MEETING Executive Board, Minutes 21st December 2018 EHF Office, Brussels Belgium
ATTENDEES Marijke Fleuren, Mika Rihtila, Carola Meyer, Walter Kapounek, Inez Cooper, Patrick Keusters, Peter Elders, Simon Mason, Angus Kirkland, Ophélie Duquesne, EHF Administration Manager
APOLOGIES Leonardas Caikauskas, Pamela Michaelis, David Serrahima
Agenda topics
President’s Welcome
Marijke Fleuren The President, Marijke Fleuren, was very pleased to be in Belgium just after the Red Lions won the World Cup in India. She felt it was an amazing performance from a great group of friends. Patrick Keusters (BEL) explained to the Board how he felt after the gold medal and how he lived every moment! He told in more details the strategic decision that the Belgian Federation took 10 years ago with Marc Coudron as a new president. They gave carte blanche to Bert Wentink, who was the performance director at that time. It was the start of the professionalism of Belgian hockey. All decisions taken by the federation were always in understanding with the clubs. They worked only in the direction of their objectives, to be at the top. The fact that you win or lose can be so close but makes a hell of a difference. And that’s what happened in Belgium. They received a massive support from the media and all the people in Belgium. The number of people that know field hockey now, is huge now to 10 years ago. The effect of winning the first gold medal will be long term. The challenge is now to stay at the top but to be able to follow the growth in term of members, clubs etc. Clubs are full, and Belgium needs more infrastructure to welcome the new members but also new trainers and coaches. Belgium will need to invest more in the education. The World Cup title was a perfect timing with the EHC 2019 coming up in Antwerp. We can be ambitious with the ticket sales. This gold medal is a real positive for Hockey in Belgium. The President highlighted that the European Championships have played an important role in the development of Belgian hockey. It is history, they will remember that day for ever. And they will keep the group for ever too. On behalf of EHF, she congratulated again the team and staff. She then presented a few pictures from India, where she attended the final. She apologized for the Board members who couldn’t attend the meeting: Pamela Michaelis, Leonardas Caikauskas, David Serrahima.
Minutes of the Last Meeting
DISCUSSION
The minutes of the last Executive Board meeting which took place in Brussels on 21st & 22nd September 218 were reviewed and Angus went through all the action points and updated the Board on them. The Minutes were then approved.
Matters Arising
DISCUSSION
All items were covered by the agenda.
Marketing & Communications Report Siobhan Madeley/Simon Mason
DISCUSSION
The Communications Manager presented the year-end figures and performances of all our channels. We met or exceeded most of our KPI’s for 2018 but not all of them. This can be explained by the fact that Facebook is in decline and that the algorithms being used have by Facebook have changed this year. We also have different sectors of the Hockey community on our various channels. We will set new KPI’s for 2019 according to the performance of each channel in 2018. We are in the process of developing a collaboration with Scorrd and SportRadar to grow the platform through piloting a trial with some clubs. Our partner Scorrd set up a successful Fantasy Hockey League (over 5,000 teams) for the World Cup. This is the ultimate fan engagement tool as ‘players’ get to select their dream team for a certain event. We are now working with them on a Fantasy League for both EHL and EHC. Siobhán has launched with our NA’s 50 Golden Years ~ 50 Golden Tales. The concept is to celebrate 50 people from around Europe during the 50th anniversary in 2019. All contributions that the Board can assist with are welcome. The Committee formally agreed to change its name from Marketing and Communications to Commercial and Communications to better describe its activities, which was approved by the Board. Siobhán also presented to the Board our new strategy to approach potential new partners and the Sport Business platform that we will use to help us find these partners.
DECISION
The Board approved the change of name of the Committee.
Competitions Committee Indoor Report Walter Kapounek/David Voskamp
DISCUSSION
Walter Kapounek updated the Board on the upcoming Indoor season. All match schedules were confirmed, and no big changes have been noticed. He also confirmed the venues for the 2020 Indoor Championships. The Board agreed to change the venue for the Women’s Indoor Championship III from Galanta to Bratislava for practical reasons. The Chair went on by giving a review on the 2018 indoor tournaments. The Committee mainly discussed the level of umpiring and the floor at top events. The new rules published by FIH will be implemented for EHF Indoor tournaments as well.
