The 15th ordinary General Assembly of GCH will take place in Cap Rocat, Mallorca, Spain on 4.10.2010. The leading clubs of Europe will discuss the results of the first GCH meeting with IHF on 17.9.2010 in Basle and the outcome of the EHF Congress, held last weekend in Basle.

The major topic of the meeting will be the restructuring of the various European Cups in order to adopt the system to the needs of the clubs. The next FCH meeting, taking place in January in Sweden on the fringes of the IHF World Championship, will discuss the ideas of GCH in order to prepare proposals for the new Professional Handball Board (PHB). GB

Motion No 1 was the most discussed topic of the 10^th ordinary Congress of the European Handball Federation (EHF), held in Copenhagen/DEN. Several times in the past an EHF Congress refused to give influence to clubs on the development of professional European handball.

A 2/3^rd majority was needed to approve the ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ (MoU) – signed by Forum Club Handball (FCH) and EHF already in May 2010 – and to implement the Professional Handball Board (PHB) into the statutes of EHF.

EHF Vice-President Jean Brihault/FRA who lead the negotiations with the club organization on behalf of EHF, explained the motion to the congress in detail. When the discussion was opened, to the surprise of the club representatives present, the President of the International Handball Federation (IHF) Dr. Hassan Moustafa was the first to take the floor.

‘Although I am not allowed to give you advice….’ Moustafa started with congratulations for the ‘good and well prepared motion’. He continued to speak in high terms about MoU and PHB and recommended to ‘stop the war’ and unify resources for the competition with other sports. Already in his opening speech at the beginning of the congress Moustafa explained to the participants that ‘we (IHF) follow the way of the EHF’ in the handling of club matters. He informed that on 17.9.2010 IHF announced payments to clubs for release of players to the World Championship (WCH) in Sweden 2011 and the introduction of an insurance fund in order to compensate clubs in case of player injuries. GB

On 24th September 2010 the 10th ordinary Congress of the European Handball Federation (EHF) approved the ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ (MoU), signed by EHF President Tor Lian and FCH President Tomaz Jersic on 29.5.2010 in Cologne. The according motion reached a 85% majority. 

The MoU serves as basis for the further cooperation of clubs and federations in professional European handball.

At the same time the Congress implemented the ‘Professional Handball Board’ (PHB) into the statutes of EHF. In the future the PHB shall represent interests of clubs, leagues, players and federations and advise the EHF Executive Committee in all questions regarding professionell handball. GB

For the first time in history the International Handball Federation (IHF) invited the presidents of FORUM CLUB HANDBALL EEIG (FCH) Tomaz Jersic/Pivovarna Lasko Celje and GROUP CLUB HANDBALL EEIG (GCH) Joan Marin/BM Renovalia Ciudad Real to a meeting with presidents of leading handball nations.

On 17.9.2010 in Basle IHF President Dr. Hassan Moustafa informed that IHF will pay to the clubs for the World Championship (WCH) Sweden 2011 a compensation for release of players to the WCH in the amount of about 1.000.000 Swiss francs.

At the same time the club representatives were informed that IHF will establish an insurance fund of 500.000 Swiss francs in order to compensate clubs in case of player injuries. GB

IHF Media information, dated 20.9.2010:

The International Handball Federation will pay a compensation fee to all clubs releasing their players during World Championships  from 2011 on – and will insure all participating players during the WCH. Those were the results of the historical meeting of IHF with top federations and club organisations last Friday 17 September 2010 at the IHF Head Office in Basle. -mo-

The total amount of those compensation fees will be approximately 1 million Swiss Franc for every Men’s World Championship, starting with the tournament in Sweden in 2011. Those compensation fees are divided  in an IHF compensation for the players per day (not per match) and a club bonus system for the time of training and preparation the player spend  for the World Championships. The amount of the daily compensation will be in total 736.000 Swiss Franc, the bonus payment is 288.000 Swiss Franc.

Including prize money, compensations, qualification bonus, host fee and insurance the IHF grants a total cost of 3,774 million Swiss Francs for each Men’s World Championship. The prize money increased to a total of 450.000 Swiss Francs – 200.000 Swiss Francs for the title holder, 150.000 Swiss Francs for the Silver medalist, 75.000 Swiss Franc for the Bronze medalist and 25.000 Swiss Franc for the fourth ranked team.

The European Football Club Association (ECA) met last week in Geneva/SUI and discussed club matters. Based on the Arjen Robben injury the European Soccer Clubs criticized the insurance policy of FIFA. Several clubs complained about the situation and the international match calendar.

ECA Chairman Rummenigge (FC Bayern Munchen) was requested to take a strong position in talks with UEFA/FIFA.  

According to Rummenigge previous discussions on the insurance issue with UEFA had been ‘fruitful’, talks with FIFA ‘not very positive’.

Rummenigge* continued: “I believe that it is quite fair that we are participating to take a further part of the big cake. The cake is always getting bigger and bigger: we don’t speak about millions, we speak about billions. I believe and I ask Fifa as an act of solidarity in favour of the clubs not to give more money but to take the risk of this insurance like it’s looking like Uefa is doing.”

Concerning the calendar Rummenigge added: A “federation like Fifa has to recognise that the players are our employees so we have to be more involved in this kind of matter….. Everyone is so busy in securing additional dates for this or that competition and we forget that the players are often the same and they are stretched to their limit, increasing the risk of injuries. A harmonized calendar and a clear insurance policy will be one of our main goals and this could help further to harmonize the relationship between club football and national team football.”

*Quotations according to Sportcal.com, one of the leading web sites for global sport markets.

Quotation from ECA Website:

International Match Calendar & Insurance Policy

Following several complaints from football clubs, the European Club Association was requested by its member clubs to take a strong position regarding the issues related to both the international calendar and the players’ injuries with the national team. All ECA clubs agreed on the following resolution regarding these issues:

The European Club Association:

• claims direct involvement in the definition of the international calendar;
• emphasises the urgent need of the creation of a formal consultation process between clubs and national teams regarding the physical conditions and injuries sustained while playing national team matches;
• deems the introduction of an insurance policy for all national team matches necessary.

ECA wants to address these three important issues directly to both UEFA and FIFA. Commenting on the resolution, ECA Chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said: “Everyone is so busy in securing additional dates for this or that competition and we forget that the players are often the same and they are stretched to the limit increasing the risk of injuries. A harmonised calendar and a clear insurance policy will be one of our main goals and this could help further to harmonize the relationship between club football and national team football.” 

On 7.9.2010 EHF Marketing GmbH announced a partnership with VELUX Group/Denmark. The world leader in windows signed a contract to become title sponsor of the ‘VELUX EHF Men’s Championsleague’. The partnership is agreed for the upcoming three CL seasons.
At the same time EHFM Managing Director Peter Vargo announced the prolongation of the ‘Jack and Jones’ Sponsorship Contract and confirmed negotiations with SHARP Electronics.