Inside Federations: Romanian Handball Federation

FRH Secretary General Nicolae Luca introduces us to the basics of how the Federation runs and looks beyond it to the relationships across Europe, how organisation of the EHF EURO 2026 is progressing and where handball in Romania is positioned in the broader sports context.

eurohandball.com: What are the topics addressed by the Romanian Handball Federation on a daily basis?

Nicolae Luca: We should start from the fact that we are not a large federation, but rather a medium one. We are 34 people, and all of us are employees of the federation, full-time. That includes the president and, of course, secretary general and all other directors. We have some departments — trying to copy, actually, the system of the EHF in terms of departments.

Beyond the national policies that represent the foundation for which a federation is created, namely that of coordinating handball activity on its territory, our activities are split in two big parts: The sportive one and administration. Speaking in terms of sportive activities, this is about the rules; it's about the domestic championships, which are managed by the federation. We have a professional league, but the federation leads all these competitions.

As activities from our own calendar we have a Romanian Cup and the Romanian Super Cup. Both of them, we play on the final four system, which is really attractive because it creates more matches instead of only one. For the Romanian Super Cup, the winner and the finalist of the Romanian Cup plus first place and second place on the championship, the regular championship, are invited.

We have also some tournaments. The traditional Carpathian trophy. It's really old. It started with a senior competition for men, I think, and after that, also for women. And after that also for youth and juniors. It's attractive because it's an international tournament and a minimum four teams participate.

Qualification matches, of course. Qualification matches for the national team and participation in the biggest competition that is in December and January, of course. Let's say this is for the sportive point of view, plus regulation for these competitions and administration of results — the competition commission and methods commission are on that.

And for that, our coaches, they participate in regular professional courses, to have new knowledge. It's one of the conditions to have the licence for the next season. Master coaches, they don't have to participate — one which has a Master Coach or Master Coach Pro Licence, because the Master Coach licence is the highest on the ranking.

From the organising point of view, this year, Romania has organised and will organise several competitions. And from outside, some might consider that we are really crazy in the positive way, because we were engaged on the M20 EURO competition, in Cluj-Napoca and Turda, which was successful.

Only 10 days after, a competition started in four other cities: World Championship Women U18. With 32 countries from around the world. And fortunately, our people, my colleagues, they worked it as crazy people and it was amazing. We spent 24/7 in the halls.

There’s not so much time to rest because at the end of September here in Bucharest will be the final four of the EURO Cup with four teams which really don't need introduction — speaking about Norway, Denmark, Hungary and, of course, Romania — so, it's a big challenge for us.

Also, the EHF Executive Committee will meet here in Bucharest for the first time. We are proud of that. We want to show that in systems of administrative, organisation and logistics, we are one of the best. And after that will be December, another challenge, with two cities, Oradea and Cluj-Napoca. We are ready to face this competition.

eurohandball.com: What are the departments that operate within the Romanian Handball Federation?

Nicolae Luca: We have a technical department. There are five federal coaches plus one technical director. They lead the competitions — each federal coach leads a competition, according to the ages: So, two for senior men and woman and another two for junior and another for the beach handball activity.

They lead also activity in the academy. We have two academies. One academy under the umbrella of the federation and the national sport agency and the other one is under the umbrella of the federation plus the Olympic committee, so two of these academies for the youth and the junior ages. And this is the technical department.

In the technical department, of course, they create the regulations for the competitions, and they make also the preparation courses for coaches, and so on. Here, we include the video analysts.

And the competition department. They are only two.

Next to them is the international department in terms of transfers and the competition — international transfers in competitions. After that is the economical and finance department. There are five people there. The logistic and administrative structure — we have seven colleagues.

Then the marketing and communication department — five persons there. And then the legal — three persons.

All these departments have a director. And after that is the executive director, general directors, secretary general, and the president.

Parallel to this are the independent commissions. They work in parallel, but they are engaged as volunteers. There’s a competition commission. There are 13 persons on the competition commission. After that, referees commission and delegates commission — also independent. A disciplinary commission, medical commission of course, and the methodical commission. And history and statistics. So, this is the structure.

eurohandball.com: As you mentioned, Romania is and will host several major events this year. How are things progressing? What have you learnt from the summer events that will help as the Women’s EHF EURO 2026 approaches?

