Germany plans decade of handball

EAlfred Gislason did not like hearing the term: intermediate tournament. Or also: preparatory tournament. The 63-year-old national coach then replied that a handball world championship could not be a preparation for what was to come. As the German Handball Federation (DHB), by far the association with the most members in the world, one cannot afford to use a World Cup to warm up.

Nevertheless, the focus is already on January 10, 2024. Then the DHB will attempt a record: 50,000 spectators should fill the football stadium in Düsseldorf. It will be the opening game of Euro 2024, with the national team in the lead. She is to take on this leading role in the continental showdown up to the final in Cologne.

Gislason became Christian Prokop’s successor almost three years ago, also with a view to the home European Championship. The team should be able to win their first European Championship title since 2016. The performances at the World Cup in Poland and Sweden are important in themselves, but also in terms of performance in a year.

Not only that. “Of course it helps us with the organization of the European Championship if we are successful in sport here. The better we perform at the World Cup, the higher the probability that we will sell even more tickets for the European Championship,” says Mark Schober, DHB CEO.

Home EM as a big task

From January 10th to 28th, 2024, the games will be played in Düsseldorf, Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich and Mannheim; After the opening game, the Germans will play their group games in Berlin. In order to break even, the DHB needs a hall utilization of 90 percent – overall, not just for the German games.

That’s a big task. It commands great respect from Schober and Thomas Zimmermann, Chief Marketing Officer. Schober says: “We don’t know how people will react to the cost increases in all areas.” The advance sales figures are currently good.

Nobody in the association assumes that the economic risk is too great. At the last major event, the 2019 World Cup in Germany and Denmark, European fans flocked to the halls. The DHB closed the World Cup with a decent profit. Schober and President Andreas Michelmann are also counting on this in a year’s time.

Michelmann says: “We not only want to show that we are organizationally good hosts, but that we are happy to welcome other countries and their teams. This is reflected in the capacity utilization in our halls.” Michelmann was at the women’s European Championship in North Macedonia in November 2022 and was disappointed that there were hardly 400 fans in Skopje’s hall during the games without the participation of the hosts.

The juniors submit

Germany as a cosmopolitan, handball-friendly country, the DHB wants to distribute this greeting card. There is an interesting practice round this summer. The DHB is starting the decade of handball with the juniors, which Michelmann had proclaimed before his election in 2015.

From June 20th to July 2nd the 23rd U21 World Championship will take place in Berlin, Magdeburg and Hanover as well as two Greek cities. It’s the first with 32 participating teams, which makes the overall organization tricky. The team of national coach Martin Heuberger is hoping for many growing fans; the tickets should be available cheaply and the games should inspire a young audience for handball.

In terms of sport, the association hopes that players will show up this summer who will play a role in the next big thing in German handball: with the home World Cup in 2027, the peak after next for men is not far away.

It is important to Michelmann that nobody forgets the women – the active president also got a tournament here that gives the DHB a possibly golden home advantage economically and sportingly: In 2025 the DHB will host the women’s World Cup together with the Netherlands.

In fact, a “decade of handball” is imminent. Michelmann has already said that the DHB will hold back with further major tournaments for the period after 2027 – his organization will thank him for it.