At the start of the host nation Denmark at the Handball World Championship, IHF President Hassan Moustafa also wanted to say a few words – but that turned into a curiosity.
On Tuesday, the Danish national handball team starts their home World Cup with a duel against Algeria. Together with Norway and Croatia, the Danes are hosting the world tournament this year.
Although two games had already taken place in the Danish World Cup arena in Herning, France’s 37:19 win against Qatar (in Croatia) and Italy’s 32:25 win against Tunisia, the organizers held a big opening ceremony before Denmark’s opening game including an artistic performance. Also in the program: A speech by the President of the International Handball Federation, Hassan Moustafa.
However, Moustafa himself was not there in Denmark. It would have been difficult for the 80-year-old to travel to all three host countries. Instead, Moustafa’s recorded speech was played on the large video cube in the arena in Herning – and caused some frowns.
The main reason for this is the quality of the recorded video. Moustafa appeared to be sitting at a desk, similar to a normal video conference, and was probably only filmed by a cell phone or laptop camera on the table in front of him. All that was visible in the background was a white wall.
Moustafa recited his text, which was obviously also read from the screen, somewhat unevenly – and was repeatedly interrupted by very obvious, also somewhat amateurish-looking cuts. Not a big production for the association president.
A short time later, the hall announcer in the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning caused a few laughs. He was about to announce an entry that has almost become a tradition in handball tournaments, in which both team captains commit themselves and their teams to the idea of fair play. But during his announcement, which was made in English, he couldn’t seem to think of the right word for player, so instead he simply announced “respect-things”.