Trouble in world handball
Association president re-elected – Germans speak of “farce”
12/21/2025 – 4:43 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
The election for IHF president is clearly in favor of incumbent Hassan Moustafa. The German delegation is extremely disappointed.
The German Handball Federation has massively criticized the re-election of the controversial world association president Hassan Moustafa. “As expected, the process was not fair: apart from Dr. Moustafa, no candidate had the chance to present themselves at the meetings of the continental associations on the day before the congress,” said DHB President Andreas Michelmann, who was in Cairo together with board boss Mark Schober.
Previously, the 81-year-old Moustafa, who is called “Pharaoh” because of his leadership style and long tenure in the industry, clearly prevailed against his three opponents led by the German Gerd Butzeck. A total of 176 member associations of the world association IHF were present and each had one vote – 129 went to the Egyptians.
Butzeck received 20 votes, the Slovenian Franc Bobinac 24 and the Dutchman Tjark de Lange three. “We have to respect the result of this election, but the one-nation-one-vote system with 176 national associations entitled to vote is an obstacle to the development of every world sport,” complained Schober.
Moustafa’s supporters are particularly the over 50 African associations, some of which do not even have a national handball team. “I promise that I will work day and night to promote our sport in every corner of the world. Together we can achieve many things. We have a great sport, but we have to work together,” Moustafa appealed to the member associations after his re-election.
As could be seen in the live stream, there were problems with the voting system and the internet connection during the election. The vote was postponed for several hours. “The course of the congress was a farce and unworthy of international handball because it took four hours for the voting technology to work,” criticized Michelmann. Butzeck found that the election had chosen standstill instead of progress.
Moustafa has been at the helm of the IHF since 2000 – and will remain there for at least four more years. For the first time since 2009, the African had opponents because many of his critics fear for the future of the sport and Olympic status. Moustafa himself once started with the goal of globalizing the sport.