Before the semi-finals of the European Handball Championship, ARD experts Johannes Bitter and Dominik Klein express clear criticism of the unfair conditions – and appeal to the professionals.
Handball world champion Johannes Bitter agreed with the Croatian national handball coach, Dagur Sigurdsson, after his angry speech. “The players’ voice is not being heard, that’s a scandal in itself,” said Bitter in the sports show podcast “Handball auf die 1”.
“The players are the most important thing in the whole system”said the ARD co-commentator. “You have to sit down at a table and not spread the tables and not put the players at a less and less disadvantage, whichever feels like it.”
Handball professionals not organized in Germany
Sigurdsson had sharply criticized the European Handball Federation (EHF) at the press conference before the European Championship semi-final against Germany on Friday (5.45 p.m., live on Erste, in the live stream and in the full audio report on sportschau.de). The EHF is a “fast food company” that doesn’t care about quality, the media event is a “circus”, and the Icelander compared the situation of his team to “frozen chickens”.
“I really hope that this speech by Dagur Sigurdsson means that people don’t forget things so quickly, but that they still think about them in three months,” said Bitter, who co-founded the players’ union “Goal” in 2010.
“I have spent many years of my life trying to make the players’ voice heard. We have failed miserably over and over again. Now it is the responsibility of others to do something.”
In France, players are being heard more
Sports show expert Dominik Klein also sees a need to catch up, including in Germany. “I played in France, where the players’ union is a huge issue. Players manage to influence venues, shorten match days, etc. through signature campaigns and the union,” said Klein. “We need a lot more of that in Germany, in the best league in the world.”
While the German and Danish handball players were able to stay in Herning in Denmark from the start of the tournament until the final weekend, the other two semi-final participants changed venues.
Germany had two more days of rest
After the preliminary round in Kristianstad, Sweden, Iceland drove to Malmö, 90 kilometers away, from there, like Croatia, on Thursday to Herning – with a four-hour bus ride.
That’s not all: Croatia and Iceland played on consecutive evenings before the rest or travel day, and the Croatians played seven European Championship games within twelve days. Denmark had 13 days for the same number of games, Germany even 14.
Association adjusts future European Championship schedules
The day after Sigurdsson’s harsh criticism, the EHF announced adjustments to future tournaments. From the 2026 Women’s European Championship onwards, travel and rest days should be clearly separated.
For the men’s European Championship 2028, the association is excluding games for one team on two consecutive days.
Balanced distribution of rest and travel days is being planned
“The game plans for the upcoming European Championships will be adjusted to reduce the burden on the players and to ensure the most balanced distribution of rest and travel days possible.”the EHF announced on Friday
In addition, discussions are underway about introducing a quarter-final from the 2028 Women’s European Championship in Scandinavia. This means that the previous nine games per team should be retained, but there should always be at least one day of rest between the games.
