.
On invitation of FCH the leadership of FCH and EHF will meet on 9th 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 5th July (part I) and 12th 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
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 23rd 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 25th 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.
EHFM will organize the EHF F4 Business Weekend on Friday/Saturday 16./17.6.2023. The program contains presentations and discussions, starting on Friday afternoon and finishing Saturday around noon. Details will be announced by EHFM in the near future. Save the date!