Butzeck’s next stops: Central and South America

In less than two months, the Election Congress of the International Handball Federation will be staged in Cairo. For the first time since 2009, reigning IHF President Hassan Moustafa (81 years old and President since 2000) will face opposition in the presidential election. Dr. Gerd Butzeck from Germany was the first to announce his candidacy in April. At the EHF Congress in September, Dutchman Tjark de Lange and Slovenian Franjo Bobinac announced their candidatures. “I am very grateful for these candidatures. Both of them will motivate nations to vote for a future orientated leadership,” says Gerd Butzeck.  The key question for handball: “Will Moustafa be able to get 51 percent or more votes in the first voting?” As otherwise a second voting will follow with those two candidates with the highest percentage of votes. “If this is not me, who is part of the final voting, of course, I will support the remaining opposition candidate. But I have the strong feeling that I will go to the second round.”

Since months, Gerd Butzeck is in touch with dozens of stakeholders in global handball, personally or in Zoom meetings. “In all those meetings, I have received so much encouragement for my candidacy and our campaign ‘Handball deserves more’, and I really feel that the time for a change has come in international handball. People all over the globe recognize that the IHF needs to be re-organized and newly structured, that the revenues of the IHF need to be invested in the support of the member federations to help making handball a global sport.”

After visiting several Asian and Middle-East countries, Gerd Butzeck will travel to Central and South America in the upcoming weeks to hold several meetings with high-ranked handball officials.