How Beach Handball and Urban Handball can boost the global development

“We need to develop handball as a global sport,” is one of the main goals of Gerd Butzeck, if he gets elected IHF President in December in Cairo. But how could this goal be achieved in countries without the infrastructure and halls you need for indoor handball? For Butzeck, there are two options: “Beach Handball has taken great steps of development in the recent years – and hopefully will be in the Olympic Programme for the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games,” says the IHF presidential candidate, who was one of the Beach Handball pioneers in the IHF and EHF. “Being part of the World Games and the Youth Olympic Games put Beach Handball into the spotlight of a global audience, but being part of the Olympic Programme would really boost this sport.”

But even for those countries without beaches or the option to implement a Beach Handball court, there shall be an option to play handball: “Basketball showed the way with their successful 3×3 discipline. We must create something similar for handball; we call it Urban Handball. It can be played either on existing basketball, football or futsal courts, no hall is needed, and you can play Urban Handball everywhere with a quite simple set-up. If I will be elected as new IHF President, one of my first tasks will be to create an expert group to bring all ideas for Urban Handball together,” says Butzeck.

If you want to learn more about Gerd Butzeck’s ideas on Beach Handball you can watch a video by clicking here. The part on Urban Handball can be reached here.