The first European Handball Championship on German soil is approaching, with the start on January 10th in Düsseldorf and the final on January 28th in Cologne. There are a total of six venues: Düsseldorf, Cologne, Mannheim, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg. The expectations, both sporting and organizational, are high. Right from the start, a world record was set with more than 53,000 spectators in the Düsseldorf football stadium for the opening game between Germany and Switzerland.
The demand is huge, says Mark Schober, chairman of the German Handball Federation (DHB) and responsible for the European Championships. In the Dlf sports talk he speaks of the “largest European Championship that has ever existed in this form – with 24 participating nations. And our arenas can all hold more than 11,000 spectators. This has never happened in this form before.” Schober also expects “huge euphoria”.
High quality in the team
Officially, there is no target from a sporting perspective. Nevertheless, DHB sports director Axel Kromer hopes for successful participation. Compared to the preparation for the 2016 European Championship, we have a competitive team that will fight for victory in every game.
“We simply have a very high quality in the team. We have players who play very important roles in their teams in the club. And we now also have an axis that is always viewed as very central,” emphasizes Kromer .
Axel Schober, the managing director of the DHB, highlights the close cooperation with other team sports and emphasizes the positive impact of the success on German sport as a whole. He explains: “We are happy when the other team sports perform. We are big fans of basketball and also ice hockey and volleyball. There is exchange at all levels.”
Unpopular comparison with football
Schober and Kromer emphasize the social relevance of handball in Germany, but without seeking a direct comparison with football. Schober underlines this with the words: “Our aim is to make handball socially relevant and not to become number one behind football.”
Regarding Saudi Arabia’s possible application for the handball world championship and the country’s major sports policy offensive, Schober declares decisively: “We will deal with the issue. I can assure you of that because it is an important issue.”