Last Wednesday the 16 German Clubs

THW Kiel

SG Flensburg-Handewitt

HSV Hamburg

TSV Hannover-Burgdorf

Frisch-Auf! Göppingen

TBV Lemgo

MT Melsungen

TUS Nettelstedt-Lübbecke

HBW Balingen-Weilstetten

VFL Gummersbach

GWD Minden

TV Grosswallstadt

TuSEM Essen

TV Emsdetten

Bergischer HC

ASV Hamm

filed a complaint against International Handball Federation (IHF) and Deutscher Handball Bund (DHB) at the regional court (Landgericht) Dortmund.

IHF and DHB shall be adjudged to refrain from obligating the Clubs to second their employed foreign handball players upon demand of their respective national federations for measures of said national federations.

The complaint is the result of a non-communication between the club representations GROUP CLUB HANDBALL EEIG (GCH) and Forum Club Handball eV (FCH) which started in 2006 when GCH proposed its support to IHF in matters of professional handball without any response.

In 2009 the GCH lodged a complaint against IHF/EHF with the European Commission at the Competitions department. The monopoly of IHF/EHF was challenged.

Also in 2009 the GCH member club boycotted a match of the IHF World Selection, as IHF agreed neither the date, nor the compensation, nor the insurance question with the clubs. IHF spoke about blackmailing of GCH member clubs.

In 2010 EHF and GCH/FCH signed a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ (MoU), regulating the implementation of Club representatives into the bodies of EHF and EHF Marketing GmbH, compensation for release of players to the National teams, insurance and calendar questions.

During the course of 2010+2011 GCH/FCH led negotiations with IHF. IHF press releases spoke about historical meetings with club representatives.

In January 2011 for the first time in history IHF paid compensation for release of players to the World Championship and signed an insurance for player salaries for injured players in favor of the clubs.

In May 2011 the IHF Council proposed to the IHF Marrakesh Congress to integrate the clubs as stakeholders into the IHF bylaws. This implementation was not agreed with the clubs. The clubs were supposed to fulfill a big number of obligations without getting any rights. This proposal fortunately and reasonably was refused by a number of European Federations. It was not adopted from the IHF congress.

Anyhow IHF continued negotiations with FCH. In December 2011 FCH received the information, that ‘the President welcomes the proposal of a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’’.

In March 2012 IHF changed its point of view and refused a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’, using the Marrakesh Congress decision as argumentation. FCH was informed that ‘We are unable to discuss a MoU at present’.

In May 2012 the FCH General Assembly decided to take all necessary measures to achieve a written agreement with IHF.

Further letters of FCH to IHF and an invitation to a meeting remained without answer.

In October 2012 IHF invited selected clubs to a meeting in Basle and informed about the conditions for the World Championship (WCH) Spain 2013 – without any discussion.

In November 2012 the IHF informed the European National Federations that ‘The Council also decided to distribute the compensation fees only to those clubs which agree to work directly with the IHF without any mediator other than the NFs’.

A big number of FCH member clubs, ie Barcelona, Bjerringbro-Silkeborg, Celje, Flensburg, Göppingen, Hamburg, Kiel, Kielce, Kolding, Montpellier, Plock, Veszprem refused to sign this agreement.

During the IHF Council Meeting, held in Barcelona in January 2013, it turned out that the IHF never took the quoted decision. Therefore the sentence was deleted with unanimous decision.

Anyhow IHF increased the pressure on the clubs. In a letter to the European National Federations, dated 18 February 2012, IHF insisted:

As you have been informed by letter of President Dr Moustafa on 22 November 2012 and following the Congress decision not to include the clubs in the IHF stakeholders, the Council agreed to distribute the compensation fees only to those clubs which agree to work directly with the IHF through the national federations.

Therefore it is needed that your affiliated clubs are confirming to the IHF by use of the attached form that they agree to this decision. Attention is drawn to the fact that the money will be paid upon receipt of the attached confirmation.

Again a big number of clubs refused to sign this agreement.

On intervention of the Professional Handball Board (PHB), the EHF body with representatives from EHF, National Federations, Leagues, Clubs and Players, IHF changed its opinion. The written consent of the clubs to the not existing IHF Council decision was no longer needed.

The clubs expect the compensation to be paid during these days. German Clubs already received the compensation.

