#FridayFocus: EHF Development Committee meets

The EHF Development Committee met (via Webinar) earlier in July with a full agenda.

Attendees:

• EHF Vice President – Carola Meyer (GER)
• EHF Executive Board Member – Peter Elders (Chair) (NED)
• EHF Development Manager – Tom Pedersen-Smith (EHF)
• EHF Operations Manager – Monika Ivanauskaite  (EHF)
• EHF Youth Panel Chair – Emilie Vedel Blankschon (DEN)
• EHF Youth Panel Vice Chair – Cedric Vermeiren (BEL)
• Slaven Zlatar (CRO)
• Jonathan Bernon / Mark Knight (FRA)
• Helen Richardson Walsh (ENG)
• Gizem Karaali Karadag (TUR)
• Marie Theres Gnauert (GER)
• Stefano Pagliara (ITA)
• Hugo Santos (POR)
• Lilia Ananieva (BUL)
• Zoran Matijevic (SRB)
• Minna Makela (FIN)
• Gabrielle van Doorn (NED)
• Piotr Wilkoński (POL)
• Iryna Kharchenko (UKR)
• Mike Michalakis (CYP)
• Ria Male / Hannah Bevan  (WAL)
• Veronika Decsyova (CZE)

Hugo Santos (POR) shared his thoughts with on about the meeting “Regarding the meeting of the EHF development committee, we can see that everyone was anxious to be together to talk/discuss what they all love, hockey and their European development”.

“At the start of the meeting each member gave a short presentation about themselves and their interests in this committee. After the individual presentations, we were divided into working groups, where we discussed various topics on the Agenda (above)”

“We then came back together and we all noticed that we need to take a few steps back in terms of hockey facilities and that hockey development is not possible if you only think of top teams and top countries.”

“We have to rethink the structure of hockey and the rules (especially Hockey 5) so that all countries can evolve and more important than sports performance is the increase of people playing hockey in Europe and the world.”

“Knowledge sharing (the EHF Twinning programme) is very important for less developed countries to learn from clubs/countries that already have a high background so that everyone can grow and learn.”

Speaking after the meeting Tom Pedersen-Smith said: “It’s a pretty big Committee, but that’s brilliant as it gives us, the EHF, a really rounded view of what’s happening on the ground all over Europe.”

“We have kept the Agenda ‘tight’ so that we can really make a difference in areas that we believe as a group that we can make a difference on, so we have a short Agenda but have a fantastic cross-section of views.”

“We are using this ‘pause in play’ to do a deep dive into where we can secure funding so that we can deliver on the brilliant ideas coming from the group, so that’s a very positive use of this time. We are delighted to have such an engaged group and I’m very grateful to all of them for their time and expertise.”

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