2017 Youth Beach Handball World Championship

The International Handball Federation received three bids from Croatia, Hong Kong China and Mauritius for the hosting of 1st IHF Youth (U-17) Beach Handball World Championship. The bids were analyzed by the IHF Beach Handball Working Group. According to the recommendations of the IHF Beach Handball Working Group, the U17 Beach Handball World Championships 2017 should be organized in a country outside Europe to widen the geographical borders of handball. Mauritius offers natural beaches and good climate conditions as well as hotels in walking distance to the venue. The IHF Beach Handball Working Group graded the bidders according to their bidding concept and participation fee per person/per day follows: Croatia 90%, Hong Kong 90% and Mauritius 95%.

The IHF Council unanimously awarded the 1st IHF Youth (U-17) Beach Handball World Championships to the Mauritius on 23 July 2016 in a meeting held in Bratislava (Slovakia) on the recommendation of the IHF Beach Handball Working Group.

The sixteen teams were split into four groups of four teams. After playing a round-robin, the three top ranked team advanced to the main round. Every team kept the points from preliminary round matches against teams who also advance. In the main round every team had three games against the opponents they did not face in the preliminary round. The top four teams of main round will advanced to the quarterfinals.

All matches shall be played in 2 X 10 minutes with a half – time of 5 minutes. The team that wins two sets is the winner of a match, according to the official IHF Rules for Beach Handball. Points are awarded as follows:

• Win = 2 points
• Defeat = 0 points

The draw was held on 17 May 2017. Draw was conducted by Mr. Giampiero Masi (Italy), Chairman of the IHF Beach Handball Working Group.[2]

Seeding

Men

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Brazil  Thailand  Portugal  Spain	Argentina  Chinese Taipei  Italy  Russia	Australia  Pakistan  Paraguay  Venezuela	Mauritius  New Zealand  South Africa  Togo

Women

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Argentina  China  Netherlands  Spain	Brazil  Hungary  Portugal  Thailand	American Samoa  Chinese Taipei  Paraguay  Venezuela	Australia  Croatia  Mauritius  Togo

Following 9 referee pairs were selected for the championship: [3]

Referees  Brazil Sydney Antonio Dos Santos / Wanderson Oliveira  China Xu Jian / Cao Hongjun  Croatia Dario Rupčić / Ivica Botincan  Greece Michael Mertinian / Evangelos Syrepisios  Poland /  Turkey Agnieszka Skowronek / Sibel Erdoğan

Referees  Qatar Khaled Al-Heel / Ali Al-Yazeedi  Romania Elena-Georgina Doana / Ana-Maria Gociu  Spain Marcos Pérez Outeda / Héctor Fraile Muñoz  Tunisia Mohammed Kamel Drissi / Mohammed Aymen Ben Salah

Two days before the departure of the IHF nominees to Mauritius, the International Handball Federation received a letter from the President of Mauritius Handball Federation (MHF) asking for a support of CHF 300,000, in addition to the participation fees, to meet the expenses of the organisation of the Championship. The request was declined by the IHF, asking the President of Mauritius Handball Federation to fulfil the provisions of the signed championship contract. Accommodation for both the teams and IHF nominees was below IHF standards, and that the MHF failed to pay off the company that provided services of accommodation, catering and flight booking. Eventually, the IHF paid for the entire accommodation of the teams as well as the nominees after price negotiations made by the Managing Director.

In the terms of transportation, the organiser did not fulfil the agreed concept of transportation for the teams, but following an intervention of the Minister of Sports Mr. Stephan Toussaint more vehicles were made available. In addition, the three venues were not constructed while the main venue was not completely done. The Chairman of the IHF Beach Handball Working Group was authorised by President Moustafa to negotiate the price of the venue construction; and eventually four venues were reduced to three and the IHF nominees were cleaning and setting up the two venues to reduce the cost. Due to the absence of the Local Organising Committee, including the President and remaining representatives of Mauritius Handball Federation, at the event, the full organisation was taken over by the IHF.

As for the competition, both Brazilian teams and the Togolese women’s team withdrew their participation shortly before the event.

Due to the payments made by the IHF an amount of CHF 173,619.27 needs to be reimbursed to the IHF by Mauritius Handball Federation. The IHF Executive Committee proposed in its meeting in Tbilisi on 17 August 2017 to wait for an official communication from Mauritius Handball Federation to explain the situation occurred before submitting the issue to the IHF legal bodies for further decisions.

• Official website