On 10 September 2018, IHF President Dr Hassan
Moustafa and IHF Managing Director Amal Khalifa welcomed the Vice President of
the Luxembourg Handball Federation (FLH), Thierry Wagner, and FLH Secretary
General Christian Schmitt to the IHF Head Office in Basel, Switzerland to
discuss the situation of handball in Luxembourg, an emerging handball nation.
After a short presentation of the federation
and the status of handball in Luxembourg in 2018, the focus was put on the
changes that have been made since the new leadership was set up in 2016 as well
as on the plans for the future to increase the number of members and
participate in international competitions.
The general goal of the Luxembourg Handball
Federation is to reach a top 24 position in the European ranking. In order to
reach that ranking, several objectives were set up, such as the modernisation
and automation of the infrastructure, the professionalisation of clubs, an
increase to 3,000 members overall, the promotion of handball in Luxembourg and
the wider region of Germany, France and Belgium and the expansion of social
media and FLH’s Handball TV project.
Another point FLH wants to focus on, is the
promotion of youth handball. The federation cooperates with German and Danish
schools and started a “We love handball” youth project.
Especially in women’s handball, forming a
national team has helped motivate girls across the country to join and at the 2018
IHF/EHF Women’s Trophy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Luxembourg even finished
third out of eight teams.
The Luxembourg Handball Federation is part of
the EHF Smart Program 2017-2019, which focuses on the promotion of mini
handball, the development of women’s handball, the referee formation, including
a ‘young referees’ project and the organisation of a medical forum.
The FLH
appreciated the IHF projects which they are part of as they enable their
players to compete at international level without facing any financial problems
as the projects are completely financed by the IHF.
At the end of
the meeting, the IHF President exchanged ideas with the delegation of FLH on
how the IHF can be of further help within the scope of the IHF projects.
“Handball is on a good path in Luxembourg,”
said IHF President Dr Moustafa after the meeting, “and we will support the
federation to reach their goals and grow handball in the country. I look
forward to a close collaboration.”