DECISION
Change in venue for the Women’s Indoor Championship III has been approved by the Board.
Competitions Committee Indoor Report Walter Kapounek/David Voskamp
DISCUSSION
Walter Kapounek updated the Board on the upcoming Indoor season. All match schedules were confirmed, and no big changes have been noticed. He also confirmed the venues for the 2020 Indoor Championships. The Board agreed to change the venue for the Women’s Indoor Championship III from Galanta to Bratislava for practical reasons. The Chair went on by giving a review on the 2018 indoor tournaments. The Committee mainly discussed the level of umpiring and the floor at top events. The new rules published by FIH will be implemented for EHF Indoor tournaments as well.
DECISION
Change in venue for the Women’s Indoor Championship III has been approved by the Board.
Competitions Committee Outdoor Report David Voskamp
DISCUSSION
The Chair, Walter Kapounek, updated the Board on the EuroHockey Championships next summer, in 2019. There were no new entries since the last Board meeting. The match schedules have been sent to the teams and officials. Tom and David have spoken with FIH regarding the regulations of Hockey5s and the inclusion of a shooting zone was 1 of the items. If FIH will add this to their regulations, remains to be seen. The idea was raised in that skype meeting to meet with FIH in July in Walcz to discuss things also with 20 coaches present. The next youth Olympics Games will take place in May/June 2022 in Senegal. We need a qualification tournament before that. It would be 2021, but we also have U18 events that year. The problem is that we can’t do it the year before so the European qualification will be most probably be in 2021.
Competitions Committee Outdoor Report David Voskamp
DISCUSSION
The Chair, Walter Kapounek, updated the Board on the EuroHockey Championships next summer, in 2019. There were no new entries since the last Board meeting. The match schedules have been sent to the teams and officials. Tom and David have spoken with FIH regarding the regulations of Hockey5s and the inclusion of a shooting zone was 1 of the items. If FIH will add this to their regulations, remains to be seen. The idea was raised in that skype meeting to meet with FIH in July in Walcz to discuss things also with 20 coaches present. The next youth Olympics Games will take place in May/June 2022 in Senegal. We need a qualification tournament before that. It would be 2021, but we also have U18 events that year. The problem is that we can’t do it the year before so the European qualification will be most probably be in 2021. Page 3 of 6 The Board discussed the change of approach for U16 as now we have H5’s and 11v11 for that age. Marijke Fleuren would like to have everything under our EHF umbrella. Because now, top nations are organizing invitational tournaments 11v11 that we don’t control. This matter is to be reviewed by the Competitions Committee. Regarding club events, there were some new entries and some teams withdrew but before the deadline. The Competitions Manager visited some venues in November. The Board agreed to keep the Club Challenge III for Women in Ukraine as long as we don’t receive other advice from the foreign affairs. France will have a conflict with the Club Challenge for Women as they will play the Hockey Series Finals the same weekend. The Competitions Manager and Communications Manager visited the venue of the U14 EHCC in November. KNHB was asked to appoint officials for that event. If it is not working out, the EHF will appoint officials. Some teams have declined the invitation due to financial issues. Regarding EHL and EHLU14, officials have been appointed by the EHF and the match schedules are confirmed. The Committee received a lot of offers to host the EuroHockey U18 Championships in 2020. They will make a proposal to the Board for the next meeting. There are no restrictions in hosts and it doesn’t have to be a joint event. KNHB will host an U18 and U16 invitational event in July 2019 where EHF will appoint officials and umpires. In the last EB meeting it was decided in 2020 the EHF would host U21 Invitational events. The Board agreed to waive the requirement of a license fee for the hosting of these events. But there will be an entry fee. In the last EB meeting it was decided as well that from 2020 onwards for the men an extra Trophy event would be established: Trophy I. The current Trophy would be named Trophy II. The Board agreed to keep the license fee of 5000€ for the Trophy I and ask for 2000€ license fee for the Trophy II. The entry fees will remain the same.
DECISION
The Board agreed to keep the Club Challenge III for Women in Ukraine as long as we don’t receive other advice from the foreign affairs. The Board agreed to to waive the requirement of a license fee for the hosting of the U21 Invitational events. But there will be an entry fee. Regarding the Men’s Trophy from 2020 onwards, it was agreed to keep the license fee of 5000€ for the Trophy I and ask for 2000€ license fee for the Trophy II.
