The President of the International Handball Federation, Hasan Mustafa, gave a very interesting interview for the German newsmagazine ‘Sportbild’. The person who is responsible for popularizing handball, gave some debatable proposals, first mentioning that maybe the distance between the posts should be shortened, and at the same time the goalkeeper area should be moved from six to seven meters.
– Goalkeepers today have 30-35% saves. Their saves are attractive for the public, and contribute to the performance of the team. If we shortened the goals and enlarge the goalkeeper area, their impact would be much bigger. That would provide more attacks and would make the game much faster.
He also rejected the idea that some of the top clubs in Europe, and the handball players federation proposed, to make the European and World Championships not be played so often, and perhaps on every 4 years:
– I am absolutely against that. That would be the death of handball. Competitions of highest profile are needed every year.
Mustafa tried to explain his observation with the fact that the game between THW Kiel and Grosswalstadt is watched by 300,000 viewers, while the matches of the German national team attract 10 million viewers.
When it will be the time to change some of the referee rules, which base much of their refereeing on subjective assumption, is yet to see…
martin
3. February 2011. at 04:16
handball is the most amazing sport in the world ¡¡