The European Handball Federation’s flagship national team event for women has been awarded to the joint bid from the Hungarian and Croatian Handball Federations.
After the initial applicants for the 2014 Women’s European Championship withdrew their bids before the EHF Congress in Copenhagen in September 2010, the EHF Executive Committee was tasked with allocating the event at its meeting on 9 April 2011 in Vienna, Austria.
There was an evaluation process of the three new bids from Turkey, Slovakia and Hungary/Croatia together with site visits to all bid nations. Prior to the EHF Executive meeting all bids were analysed by the EURO Delegation, and as two venues of the Slovakian bid did not fulfil the necessary criteria for the EHF European Championship, the Slovakia Handball Federation was informed that its bid would not be considered.
Based on these evaluations a report was presented to the EHF Executive Committee and bid books were provided by both candidates. On the basis of these documents, the EHF Executive Committee made a decision based on the quality of venues, infrastructure, interest in women’s handball and commercial basis in each of the nations.
Following this process and detailed discussions, the EHF Executive awarded the 11th Women’s EHF European Handball Championship to Hungary and Croatia.
EHF President, Tor Lian, said: “The EHF Executive Committee has carefully analysed all aspects of the bids and is expecting a great championship with the two highly experienced organisers from Hungary and Croata. We expect a very positive impact on the women’s game in two countries with a strong tradition of women’s handball.”
After EHF EURO 2010 in Denmark and Norway, the Women’s European Handball Championships will be carried out with two hosting nations for the second time.
The joint bid succeeded in becoming the next hosts. Also in contention for the event was the national federation of Turkey.
The bid includes the following playing venues:
– Győr/HUN: Győr Arena (to be newly constructed)
– Debrecen/HUN: Főnix Hall
– Varaždin/CRO: City Sport Hall
– Zagreb/CRO: Arena Zagreb
– Budapest/HUN: Papp László Budapest Sportaréna (final venue)
Playing period of the final tournament is 07 to 21 December 2014.
TEXT: EHF
