The anticipation is great when the Handball Bundesliga starts its 57th season with the first games this Thursday (September 1st, 2022), especially because several teams can hope for the title – at least that’s the one opinion of many experts.
In addition to the many sporting questions, the clubs are not looking completely carefree at the new season. How much will the corona pandemic affect the process again? How are clubs coping with the energy crisis? A look at the most important facts before the start.
The favourites
THW Kiel is starting the new season as the hottest title contender. Eight trainers or officials, including Magdeburg’s master coach Bennet Wiegert, committed themselves to the record champions in a dpa survey of the 18 first division clubs. Three club officials believe in a successful title defense of SC Magdeburg. The people from Kiel underpinned the prognosis with the Supercup victory over the Magdeburg team at the season overture on Wednesday.
Nevertheless, ex-national coach Heiner Brand, for example, sees the greatest chances with the defending champion from Saxony-Anhalt. “I don’t see Magdeburg as a flash in the pan, as clever as the team is put together. There will be more pressure, but the guys on the team fit together well. I would put my money on Magdeburg”said Brand.
In addition to Kiel and Magdeburg, Füchse Berlin are also among the favourites. This is how sports show expert Dominik Klein sees it. “The Flensburgers will definitely have a say again. And the Füchse Berlin are also an exciting project, precisely because they have strengthened themselves in certain areas.”, says the ex-national player in the Sportschau interview. It is therefore very likely that the master comes from this quartet.
The New Stars
The most prominent new signing in the Bundesliga is the Dane Mathias Gidsel, who has joined the foxes Berlin. The backcourt player was the head of the Danish team that won the World Cup a year ago. At the Tokyo Olympics, Gidsel was voted Most Valuable Player. He is only 23 years old and should now help the Berliners to win titles.
Mathias Gidsel, new addition to the foxes.
With the Swedish European champion Eric Johansson, THW Kiel has committed one of the greatest talents in European handball. Johansson comes to the fjord from the Norwegian top club Elverum and continues the tradition of the Swedes with the Kielers.
Champion Magdeburg starts the season with a new goalkeeper. The Bördeland signed the exceptional Swiss keeper Nikola Portner from Chambery Savoie HB to replace Jannick Green, who has moved to Paris. The 28-year-old was named the best goalkeeper in the French league last season and has more than 100 caps for Switzerland.
The climbers
VfL Gummersbach is back. After three dry years in the 2nd league, the big traditional club is first class again and can look forward to a lot of support. The doyen recorded a season ticket record. With 1,622 tickets sold, the old record from the 2019/20 season was set.
VfL is approaching the long-awaited return to the Bundesliga with a lot of respect, but also optimism. “We have a team with a lot of potential and talent”, says VfL Managing Director Christoph Schindler. The star of coach Gudjon Valur Sirgudsson’s team is without a doubt rising star Julian Köster, who has also been a national player since the beginning of the year.
VfL Gummersbach celebrates the second division title in June.
The second climber from the west, ASV Hamm-Westfalen, which increases the number of NRW starters in the Bundesliga to five, does not spread quite as much optimism. The Hammers have made a big change, top performers have left the club and seven new players have joined. Economically, the newcomer sees it as the bottom light, and the hall with a capacity of 2,700 spectators is also the smallest.
TV times
In the new season of the Handball Bundesliga, ARD will again broadcast several games in the first and third programs. “This season, as in the recent past, we are planning to broadcast four live games on the first“, said ARD sports coordinator Axel Balkausky. The two games in the league include the top game of champions SC Magdeburg against THW Kiel on November 19. There are also two games in the first round of the cup.
As in the past season, there are further transmissions in the 3rd programmes. Pay-TV channel Sky shows all games live and conferences.
New rules
Since July 1, three new rules have also applied to the Handball Bundesliga, which the World Handball Federation IHF implemented. This introduces a center circle called the throw-off zone. In future, the player no longer has to perform the throw with one foot standing on the center line; it is sufficient to perform the throw within the throw-off zone, which has a diameter of four meters.
In the passive game, the number of passes is reduced from six to four, so that the sometimes long game phases after the warning signal is displayed are shortened. Finally, there will be a time penalty for a head hit if a Sieler hits the goalkeeper in the head from a free throw situation.
energy worries
The championship is accompanied by new worries. While the clubs were heavily burdened by the corona pandemic for the last two years, the energy crisis is now also on top of that. “You can already feel the increased costs. We had to adjust our budget in some areas, especially the travel budget.”reported Kiel’s managing director Viktor Szilagyi.
According to managing director Sebastian Frecke, HSV Hamburg has “Set aside a low six-figure amount for higher energy costs”. Frecke even fears the closure of halls, which could endanger the game. “We have already been told by the city that in the event of an energy crisis, the major arenas will be unplugged first. That would be the worst-case scenario,” he told the trade magazine “Handballwoche”.
HBL Managing Director Frank Bohmann does not expect that at the moment, but he also swears by the clubs for a hard winter: “The clubs of all professional sports have to calculate with significantly higher energy costs.”