PtG Article 07.05.2008

IHF backs Greenland over continental handball federation membership

The Greenland Handball Federation has won its year-long dispute with the Pan-American Team Handball Federation over the continental handball federation’s decision to reduce Greenland’s membership status from full to associate.

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Greenland handball player Jakob Larsen at the 2007 World Championships in Germnay. Photo (c) Alex Heimken and IHF.

Following a meeting of the International Handball Federation (IHF) executive committee on 3 May 2008, the Pan American Team Handball Federation (PATHF) were instructed to reinstate the Greenland Handball Federation (GHF) as a full member of the continental handball governing body.

The executive committee took the decision after PATHF failed to pay the administrative fee needed to lodge an appeal against the IHF’s earlier ruling in favour of Greenland in November 2007.

The decision by PATHF meant that Greenland were not permitted to take part in competitive matches, only exhibition matches.

The IHF executive committee concluded their judgement as follows, reports the Greenland National Broadcasting Company:

“It is our opinion, that all legal possibilities hereafter are exhausted in this case. We strongly recommend that Greenland is permitted to take part in the Pan American Handball Championships. We are confident that you will accept our recommendation and thank you for your understanding.”

Just in time

The judgement has come just in time for the GHF, with the Pan American Handball Championships fast approaching. In addition to the title of Pan American Champions, at stake are three qualification places for the handball World Championships in 2009.

The tournament will not only be a chance for Greenland to taste glory on the court, but also to revive the finances of the GHF, believes Kurt Lauritsen, delegation leader of the men’s national team.

“The controversy has meant that we have lost a lot of money, because we couldn’t come properly out and fly the flag,” Lauritsen told Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten. “We could not afford to hold training sessions, but now we’ll get together about a week before the championships and head down hoping that we can qualify for the World Championships. And then, we hope, we can find a new head sponsor afterwards.”

Long road for GHF

Greenland’s membership status has been in doubt since November 2006, when the PATHF reduced their membership from full to associate membership without warning. The decision was formally appealed by the GHF to the IHF in May 2007.

The GHF was admitted into the IHF in 1997 as a provisional member, which was then confirmed in 1998 alongside their membership of PATHF.

In documents obtained by Play the Game in 2007, it appeared that the GHF’s membership of PATHF had been criticised by other members due to the political status of Greenland, an autonomous Danish dependent territory.

While Greenland has strong political and cultural ties with Europe, geographically it is considered part of North America.

Greenlandic players hold Danish citizenship and the territory lacks its own national Olympic Committee, which has led other members of PATHF to question the validity of the GHF’s membership of the Pan American federation.

Political ball games

Handball is not the only area where Greenlandic players have had problems competing on the international stage under the flag of Greenland. In fact, handball is one of the few sports where Greenland is recognised as a member by an international sports federation, the others being badminton, table tennis, taekwon-do, and volleyball.

The Sports Confederation of Greenland (GIF) is actively working to improve opportunities for Greenlandic athletes to compete internationally as representatives of Greenland. GIF cites on its website that it hopeful that the Ski Federation of Greenland will soon be accepted as a member of the International Ski Federation (FIS) allowing them to represent Greenland on the international stage. Currently, Greenlandic skiers have been representing Denmark when competing internationally.

In other sports, alternative solutions have been found to enable Greenlandic athletes to represent Greenland on the global stage. The Football Association of Greenland has attempted to join world and European football governing bodies FIFA and UEFA as a member, but so far has been frustrated in its attempts. Since 2006, the association been a member of the New Federation Board (NF-Board), an organisation whose membership comprises of teams not recognised as sovereign nations but wish to compete on the international stage.