The 17th General Assembly of Forum Club Handball took place on the fringes of the EHF VELUX FINAL4 in Cologne on 4^th June. For the first time ever IHF-President Hassan Moustafa attended the club meeting.

He and EHF-President Michael Wiederer took the chance to inform on the latest developments in IHF and EHF.

Moustafa thanked for the invitation and declared that he is always ready to listen to the clubs as the main actors in handball. He made the proposal to add the clubs as stakeholders to the IHF statutes. The proposal was very much appreciated by the participants. According steps will be taken.

Wiederer used the chance to report on the contractual situation in EHF and EHFM. All important contracts expire in 2020. EHF/M is in the process of preparing a tender for the rights (EHF EUROs and Champions League) for the period 2020 onwards. The CL rights shall be sold for a 10-year-period 2020 until 2030. Prior to that decision the MoU between FCH and EHF/M must be negotiated/prolonged accordingly.

The FCH representatives in the various EHF/M bodies reported on their activities in detail.

A group 10 European Top Clubs (Barcelona, Celje, Flensburg, Kiel, Kielce, Kolding-Copenhagen, Montpellier, Schaffhausen, Vardar, Veszprem) presented a concept for a new Champions League system as of season 18/19. Therefore these clubs intend to set up Joint-Venture with International Management Group (IMG). The concept which has been presented to EHF/M in various meetings, foresees that EHF will be the regulatory body, being in charge of refereeing and other important parts. It is the target to establish a real European League with 12 or 14 or 16 teams and a Round-Robin system, followed by Quarterfinals and Final4. Further details and financials were explained to the participants. According to the concept IMG will provide financial guarantees for the next 10 years. The vision is to have a premium product to be presented to the handball fans throughout the whole year.

The assembly discussed the proposal.

The following decisions were taken unanimously:

1. The MoU between EHF/M and FCH expires in June 2018. The President and the Managing Director of FCH received the mandate to sign a new ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ (MoU) with EHF, if the FCH Board takes the according decision.
2. The participants decided to pool the TV, Media- and Marketing rights of all clubs, willing to participatein the top European Handball competitions (currently VELUX Champions League, EHF Cup, Challenge Cup) as of season 18/19 in FCH, in order to transfer these pooled rights jointly to the company/companies in charge of selling TV, Media and Marketing rights (currently EHFM) as of season 18/19.
3. The President and the Managing Director of FCH received the mandate to sign an agreement with IHF, if the FCH Board takes the according decision.
4. FCH Honorary member Joan Marin was elected as FCH representative for the ‘Working Group Seeding 17/18’.
5. FCH will move its office to Luxembourg. Therefore the board of FCH is instructed and authorized to set up a new FCH in Luxembourg as soon as possible in order to guarantee a smooth transition.

The next ordinary General Assembly will take place in Zagreb on 26^th/27^th January 2018.                                               GB