In an effort to continue the development of handball, the IHF held a virtual conference last week (October 15th) with more than 15 of Europe’s top coaches and referees to discuss current considerations regarding proposals to change the rules and improve the interpretation of the rules.
The conference was launched following an extensive process of analyzing championships and tournaments around the world by the IHF Rules and Players Commission (PRC) and the IHF Training and Methods Commission (CCM). The meeting was chaired by their presidents Dietrich Späte and Ramón Gallego, respectively.
IHF President dr. Hassan Moustafa opened the conference by greeting the participants and emphasizing the importance of regular meetings of coaches and judges. He continued that the main goal of this meeting is to study how to make handball more attractive and attract younger generations to the sport. He added that the coaches and judges at this meeting are a role model for the younger generation.
„In which direction do we want to further develop our game?“ Was the guiding idea, which included the speed of the game, technical and tactical development, and much more as initial topics for discussion.
The meeting continued with a discussion on the game development goals and rules. Objectives include simplifying the rules to ensure better understanding for everyone involved in the matches, including the media and spectators, stopping negative trends, guaranteeing the protection of players ’health and fewer interruptions during matches.
In addition, the conference examined three upcoming rules and a new concept called the IHF Rule Interpretation that includes tactical (stop) fouls, goalie duels and offensive fouls (offensive fouls).
After that, the participants had numerous discussions and suggestions on topics such as fouls in the attack, passive play before and after the warning signal, progressive punishment, especially in the pivot zone, provocations and / or excessive reactions of players, game seven against six and continued use of IHF video evidence systems that have been used at major championships for several years.
The session concluded with information regarding the upcoming IHF Men’s World Championship in Egypt in January.
„Today’s meeting with European coaches and referees was very productive,“ said Dr. Moustafa. „I’m excited to see these debates progress over the next few months and see our sport continue to grow and develop around the world.“
All IHF events in recent years have been analyzed by the IHF PRC and CCM, and reports have been published in the IHF Education Center. Furthermore, the IHF has tried to increase the level of communication in several ways. These measures included meetings with coaches just before the World Cup and Continental Championships and the presentation of current considerations regarding the rules and development of the game during the 1st IHF Live Online Symposium.
Conference participants were:
Coaches:
Alfred Gislason, selector of the men’s national team of Germany
Valero Rivera, selector of the Qatar men’s national team
Thorir Hergeirsson, selector of the Norwegian women’s national team
Christian Berge, selector of the Norwegian men’s national team
Roberto Garcia Parrondo, selector of the Egyptian men’s national team
Guillaume Gille, selector of the French men’s national team
Jordi Ribera, selector of the Spanish men’s national team
Lino Červar, selector of the Croatian men’s national team
Nikolaj Jakobsen, coach of the Danish men’s national team
Thierry Anti, President of the European Coaches Association
Jorge Dueñas, selector of the Brazilian women’s national team
Mats Olsson, Swedish men’s national team and goalkeeper coach of the Norwegian women’s national team
Judges:
Julie Bonaventura, Hotel France
Angel Sabroso, Hotel Spain
Boris Milošević, Croatia
Mirza Kurtagic, Sweden
Robert Schulze, Hotel Germany
