EHF Master Plan
EHF Master Plan activities thrive across Europe in 2024
The strategic plan is divided into several core targets, namely making handball more attractive to fans; increasing the number of active players, coaches and officials; and creating additional value for the sport.
Seven key pillars — aligning with the number of players on court per team — were identified as part of the Master Plan, including all aspects of the sport, from the game itself through to events, fans, grassroots, governance and commercial elements. As in any handball team, each of the players is important in their specific position, but it is only the combined effort of the whole team that will ultimately bring success.
And that whole team has been taking significant steps forward under the umbrella of the EHF Master Plan in recent years, culminating in a busy 2024 full of activities contributing to the continued growth of handball across Europe.
The Covid-19 pandemic naturally hindered the immediate start to full-on work towards the ambitious goals defined in the Master Plan, and it was in 2022 that the first agreements between the EHF and national federations were signed.
Latvia, Malta, Georgia, Scotland and Croatia were the first nations to develop Master Plan projects. In some cases, those projects were specific, such as for Croatia, where the focus is on children’s handball. Croatia’s Master Plan activities are headlined by the Handball in Kindergartens project, where interest has exceeded the expectations of the federation.
Elsewhere, the targets are broader. In Georgia and Malta, for example, the Master Plan projects encompass the provision of more competitions for youth age players and kids, handball in schools, coach education and media activities, among other topics.
In 2023, the EHF entered Master Plan agreements with 10 more national federations: England, Türkiye, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Germany. In 2024, Portugal were welcomed into the fold as their Master Plan agreement with the EHF was approved.
In 2024, five more federations have joined the EHF Master Plan activities as new agreements have been signed with Portugal, Czechia, Serbia, Faroe Islands and Israel.