The compensation in average amounts to 10-20% of a monthly salary for the European top clubs. During the World Championship the players spend about one month with the National team (including preparation). The qualification matches are not compensated.

This behavior of the IHF enforces a reaction of the clubs.

The National Federations execute the orders of the IHF and force the clubs to release their players to their National teams. Therefore the complaint of German clubs is addressed to IHF and  a National Federation (in this case DHB). Almost all FCH member clubs from all over Europe support the German complaint.

During its 8^th ordinary meeting the Professional Handball Board (PHB) of the European Handball Federation (EHF) dealt with IHF matters. As discussed earlier in this blog, the IHF tried to force European Top Clubs to sign a declaration which obliges the clubs to communicate with IHF via the National Federations only. IHF underlined in various letters that compensation will be paid out only on receipt of this declaration. This letters stated repeatedly that an according decision had been taken by the IHF council. The big majority of European Top Clubs refused to sign this declaration.

According to the minutes of the last IHF Council meeting, an according decision had never been taken. The according sentence in the minutes was deleted.

The club representatives in the PHB demanded a clear statement of the PHB on the issue. All PHB members, the player representatives, the league representatives, the club representatives, the National Federations representatives and the EHF representatives strongly supported the club position and signed a letter to IHF President Hassan Moustafa, demanding ‘the immediate payment to the clubs of the compensation money due to them for release of the players to the 2013 men’s World Championship. The payment … is to be affected … by 1 April 2013 at the latest.’

The World Championship (WCH) is over – and Spain became Champion! Congratulations! On 18th February 2013 the International Handball Federation (IHF) informed the clubs via the National Federations that the organization is now ready to pay a compensation fee for the release of players to the WCH to the clubs.

And sets up a condition for the payment: The clubs have to show good conduct, they shall confirm in writing ‘to work directly with the IHF through the national federations.’

This condition causes irritation among the European Top teams. The clubs sent their players to the WCH. The WCH is over. And afterwards IHF sets up conditions before executing the compensation payments.

A number of clubs failed to receive information from the National Federations about the IHF compensation payments before the World Championship. They did not receive any concrete figures. The information, which IHF calls ‘common knowledge’, has been given partly and orally to a number of invited clubs during a meeting in October 2012. No written information has been provided to the clubs.

Written information, indicating the opposite of the ‘common knowledge’, can be found in the IHF Players eligibility code where  it says:

‘7.2. A club releasing a national player in accordance with Article 7 shall not have any claim to compensation.’

The clubs also do not have any claim to receive IHF insurance coverage for their players.

7.3.2 The club for which the player is eligible to play shall take out insurance coverage for the player in the event of personal injury and resulting consequences for the period for which the player has been called to his federation’s activities.

FIFA and UEFA changed their policy during the last years. Both organizations reached an agreement with the European Club Association (ECA). The European Handball Federation (EHF) signed a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ (MoU) with the European clubs/Forum Club Handball (FCH) in May 2010. Clubs and said Federations discussed issues like ‘Good Governance’, Calendar, Compensation and Insurance. IHF refuses any type of talks with FCH, the sole organization, recognized by EHF to represent the interests of European top clubs.

As a reaction of the IHF behavior a number of German clubs will go to court against IHF and the National Federation in the near future. For the moment clubs have obligations only – but they want to have some rights. IHF/the National Federation shall be adjudged to refrain from obligating the clubs in the scope of their currently valid regulations to release their employed foreign handball players upon demand of their respective national federations for measures of said national federations.

This position is supported by many European Top clubs, such as Barcelona, Bjerringbro-Silkeborg, Celje, Chambery, Flensburg, Hamburg, Kiel, Kielce, Kolding, Montpellier, Plock, Veszprem and others.

El campeonato del mundo ha terminado – y ¡España es la Campeona! ¡Enhorabuena!

El 18 de Febrero de 2013 la IHF informó a los clubs a través de  las federaciones nacionales, que la organización está ahora preparada para pagar una compensación económica por la  cesión de jugadores para el torneo. Y añade una condición para el pago: Los clubs deben mostrar una buena conducta, deben confirmar por escrito que van a `trabajar directamente con la IHF a través de sus federaciones nacionales’.

Esta condición causa confusión entre los clubs Europeos. Los clubs mandaron a sus jugadores al Campeonato del Mundo. El torneo terminó. Y hora la IHF pone condiciones antes de pagar las compensaciones.

