Lino Cervar attacks “new handball order”: “Denmark is privileged”
Lino Cervar, Croatia’s Olympic champion from Athens and a 2003 world champion, has openly criticized the state of global handball in an interview with Croatia’s Net.hr — targeting the rules, refereeing criteria, and what he calls a “new world order” in which Denmark enjoys an advantage.
“This is a disaster. A referee takes the microphone and explains why it’s a two-minute suspension, charging, and things like that. Why don’t they explain passive play? Why—why didn’t they explain why he called charging?! That decides matches. Amateur referees decide what passive play is, and coaches are supposed not to know? That’s ridiculous. People are laughing at it — I’ve been listening to what ordinary viewers who watch TV and follow handball are saying! They’re baffled, wondering what kind of level this is. We want to know why one team can hold the ball for forty seconds and the other for twelve. Why don’t we introduce shot clocks like in basketball that count down the attack? This is the 21st century,” Červar told Net.hr.
He also commented on Portugal’s sensational win over Denmark.
“We from this region can’t learn from Denmark. Denmark can learn from us! If you remember Balić’s generation, they used to beat Denmark however they wanted. The Scandinavians made the rules to fit themselves — they tailored the rules in a bureaucratic way and ended up with something unheard of in the world of sport, in team sports: that someone is privileged by hosting permanently. That’s terrible, it’s ridiculous, it’s pathetic — and there’s nothing like it anywhere.”, concluded Cervar.
