New bodies to strengthen national team handball

Almost three years ago, the EHF Congress 2018 in Glasgow, Scotland, set the path for restructuring the representation of national team handball within the bodies of the European Handball Federation.

Back then a motion was approved that would, as of the next electoral congress, i.e. EHF Congress 2021, see Nation Committees for men and women being introduced.

These bodies will be officially founded this week, as their election is set for Friday when the EHF Congress gathers in Vienna.

It was the initial motion’s intent to reform the EHF bodies to uphold a balanced and harmonised system for male and female competitions.

The current structure of the EHF has

• A Nations Board acting for men’s handball
• A Professional Handball Board acting for men’s handball
• A Women’s Handball Board being involved in the system of the EHF in a different way and targeting different issues compared to the Professional Handball Board;

The objective of the future system is to equalise men’s and women’s participation by implementing a proportionate number of bodies and a comparable structure.  

In the new system

• The Professional Handball Board is maintained in the way it currently exists
• The Women’s Handball Board is newly arranged in a form analogous to the Professional Handball Board with an identical set-up and assignments.
• The new Nations Committee Men is identic to the former Nations Board but with a different composition of nations, respectively election criteria for nations.
• The Nations Committee Women is newly created after the model of the Nations Committee Men.
• The new Nations Board comprises the Nations Committee Men and the Nations Committee Women with three members from each committee nominated to the Board. The chairperson of the Nations Board is entitled to represent the body in the EHF Executive Committee.

The Nations Committee Men will deal with all national team matters in the field of men’s, and the Nations Committee Women will deal with all national team matters in the field of women’s handball.

Each Nations Committee will consist of six members who are elected by the Congress. Every member federation has the right to nominate candidates on the basis of the men’s and women’s nation ranking as follows:

• Rank   1-12: 1 place
• Rank 13-24: 1 place
• Rank 25-36: 1 place
• Rank 36-50: 1 place
• Freely elected: 2 places

For the EHF Congress 2021 the following candidates have been nominated.

EHF Nations Committee Men

* The additional members are elected out of nominated but initially not elected candidates.

EHF Nations Committee Women

* The additional members are elected out of nominated but initially not elected candidates.