Many nations badly affected
One could easily assume that the corona virus would have hit the German team much harder than everyone else. But the impression is deceptive. Nations such as Poland, Montenegro, Croatia, Serbia and Iceland have similar numbers of cases. The European Handball Federation EHF does not publish any data and the national associations do not always report reliably either. But the Handball-World portal has followed the events in advance and has added up all corona cases since January. Summing up preparation and tournament, there are well over 100 players who have tested positive in connection with the European Championship. In addition, there is an unknown number of cases in the accompanying cables, and some trainers are also affected. And it’s only half the tournament played.
How could it possibly come this far? Some nations had brought chains of infection to the EM venues, the Poles to Bratislava, for example. Upon arrival, they announced five positive test results, followed by three more. The Polish delegation is accommodated in the same hotel as their preliminary round opponents Belarus, Austria and Germany. Austria’s player Sebastian Frimmel reported in the “Kreis Ab” podcast that all teams were in the dining room at the same time for the first breakfast. “It was very tight and there was a lot going on.”
EHF defends waiver of tournament bubble
Whether it was because of such details that Germany had to announce its first cases a few days later is speculation. There are plenty of opportunities for infection anyway, because the EHF does not have a tournament bubble like at the 2021 World Cup in Egypt, where there were hardly any infections during the tournament. However, the EHF does not see a fault in this. “A bubble system would have meant that we go back to the times of 2020”, said EHF General Secretary Martin Hausleitner on Friday. “It wasn’t planned from the start with vaccinated players. Of course we were confronted with the omicron situation, but a bubble system would also have meant that we not only had to play without spectators, but also without media representatives.”