Brussels, 11th November 2021: The newly elected EHF Executive Board met online via Teams on Saturday 6th November 2021, from 09:30 – 12:30 CET.
President’s welcome
Marijke Fleuren welcomed everyone to the meeting, the first as the new Board, and particularly welcomed Marcos Hofmann and Gabriele Lemmle as new members, bringing fresh energy to the Board. Marijke had enjoyed lunch with Carola Meyer who was very touched and proud to receive the Member of Honour Award and recognition.
In December we have 4 Indoor events – the postponed Junior Indoor Championships. Our philosophy of providing competition to those that can play has been appreciated by players but has taken a heavy toll on the staff. Marijke had been in Pisa for the Women’s World Cup Qualifier and commented on the highly competitive matches.
September Minutes
Minutes were reviewed and approved.
Board roles and Committees
Angus Kirkland presented an update on the committees and the board members aligned to each committee.
Competitions
Indoor:
Walter Kapounek gave a short update on the upcoming Indoor events. Between December and February, 18 events will be hosted with 60 Women’s teams and 66 Men’s teams.
Outdoor:
Walter then presented his Outdoor Competitions report. The report covered the hosts the Competition Committee had selected.
The World Cup Qualifiers had been successfully completed in Pisa and Cardiff with Ireland Women and Wales and France Men taking the coveted final spots. The streaming issues from the events were discussed.
Walter then gave an update on the hosts for the EHC Qualifiers 2022. There is one competition where a host is still being sought and this will be worked on in the coming week.
Angus gave a brief update on the EHC 2023 and that the first meeting with the German Federation will take place early in December.
FIH Matters
Marijke gave an update on the recent FIH Board meeting.
Director-General Report and update
Angus gave an update on the progress of the EHTV+ project with ongoing conversations with several NA’s/Leagues.
Angus updated the Board on the EHL. The season 2020/21 had been completed in October with the Ranking Cups. 3 out of 4 Women’s teams and 14 out of 16 men’s teams had participated – the late withdrawal of some teams had caused a lot of challenges. Preparations are underway for EHL at Easter with hosts for the Final8 Women/Final12 Men and the Ranking Cup to be announced shortly.
Discussions internally and with Origin are ongoing with further meetings scheduled for the coming two weeks.
Finance
Angus presented the financial figures for the year-to-date 30th September and the outlook for the year-end.
AOB
Marijke highlighted the forthcoming Equally Amazing Executive Leadership Forum that will be attended 42 leaders from across our Member Associations and several Board members. With a line-up of excellent guest speakers, it is sure ot be a memorable event.
The next meeting is scheduled to be in Brussels on December 10th and 11th.
The March Board meeting will now be on March 25/26, 2022.
