Summary of the EHF Congress 2025

EHF President Michael Wiederer was confirmed in office. The upcoming election period 2025 – 2029 will be the third term as president for the 69-year-old Austrian.

He was first elected at the EHF Congress in 2016 after he had been the EHF’s Secretary General since 1992.

Together with Wiederer, the 1st Vice President Predrag Boskovic (MNE) and the Vice President Finances Henrik La Cour (DEN) were re-elected for a third term – both have been in their respective positions since 2016.

The chairpersons of the EHF’s three technical commissions were also confirmed in office. Bozidar Djurkovic (SRB) will chair the Competitions Commission for another four years; Pedro Sequeira (POR) will remain at the helm of the Methods Commission until 2029 and so will Gabriella Horvath (HUN) as chairwoman for the Beach Handball Commission.

The four members of the EXEC are: Stefan Lövgren (SWE, re-elected), Mesut Cebi (TUR, first term), Tjark de Lange (NED, first term) and Randi Heggemsnes (NOR, first term).

The overview of all election results is available here:

https://www.eurohandball.com/en/news/en/ehf-congress-re-elects-michael-wiederer-as-ehf-president/

As part of the election process for the EHF Executive Committee, Franjo Bobinac (SLO), who had been a member of the body for four years, withdrew his candidature and announced that he would run for IHF President at the Congress in Cairo in December.

"I believe that we should take the lead to truly develop handball into a global sport. Handball deserves much more and a strong voice in the Olympic movement. We are here to confirm and secure the Olympic status of handball."

Since December 2022 Franjo Bobinac is the president of the Olympic Committee of Slovenia and since February 2025 a member Executive Committee of the European Olympic Committee.

Andreas Michelmann, President of the German Handball Federation (DHB), informed the EHF Congress of the nomination of Gerd Butzeck as candidate of the DHB for the IHF presidency.

The Congress also took note that outgoing EHF Executive Committee member Francisco V. Blazquez Garcia will be a candidate for Executive Committee of the International Handball Federation at the IHF Congress 2025.

Motions passed by Congress

Three motions were submitted by the EHF. Two related to the EHF Statutes, with the first one (related to Article 4.1.7) aiming to improve the voting process for further members/gender representatives to bodies such as the EHF Executive Committee to uphold the process’ integrity and fairness.

The second motion (related to Article 4.1.11) sought clarification when it comes to the delegation of decision-making authority from the Congress to the Executive Committee.

The third motion related to the legal regulations (Article 38.1). An amendment was sought regarding the recognition of sanctions of EHF member federations, also enabling the EHF Iniator of Proceedings, next to the respective member federation, to extend sanctions imposed on a national level to EHF competitions.

All motions received the necessary majority from the EHF Congress.

Awards for nations and individuals

The 17th Ordinary EHF Congress closed with awards being handed over to several federations.
For the organisation of three or more competitive EHF events in the period from 2021 to 2025 the following federations were awarded: Austria, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Georgia, Hungary, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia.

The Danish Handball Association received the ‘Award of Honour’ for being the ‘Top Nation of European Handball’ in 2023 and 2024.

In beach handball, the ‘Award of Honour’ went to Spain for 2023 and to Croatia for 2024.

Milan Petronijevic from Serbia, member of the Court of Appeal since 2012 and long-standing EHF Expert for coaching and member of the EHF Rinck Convention Experts Panel, was presented with the EHF’s Special Award for his services to European handball.

The right to award the 18th EHF Ordinary Congress in 2027 was granted to the EHF EXEC.