Algunos clubs no recibieron información concreta de las federaciones nacionales sobre los pagos compensatorios de la IHF. No recibieron ninguna cifra. Esta información, que es ‘conocida por todos’, la dieron durante una reunión a un grupo de clubs invitados en Octubre de 2012.

Una información escrita, indicando lo contrario a la ‘información conocida por todos’ se puede encontrar en los estatutos de la IHF, donde está escrito:

7.2 Un club, que cede a un jugador nacional de acuerdo con el artículo no tiene derecho a recibir una compensación.’

Además los clubs no tienen ningún derecho a tener un seguro de la IHF para sus jugadores:

7.3.2 El club, que tiene el derecho para que el jugador juegue en el, tiene que firmar un seguro, que cubra las consecuencias durante el periodo en el que juega con su equipo nacional.

La FIFA y la UEFA cambiaron su política durante los últimos años. Ellos aceptan a los clubs como socios y establecieron representación de los clubs en su estructura. Ambas organizaciones alcanzaron un acuerdo con la ECA, la asociación de clubs de fútbol. La EHF firmó un convenio con los clubs europeos/Forum Club Handball en Mayo 2010. Los clubs y dichas federaciones discutieron y están discutiendo temas como ‘el buen gobierno’, calendario, compensación y seguro.

La IHF rechaza todo tipo de negociaciones con el FCH, la única organización, reconocida por la EHF para representar los intereses de los clubs Europeos.

Varias cartas y una invitación para una reunión se quedaron sin respuesta.

Como reacción ante el comportamiento de la IHF, varios clubes alemanes irán a juicio contra la IHF y su federación nacional. En este momento los clubs tienen solamente obligaciones – pero quieren tener también derechos.

La IHF/la federación nacional deben ser juzgados para que se abstengan de obligar, en el marco de las actuales regulaciones, a los clubs a ceder a sus jugadores extranjeros internacionales a su equipo nacional.

Esta posición es apoyada por muchos clubes Europeos, como por ejemplo Barcelona, Bjerringbro-Silkeborg, Celje, Chambery, Flensburg, Hamburg, Kiel, Kielce, Kolding, Montpellier, Plock, Veszprem y más.

According to a statement of the President of Macedonian Handball Federation and SEHA Vice-President, Mihajlo Mihajlovski, Gazprom will sign a sponsorship contract with the SEHA-League on the fringes of the SEHA Final Weekend (13/14.4.13) in Skopje. According to Balkan-Handball.com all necessary questions are agreed. Hungarian and Polish teams show interest to participate in the league. Gazprom intends to spend 1 – 1.5 Mio Euros on the project.

The European Handball Players Union (EHPU) held a meeting during the Worldchampionship in Madrid on 23.1.13. Marcus Rominger/GER was elected as President, Emeric Paillasson/FRA as Vice-President! Congratulations! The President and the Vice-President will represent the players’ interests in the EHF Professional Handball Board (PHB).

Germany, handball-world.com: Strombach: “Wenn der DHB verklagt wird, wird er den Prozess aufnehmen”

http://www.handball-world.com/o.red.c/news-1-1-1-45171.html

Spain, Blog-de-Rosca: FCH clubs critisize lack of respect of IHF

http://www.cope.es/blog-De-Rosca/Los-clubes-del-FCH-critican-la-falta-respeto-de-la-IHF.html

USA, team handball news:

http://teamhandballnews.com/wordpress/2013/02/top-clubs-put-pressure-on-ihf-through-lawsuit-against-german-federation/

Germany, handball-world.com:

http://www.handball-world.com/o.red.c/news-1-1-1-44947.html

Slovenia, Ljubljanske Novice:

http://www.ljnovice.com/default.asp?podrocje=40&menu=7&novica=168639

Belgium:

http://www.handbal.be/all/nieuws.php?id=1506&cat

Germany:

http://sport.t-online.de/handball-bundesliga-klagt-gegen-dhb/id_61863652/index

For a very long time European Top Clubs tried to reach an agreement with International Handball Federation (IHF) on issues like ‚Good governance‘, calendar, compensation and insurance – without any success. During the last months IHF did not even reply on FCH letters or an invitation to a personal meeting.

