Michael Wiederer is actually known for his diplomatic statements. The Austrian has been leading the European Handball Federation (EHF) as its president successfully and largely quietly for eight years – the expansion and increasing the value of the competitions and tournaments are particularly important to him.
In this context, Wiederer has now criticized those responsible for the Handball Bundesliga (HBL) in an unusually clear manner for their scheduling: “Other leagues and associations per se prevent a team that plays against Nantes on Tuesday in what is supposedly the toughest game of the season from having to play against Kiel on Sunday in the top duel of the league.”
In his conversation with “Handballwoche”, Wiederer referred to the Füchse Berlin, who had to play against THW and then Nantes in the European League quarter-finals within two days at the end of April. Despite this pressure, they reached the final round of the smaller European competition, which is being played in Hamburg this weekend – in the semi-finals, Flensburg will play against Bucharest and Berlin against Rhein-Neckar Löwen. Kiel also only had a two-day break before the Champions League first leg in Montpellier.
Wiederer said: “At the end of the day it is a question of how much the league wants its clubs to be successful internationally.” The discussion about sufficient breaks before important international games has been going on in this country for years. The EHF recently managed to find an attractive final location in Hamburg for its second most important club competition.