Euro Hockey League Angus Kirkland
DISCUSSION
Angus Kirkland presented the project of having a company in Holland. As we have a lot of activities in the Netherlands for development, education and competition it makes sense to have a company in the Netherlands to cover these costs. We also have some rounds of the EHL organised in the Netherlands every year and one staff member working partly there as well. Following the advice of tax and legal specialists an EHF B.V. will be established.
DECISION
It was agreed by the Board to set up an EHF B.V in the Netherlands.
Development Projects Report Tom Smith/Peter Elders
DISCUSSION
The Committee received several nominations for the club of the year award. The decision has been published in January. The Development and Education Manager has visited several NA’s since the last Board meeting. Page 4 of 6 We have an offered pitch from Wales. Some NA’s have expressed interest. It will be moved in June 2019. Some kits were offered to France & Russia. Mid-December we held our annual ParaHockey Forum which was a big success, as it was the most attended meeting ever. We also hosted our gender balance forum end of September. We received fantastic feedback. We have now updated our strategy and that will be presented to the Board early 2019. It will be integrated into the 2019 GA. Work on the Youth Festival next summer is well underway, and NA’s will be invited to nominate 1 male and 1 female aged 16-30 by March 29th .
Education Committee – Umpires Tom Smith/Inez Cooper
DISCUSSION
Tom Pedersen-Smith is working on the standardization of all our education courses. U4E: exchanges weekends with umpires’ groups and their mentors where organized in Europe in 2018 with an additional weekend at the Irish Intervarsities tournament in Dublin. UDP: the planning for 2019 is under way. We are currently looking at the possibility to do a mini Breda at another time of the year, maybe at the EPHC. Education Committee – Officials Tom Smith/Inez Cooper DISCUSSION The Development and Education Manager is working on having a common course with the same content for everyone and not different according to the mentors. We will do an UM seminar next August. We want to follow up what we do with UM’s at FIH. We need to find the right balance. FIH will have to contribute as we organize the courses. We want to keep the same level of education at the same fee.
Education Committee – Coaches Tom Smith/Inez Cooper
DISCUSSION
The working group is doing very well. EHF has a long-term agreement with Greece to organize coaching courses there to develop the sport. This is supported by the Greek Ministry. Seminars for C4E and TCP for 2019 are all planned.
Hon Treasurer’s Report Mika Rithila
DISCUSSION
Mika Rithila presented the financial report. The 2018 budget looked much better than what was presented at the GA in Amsterdam in 2017. The dividend from the EHL was initially in the budget but will now be moved as the Board agreed to set up the EHF B.V. in the Netherlands. It was also good news that we secured EU funding. 2019 budget is still being adjusted and work is ongoing to make more use of the Netvisor software package to be able to get real-time information.
FIH Report Walter Kapounek/Marijke Fleuren
DISCUSSION
The Board discussed the FIH GA. Angus presented a sheet on the EHF NAs and the Board discussed how best to track all the work done with our Members. Marijke will look at FIH events where our members are participating and advise the Board so where it is possible connections can be made. Page 5 of 6 Our own GA in August. This time we need 3 men and 3 women to get elected. To facilitate this change we will conduct a Women’s Leadership Forum in March, which will help us prepare for the elections and encourage NAs to put women forward. Peter Elders updated the Board on the new rules recently published by the FIH. They will be implemented internationally for outdoor tournament starting from the 1st January and for indoor starting in 2020. EHF tournaments will follow these rules also starting in 2019. EHL will remain, as always, different regarding these rules. The new 5 meters rule, in the 23-meter line, is as follow: everyone will have to be at 5 meters except when there is an infringement close to the circle and the attacker takes the free hit quickly. In that case, the defender maybe be at less than 5 meters in the circle, which is like the previous rule. Europe will have 4 representatives in the new Athletes Committee with Rogier Hofman, Kate Walsh, David Harte and Kattie Mullan. Regarding the calendar until 2022, this will depend on the schedule of the Pro League as it is difficult to put all the matches in half a year. FIH is considering the option of a tournament played through the whole year and block some weekends specially for the Pro League. For the U21, the FIH Board is in favour of playing a World Cup every 2 years. But some NA’s can’t afford it. There is some doubt about doing the same for indoor. It will be discussed at the next Board meeting. EHF has proposed Walter Kapounek and Simon Mason (for the communications aspects) to be part of the discussions at FIH regarding the world ranking. The new 2019 EHF operations plan is aligned with the FIH operations plan. It will be sent to the FIH before the end of the year. The theme of the 2019 GA in Antwerp will be discussed at the next Board meeting. Marijke Fleuren suggested that the theme would be around ‘sharing a moment’. What about ‘my hockey’? It could be linked to Marc Coudron’s speech in Delhi. Our MOU is set for 4 years and we will get funding as the previous one. We had a 10% extra this year.