Now the clubs decided to take action: a number of German clubs will lodge a complaint against IHF (for formal reasons the German Federation will be included). ‘Up to today we have no formal information about the compensation which we will receive from IHF for sending our players to the World Championship in Spain’ stated a club official during the FCH meeting which took place on the fringes of the World Championship in Barcelona on 26.1.13. The clubs complained about a lack of respect of IHF. ‘We are the heart of the game. We are paying the players. We are doing the work. They take our players whenever they want, they earn a lot of money and refuse speaking to us’ – the opinion of the 40 club representatives from 25 countries was more than clear.

According to the statutes of the IHF the clubs are not existing. The complaint intends to improve the situation of the clubs. ‘We are comparing our situation to football’, says FCH President Tomaz Jersic/Slovenia. ‘And we want our relation to be based on written agreement – as we did with European Handball Federation (EHF)!’ Clubs and EHF signed a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ (MoU) in May 2010.

In football the European Club Association (ECA) has reached agreements with UEFA and FIFA. Clubs are represented in the bodies of UEFA and FIFA.

The IHF will be adjudged to refrain from obligating the clubs in the scope of their currently valid regulations to release their employed foreign handball players upon demand of their respective national federations for National team matches. The complaint will be lodged as soon as possible.

The 9^th General Assembly of Forum Club Handball (FCH) took place in Barcelona on 26^th Jan 2013. 39 Member clubs from 25 countries were present and discussed issues of interest for European Top clubs.

It was decided that the establishment of the European Games by the EOC may not lead to an increase of the number of big competitions. Currently Handball plays 5 big competitions (2 WCHs, 2 ECHs + 1 OG) in one Olympic cycle. The clubs accept the participation of Handball in the European Games, under the condition that a plan for a reduction to 4 big competitions is confirmed by IHF, EHF and FCH.

The General Assembly discussed the relation between IHF and clubs. The IHF refused any contacts with club representatives until 2010. In December 2011 IHF envisaged a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ (MoU) between clubs and IHF. This commitment was withdrawn in 2012. Various letters of FCH and an invitation for a meeting remained without answer.

Starting from 2006 EHF is in close communication with clubs. Although there were different opinions of various issues in the past, a MoU has been signed between FCH and EHF in May 2010. This MoU contains agreements on  issues like ‘Good Governance’, calendar, compensation for release of players to the National Teams, insurance and the involvement of club representatives in the various bodies of EHF and EHF Marketing GmbH.

In Football UEFA signed an according agreement with the European Club Association (ECA) in January 2008, dealing with the same issues. It has been prolonged recently. FIFA made according agreements with ECA. Club representatives are working in FIFA bodies. Calendar, insurance, and compensation issues are agreed.

IHF imposes all regulations, calendar, compensation and insurance on clubs without any negotiation. Therefore at least 12 German clubs will lodge a complaint against IHF. The clubs decided to clarify the question, whether IHF has the right to act in this way. As the IHF monopoly is executed via the National Federations, it is necessary to direct the complaint against IHF and one (in this case the German) National Federation. The complaint shall be lodged as soon as possible. GB

The General Secretary of the European Handball Federation (EHF) Michael Wiederer will be guest speaker at the beginning of the upcoming 9th FCH General Assembly. He will report on the status of Handball as part of the European Games 2015 in Baku and explain the EHF point of view regarding possible changes of the EHF European Cup system. Further guests in the meeting will be the observers David Frommer from European Club Association/Football and Thomas Kurth/World Series Cycling. GB

On 22.11.12 IHF sent a letter to all European Handball Federations. The key message: ‘The (IHF) Council also decided to distribute the compensation fees only to those clubs which agree to work directly with the IHF without any mediator other than the NFs (National Federations).’

FCH member clubs regard this to be direct blackmail.

The sentence was quoted from the corresponding IHF Council minutes, which say:  ‘The Council also decided to distribute the compensation fees only to those clubs which agree to work directly with the IHF without any mediator other than the NFs.’

The fact is that this sentence has apparently been added to the minutes at a later stage by the IHF President. In an earlier version of these minutes this sentence did not appear.

It seems that IHF/President Hassan Moustafa has produced a second version to put pressure on the clubs.  As a consequence the European National Federations could get a wrong understanding of what had really been decided by the IHF Council.

FCH believes this to be an unacceptable way of acting of the President of the International Handball Federation (IHF). FCH will take measures to rectify.