On Wednesday (3 April) the Chinese Handball Association (CHA) held a media conference at Beijing’s Guangcai Stadium, home of the Beijing Guangcai HC, to launch the men's ‘Chinese Handball Super League (CHL)’ which will run from June to August 2019.

The CHA, along with the Chinese Sports Group and local handball clubs, were all present at the launch to sign the tripartite agreement which will see handball gain further exposure in the Asian nation in addition to the recently-announced IHF Women’s Super Globe, to be held in Shanghai in August.

Beijing Guangcai’s HC played an exhibition match as part of the launch with fellow league teams CHA National Men's HC, Jiangsu Wuyue HC and Guangdong Luhuan Simiao HC.

The league will get underway initially in the cities of Beijing, Jiangmen and Suzhou in a round-robin league system.

“This is a brave attempt to reform China's sports and an important measure for China's handball market,” said Wang Tao, President of the CHA, at the launch which also included data about the European handball market and potential for the sport from Nielsen, the global information and measurement company. 

“The two highlights of the league are the direct participation of national club teams and the introduction of high-level European handball talents by local teams.”

SELECT were announced as one of the league sponsors at the launch too, with representatives of national and international sponsors also in attendance.

The IHF has identified China as a key country to develop handball in, setting up the China Working Group last year as part of its New Markets’ Project.