Director Generals Report Angus Kirkland
DISCUSSION
Angus Kirkland updated the Board on the new partnerships: Mercian as a stick partner and Grays as a clothing partner. We went out to different companies, but the Mercian’s bid was the best. We have sent the first sticks mid-December to Portugal. He also presented the report from the Disciplinary Commissioner. Italy withdrew late for the Junior Indoor Championships and will get a big fine as this is not their first infringement. Regarding the staff, the annual reviews were done in December. There is a good feeling amongst the team and Angus is happy that Grainne Corry has re-joined the team, replacing Yamila Conill. Yamila joined the board meeting where she was thanks for her 8 years of service and wished well for her future. He went on to give an update on the Facilities Committee. The Committee had a skype, which Alistair Cox from FIH joined. We are working on a new Turf partnership now that the Polytan deal has concluded. The EHC meetings with Belgium Hockey are going well. Becoming Wold Champions was good timing for Belgium. The atmosphere of the meetings is good and the preparations are being done well. Our partner Scorrd will come back in January with a proposal for a Fantasy League for EHL. Russia and Belgium will take the broadcast rights for the EHC 2019. Currently, we are struggling with UK market. We are working on the LED sales. The EHL at Easter is coming up. We are finalizing the venue plan. EHL is meeting with ABN for the campaign plan and the strategy leading to it. Angus has been introduced to Port of Antwerp to be involved as partner for EHL.
Appointments Committee Report Angus Kirkland
DISCUSSION
Ray O’Connor presented the report of the Committee. It has been a colossal year for the Committee, with 2 new people bringing in their expertise. One of the challenges of the Committee is the rejection rate of officials. But we did not have complaints from hosts so far that they got more expenses because of that. The challenge is NA’s that don’t have the bodies to nominate officials that are good enough to be appointed. They are on the list but are not good enough. The Committee will standardize the TD reports. There is one weakness in the system as there is no feedback on the TD himself. They will work on that with all officials at events to have a feedback on the TDs as well. There will be one person from the Committee that will write to different officials of an event to get feedback on the TD. At FIH level, Europe has not enough appointments for women, but it has been ok for the men. FIH is currently doing some changes on officials, IT wise. There is also work to be done on AWS. The Committee will look at what FIH will do with TMS, in January, and then decide if we need to spend more money ourselves on AWS. What will change at FIH is that there won’t be umpires, judges, … anymore in the system, but everyone will be an official. The level will be decided according to the competition (Pro League, Olympics, International, …). The Committee will create a sub system to promote people from EHF to FIH level: we will put them into our system, appoint them and then enter them as FIH level 1. The mixed gender panels are working very well. FIH did it at the World Cup, EHF will do the same for Europeans. The question is how far do we go in number? It must be the right persons in the right balance. The umpires are getting better the role of the video umpire. We stopped the role of video umpire coach at EHF as there are now enough umpires that fulfilled the role. In London, umpires were appointed as video umpires for some matches, there was no specialist. It is all about education! And it worked well. Withdrawal of top umpires is a challenge as we have to go down the list in the particular NA, where the level of the next umpires is maybe not as good. Henrik Ehlers will leave the FIH officials committee at the end of the year.
Any Other Business
DISCUSSION
Marijke Fleuren reflected on the amazing year we had at EHF. A big amount of work was done with such a small staff. But this wouldn’t be possible either without the volunteers, the Board, the Committees, … It is a team effort between all parties. She thanked all these people for their work and she hoped we will do even better next year to celebrate a fantastic 50th anniversary in August. Angus Kirkland gave thanks to the staff and Board for their support and paid tribute to Marijke for leading the Board and the time and effort she put in all her work.