Scotland and Croatia are the two latest federations to join the EHF Master Plan project, with agreements with the federations of Georgia, Latvia and Malta already being in place. Both federations will focus on grassroots handball in their long-term strategic objectives.
The activities in Scotland aim to establish handball as the indoor team sport of choice for primary schools, strengthen the coordination of regional schools and clubs, empower female participation in handball, develop the clubs and the operational structure of the Scottish Handball Federation and strengthen the coaching development structure.
"This is hugely important for our federation. We have been working to develop the sport of handball for 50 years and for us this is the next big step. We take the inspiration from the aims of the Master Plan and are hugely appreciative of the support the EHF is giving us to help achieve not only our aims, but also those of the European handball family. So, we are delighted to sign this, we are aware of the scale of the challenge and we recognise it will be a difficult 12 months - but we are up for it," said Ewan Hunter, Director of the Scottish Handball Association.
The Croatian Handball Federation will focus on grassroots development. From introducing kindergarten handball and mini handball in primary schools to educating kindergarten and schoolteachers to implement the programme, with a final goal of motivating girls and boys aged 4-11 to join handball training in the clubs.
"We are all aware of the fact that children should be included in sport as early as possible. Other sports have done it already, but since handball is specific, until now we did not have the opportunity to do it. Thanks to this programme we can now start working with children in kindergartens and children in primary schools, which I see as a great step for children to start playing handball as early as possible," said Tomislav Grahovac, President of the Croatian Handball Federation.
Both national federations will receive substantial financial and material support from the European Handball Federation for project implementation and development.
The EHF Master Plan was originally presented at the EHF Conference of Presidents in 2020 in Stockholm. The project aims to further grow European handball, maintain and respectively reach a healthy sporting system. The Master Plan consists of seven players, which represent the area of development they stand for.
