Friday 18th June, Brussels, Belgium
The EHF Executive Board took place in Amsterdam on Friday 11th June.
President’s Welcome
The President, Marijke Fleuren, welcomed everyone to the third Executive Board and first face-to-face meeting after more than year gap with Simon Mason and Mika Rihtilä on joining over Teams. The meeting was held during the EuroHockey Championship Men and Women.
Marijke shared information about FIH Hockey5s World Cup, Oman, 2024. The President and Director General have had a discussion on the Hockey5s World Cup with the EHF Athletes Committee due to Oman’s poor human rights record, in particular the position they take towards the LGBTQI, Women and Minority groups. A further update will follow.
Marijke and the Board members congratulated Peter Elders, EHF and KNHB Executive Board Member and Chair of the EHF Development Committee, on his recent FIH Order of Merit award.
Peter Elders said “I was happily surprised to receive such a great honour. I have been involved in hockey for decades first on the field as umpire and now off the field trying to help people and help our sport in general. To receive such an award is more than I ever expected. Thanks to the people who put my name on the list and to the FIH for awarding the Order of Merit.”
The minutes of the March meeting were approved.
Financial Report
Angus Kirkland updated the Board on the financial position for the year to date and the outlook for the year end which was better than the last meeting. A draft budget for 2022 was discussed with the Board and will be shared and approval sought from Member Associations during the General Assembly as well.
Mika Rihtilä, the Treasurer, updated the Board on the Auditor’s figures for the year end 2020 which will be shared and approved by Member Associations in General Assembly on 20th August 2021.
Competition Report
Walter Kapounek updated the Board on situation due EHF events during summer/autumn (cancelation, host, venues, withdraws, etc.) All the information can be found on EHF Calendar. Priorities for these events: support and advice to host venues and participating teams and nations for outdoor tournaments 2021; and support and monitoring of the Covid-19 status. The work of the Covid Panel was recognised and appreciated.
Walter updated summary of EuroHockey Indoor Championship and FIH Hockey5s World Cup participants. Marijke thanked Walter, David Voskamp and the Competitions Committee for their excellent work and preparation.
EHL Update
The Director General updated the Board on the EHL and Origin. They have met face to face with the Stewart Hosford, and Alex Mills, CEO and partner of Origin respectively and they will be continuing dialogue over the coming months to review the strategy and future direction of the EHL. Further to the last EHF Board meeting, members of the EHL Board have also consulted with main sponsor ABN AMRO and a number of NA’s.
The ABN AMRO EHL Cup draw for October was completed during the week and the fixture schedule is now confirmed. Click here for more information.
Development and Education report
Tom Pederson – Smith updated the Board on Development programs 2021 and EU submissions 2021. The European Hockey Federation has launched a new scheme that will provide direct funding for approved National Member Associations projects. Click here for more information.
Commercial Committee report
Sabina Zampetti updated the Board on commercial grow up in last 2 years. Since 2019, EHF was working on all commercial aspects and today EHF have 5 partners and 3 suppliers. Future plans: make contracts with 6 official partners and 6 official suppliers for 4 years; work on business models.
Director General Reports
Angus Kirkland updated the Board on EHC 2021, EHC 2023, FIH Congress, EHTV+, EHF Staff. A delegation from the EHC 2023 organisers has visited the EHC this week and met with EHF staff to go through Event Manual. EHF is planning a first site visit to Germany in November.
EHTV+ presentation
Bart van den Acker, Business Manager of RSI, showed presentation to Board about EHTV+ and 5G system. Good progress has been made but the lack of hockey matches to work on has meant the progress has not been quite as fast as hoped. A new partnership has been formed with the 5G Hub which is a collaboration of Vodafone/Ericsson/Ziggo and are testing on of cameras at the EHC working off a wireless 5G network.
The President thanked the Board for their time and contributions. Marijke thanked Carola Meyer, Vice President, for her outstanding commitment and contributions over many years — this was Carola’s last full meeting before stepping down at the General Assembly in August. The Board gave a loud round of applause in appreciation.
Marijke thanked Angus and his Staff for their extreme hard work to ensure, with the KNHB, that the Championships is taking place. The meeting closed at 15:00.
