On Wednesday the XXXIII Ordinary Congress of the International Handball Federation (IHF) in Marrakech came to an end. The highest body of the IHF discussed in detail the future of world handball during its two-day meeting in Morocco. Proposals of the Council of the IHF to structural changes in handball were treated in an open atmosphere. One of the decisions was that the function of the Secretary General of the IHF will not longer exist in the Executive Committee, which will still consist of five persons. Besides, the Congress decided that the President of the IHF is working on a full-time basis in the future. In addition to issues of the Bylaws, motions concerning the Eligibility Code and motions concerning the Regulations for Transfer between Federations were handled by the Congress. The Council of the IHF informed the Congress on the new Regulations for Players’ Agents and the Ethics Code. IHF President Dr Hassan Moustafa praised the democratic course of the meeting and stated: “We were successful in recent years, but have still not reached our goal yet. I think we are in the middle of the road. But we will continue to do everything for the development of handball.”
The Congress awarded the Women’s Youth World Championship 2012 to Montenegro, the Men’s Junior World Championship 2013 will take place in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Croatia will host the Women’s Junior World Championship in 2014 and the women’s youth will perform their tournament in the same year in Macedonia. The IHF Council will decide on the organizers of the Men’s Youth World Championship 2013 and also the Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships 2014. After Qatar had successfully applied for the organization of the Men’ World Championship 2015, the country was also awarded the contract for hosting XXXIV Ordinary IHF Congress 2013. Qatar prevailed against the competitors of Croatia and Norway. Argentina was awarded the “Hans Baumann Trophy”.
On the first day of the Congress, the IHF had affiliated 14 nations as full members, so that the international handball family has grown to 180 members.