Nicolae Luca: First of all, I have to say that I'm impressed about the number of meetings! The EHF asked us to make meetings every week. Different meetings — competition department, they want a meeting, and after that call us also media and so on.

Since one and a half year, when the competition was offered to five countries, then from that moment, every month, we have a coordination meeting. They ask about different topics because they need different answers, and this for us is something new, is something unusual, but from that we have to learn. We have to learn we can plan for everything. This helps us and teaches us to organise activity in different departments.

That is the first thing we learnt — to divide this activity by departments, to divide this activity by the proper persons and to nominate the persons able to do this.

We used that also for the M20 in Cluj. First of all, planning was excellent this time. With a few people, we created structures, small structures, but strong enough. The key perhaps was this connection, this network, between these small groups.

The leader was the federation and other people were involved, with or without handball knowledge — volunteers, new persons. We made new friends, we made new connections, and of course, all these connections will help us in December. I think this is the main thing we learnt — to work as a team, to split activity on parts, with clear activities and with clear duties and clear terms.

eurohandball.com: Thinking of the teamwork of European handball as a whole, how you come together with others to exchange information and learn at events like Congress, what does that part of being a national federation mean to you?

Nicolae Luca: We are a good partner. We have a good relationship with all federations and that relationship goes beyond handball, I have to say. We have a friend relationship, and that is also important, because we take any occasion — during the Congress, during the secretary general conference, during the president conference, during all these events fixed by the EHF — to use this opportunity to meet with friends, to talk.

We are also part of the Mediterranean Confederation, where there is plus 20 countries.

It's easy to see that we are a part of this family. Even though geographically we are a little bit to the east, we don't feel this. We feel that we are involved in all EHF activities. We are called to exchange information. We are called to give some advice and not only that. Now, it's definitely clear that this year, at least, Romania, it’s a sports hub, a hub of handball.

When the EHF congratulates us for the organisation so far, we are proud and of course we are happy with that, but it's our duty. Comparing the EHF with national federations — because the small federation or even bigger federations send us greetings or thanks about what we do for them during the competition — those relationships are perhaps even more important. Next time I'm going to France, to Denmark, to Germany, to Netherlands, they will host us at least of the same level.

We are really warm people, and everyone is welcome, so we are happy to have guests and we do our best. Spending that moment in Romania, they are focused on competition, they are here for trophies, they are here to work. But for us, it's important to feel also something different, because of course we want them to go back to their countries positive.

I give you the example of Fiji. Think about this: Fiji, for the first time, they participated in a competition [the Women’s U18 World Championship]. Fiji, they come here; they have a hundred, thousand photos; they tested everything; they tasted the food; they did everything; they were in the city, they made pictures with everyone. Those girls will talk about Romania in 50 years.

eurohandball.com: Handball has a strong tradition in Romania. Where does the sport and therefore your federation sit in the broader sports context in the country?

Nicolae Luca: We are a nation with a big tradition. Three times world champion in the different age group women's competitions and four times on the men. But right now, maybe in this period, we are in a transition. I think it's not only Romania in this transition period.

What that means, transition, for me — it's about the new generation and it's about the invasion of social media. The invasion of technology. Now, the technology keeps us busy almost the full day. Not only us as adults, but it's also about the children. And that is the challenge. The big provocation — to take them out from the rooms, from the bedrooms in front of computers or in front of the mobiles, and get them to make sport.

Let's say perhaps Romania, we started a little bit late this period of transition because as I saw that is not valid only for handball, but I think it's valid for all other sports here in Romania.

We are proud, because we are the second sport in Romania, fortunately, as popularity, after football. That is good for us, also considering infrastructure — because we still need infrastructure in Romania, we still need new halls in Romania, we still need big capacity halls in Romania. But all in all, we manage.

Fortunately, because in every corner in Romania, we can find some talent, it's up to us as a federation and it's up to us with our coaches, to find them, to keep them, to prepare them, to put them on academies, on the national teams, and to give them motivation, to teach them — to be again what we were in the past.

It's our aim with the female handball and national female team, the senior national female, to be on all big competitions. Fortunately, we never missed the World Championship till now, from the very beginning. Of Europe, there was some missing. Top competitions are important for us and it's not a secret at all: For us right now, the main goal is the Olympic Games in Los Angeles with the female national team, and with the men national team, the goal is to come back to the EURO.

Photos: kolektiff © Simion Sebastian Tataru / FRH; Radu Padurean