A week after the World Cup in their own country, the Netherlands could again find itself at the center of the handball world. This weekend, Tjark de Lange will be running for chairmanship of the international handball association IHF in Cairo. He is one of the three opponents of the incumbent chairman, the Egyptian Hassan Moustafa. Moustafa, now 81 years old, has been managing the world handball association since 2000 and is running for his seventh term.
“The IHF has been under the same leadership for 25 years,” says De Lange a few days before he travels to Egypt for the IHF conference, “and every organization deserves that change takes place from a governance perspective.” De Lange (58) is chairman of the Dutch-Belgian men’s handball competition and a member of the executive board of the European handball association EHF. He previously served as chairman of the Dutch Handball Association (NHV) for ten years.
I’m not going to comment negatively about Hassan. That already happens enough.
In addition to De Lange, the German Gerd Butzeck and the Slovenian Franjo Bobinac have stood for election. “The prevailing thought at the European Handball Association is that more candidates will steal more votes from Hassan [Moustafa]”, says De Lange. In the previous three editions of the presidential election, the Egyptian did not have a single opponent. Although De Lange describes Moustafa as “a really sympathetic man” and “an incredible handball fan”, he feels compelled to make an attempt. For sports.
Internationalization
According to De Lange, a lot needs to be done in international handball, and he thinks the globalization of the sport is particularly important. “The rest of the world is finding it increasingly difficult to follow Europe,” says De Lange. He takes the recent women’s world championship, which took place in the Netherlands and Germany, as an example. Only Brazil made it to the last eight, and some non-European teams suffered major defeats in the group stage. To stimulate the development of handball worldwide, if he is elected chairman, he wants to invest in cooperation between the continental associations.
“For one handball community “To create it in countries where there is hardly any, much more is needed than just a bag of money,” says De Lange. He, like Moustafa’s other opponents, believes that the sport must dare to innovate. For example, the beach handball variant is already gaining popularity and an ‘urban’ variant, comparable to 3×3 in basketball, is being considered. In this way, many more places will be eligible for playing handball, in countries where there are not enough suitable sports halls.
Tjark de Lange
Private photo
All of Moustafa’s opponents are also in favor of an age limit and a maximum number of terms for IHF directors. Although De Lange advocates a lower maximum age than his 66 and 67-year-old competitors. The Dutchman is campaigning much less actively than his German and Slovenian opponents. Butzeck, with whom De Lange gets along well, received money from the German association to travel around Asia, among other places. And Bobinac has also spoken with many national associations. De Lange himself makes it prior to his speech at the conference, mainly during some media statements. “It must happen there, in Cairo.”
The fact that the election is taking place in Cairo, of all places, is something that De Lange is no longer surprised by. The timing of the conference is striking, because it normally takes place before the World Cup. It is also remarkable that Moustafa did not show his face during the tournament in the Netherlands and Germany, while he is normally always present. It fuels rumors about the Egyptian’s health, which, according to De Lange, has “deteriorated noticeably.”
In addition to his alleged health problems, Moustafa is haunted by an old suspicion of corruption. In 2011, Swiss police in Basel searched the IHF office and Moustafa’s home due to the dubious circumstances under which a television rights contract had been concluded. There was never a conviction and De Lange does not draw any conclusions based on the incident. “In ten years of presidency I have never been able to detect any corruption.”
‘Pressure on small unions’
“To be honest, I don’t think my chances are very good,” says De Lange about the presidential election. “And I don’t think Gerd’s chance either [Butzeck] or Franjo [Bobinac] is so big.” He notices that many unions are afraid of losing what they have if there is another chairman. He also hears rumors that pressure is being exerted on small unions to vote for Moustafa. “Of course I cannot prove that, but you hear people say that.” Yet he sees an opportunity, which he formulates in a Cruyffian statement: “We may not be able to get rid of Hassan [Moustafa] win, but maybe he can lose to us.” Loosely translated: Together we might just be able to deprive him of a majority, otherwise we will at least send a signal.
And there is something else that De Lange draws hope from. “Everyone has seen those images from the Netherlands,” he says about the last World Cup. According to him, the experience and the number of spectators in Ahoy Rotterdam were “exceptional for women’s handball”. He received endless messages from the international handball world with compliments for the tournament. Now De Lange hopes that that enthusiasm will be converted into votes this weekend in Cairo. In any case, he says he can already count on Luxembourg’s support.
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