– This is my sport, says Hassan Moustafa (79) as he sits in a luxury hotel in Basel. In many ways he is also right. When the current presidential term ends in two years, he has sat at the top of the pyramid of the International Handball Federation (IHF) for 25 years. He has been re-elected five times, the last three times without an opponent. He manages a federation with 209 member countries, more countries than there are members of the UN. At the same time that Norway has so far dominated the World Cup at home, behind the scenes there are a long series of accusations and incidents that put the IHF in an unpleasant light. It is not often that Moustafa appears for interviews. But in this interview with news, DR and SVT, he answers a number of controversial topics: The controversial Sepp Blatter method to secure support. A leadership style where a lot of power is concentrated in three Egyptians. The distribution of “wildcards” to countries that are not qualified for the World Cup. PRESIDENT: Hassan Moustafa has been handball’s most powerful person for over two decades. Photo: Halvor Ekeland / news The Blatter method The former president of the International Football Association was accused of increasing the number of member countries and then handing out large sums of money in development aid. In this way, Sepp Blatter is said to have bought himself power. Since Moustafa took over the IHF, the association has increased the number of member countries from 137 to 209. – If you first have quantity, quality will follow, believes Moustafa. Every year they distribute tens of millions in development aid to a wide range of countries. – We pay for everything, from a to z. This means that these countries do not have to pay for flights and accommodation. They also get pocket money and everything they need. We in the IHF have money, we use it to develop and promote our sport, says Moustafa with pride in his voice. He emphasizes that this is something he is proud of, and that this will forever be his legacy. Blatter was eventually banned from football. Moustafa, who was elected two years after Blatter, is still sitting safely in his office in Basel when news meets him. BANNED: Sepp Blatter has banknotes thrown at him at a press conference with Fifa in 2015. Later that year, Blatter was banned from all football for several years. Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP International director of Play the Game, Jens Sejer Andersen, believes that it is not problematic that a federation tries to develop the sport by allocating money. But: – It becomes problematic if the development funds are distributed without transparent criteria or without a follow-up on whether the money is used as intended. Then the money becomes an instrument that the president can distribute to his allies. Play the Game is a Danish organization that works for democracy, ethical standards and good governance in international sport. news has repeatedly asked the IHF to get an overview of these funds. What does the money go to? How much is it about? How does the IHF monitor the use of money? We have not received any answers to those questions. – Hårreisende unfair At the last IHF congress, in November this year, 190 countries had the right to vote. Many of these countries receive support from the IHF, but Moustafa denies that he buys votes. – We have decided, or I as president have decided, that we do not like member states that are not active to be allowed to vote. We don’t want people to think that I just want the number of members who support me in the congress, says Moustafa. To be an active member country, and thus have the right to vote at the congress, only one of the following criteria must be met: They have handball activity in the country They have stakeholders in the country, for example organisations, coaches, referees and players. They have communication with their continental federation and the IHF. – It is hair-raisingly unfair that the over 800,000 handball players in Germany have one vote at the IHF congress, while the very few players in Guatemala and Belize also have one vote each, Andersen says in Play the Game. PRESIDENTS: Hassan Moustafa in the stands together with the Norwegian handball president, Kåre Geir Lio during the WC in Norway. Photo: Beate Oma Dahle / NTB Dictatorial leadership style? On its pages, Play the Game has a running overview of how good governance is in major sports federations. There, the IHF receives a score of 37 out of 100 possible points for good governance. In comparison, Fifa gets 61 out of 100 points in the same overview. At the congress in November, the IHF spent less than three minutes scrapping a proposal from Sweden for a democratic change. They spent over 12 minutes presenting luxury hotels and sights from Egypt, Moustafa’s homeland, where the next IHF congress will be held. Andersen calls Moustafa’s leadership style dictatorial. – There are a string of examples where it is quite clear that Hassan Moustafa supremely and single-handedly decides what happens in the IHF, says Andersen. He mentions an example from the IHF’s congress in 2009. This was the last time Moustafa was challenged for the presidency. When the opposing candidate went to the podium to give his speech, the microphone suddenly did not work. Hassan Moustafa won the election. After the defeat, the opposing candidate, Jean Kaiser, said the following in an interview with the Berliner Zeitung: – Every time something did not suit Moustafa, the microphone was turned off. It was like a Muppet show. – A man who has gathered so much power in his hands is stupid to be in open opposition to if you still want to hold championships or sit on important committees, Andersen believes. Andersen also points out that it is problematic that the IHF has no time limit for how long a president can serve. INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR: Jens Sejer Andersen in Play the Game. Photo: Thomas Søndergaard / Play the Game – All experience shows that the longer you sit as a president who is characterized by a family culture and monopoly in his sport, the stronger power you can build up. It enables a president to place his loyal supporters in key positions, says Andersen, before making a gloomy prediction: – In the end, no one dares to speak against the president anymore. In an e-mail to news, the IHF rejects the criticism from Andersen. They do not want to comment on the allegations that Moustafa has a dictatorial leadership style, but say that it is always a board or other body that makes the decisions, not Hassan Moustafa alone. – The president usually abstains from voting, which gives the board members full freedom to make decisions. (…) It has never been part of our regulations that you must have time limits on how long you can sit. There is not a family culture here and we do not have a monopoly on handball, says the IHF. The ethics manager is a former club mate. At the office in Basel, Moustafa is sitting around a large table when we meet him in September. In glass cabinets along the walls are old medals, trophies and plaques from various world championships. On this day, he has invited a number of presidents from European handball federations to the office. It’s an open house. They sit around the table and discuss the future of handball. Suddenly, news is also invited in and placed around the table. We are listening to a discussion about how Latvia has solved problems with youth recruitment and what financial challenges they have in the association in Moldova. Next to Moustafa sits Amal Khalifa. She is the general secretary of the IHF and from Egypt, just like the president. MEETING: General Secretary Amal Khalifa and Hassan Moustafa during a meeting with a number of presidents from various handball federations. Photo: Halvor Ekeland / news The head of the ethics committee, Hussein Moustafa Fathy, is also from Egypt. He has close ties to the president. For several years, Hussein Moustafa Fathy and Hassan Moustafa played on the same team. Fathy was also both general secretary and vice-president while Hassan Moustafa was president of the Egyptian Handball Federation. This is the man who has the ultimate responsibility for investigating whether the president has broken the IHF’s own guidelines. But the IHF sees no problems in the close ties between the two. – Hussein Fathy is also a judge in the sports arbitration court, which proves his legitimacy, Moustafa begins. – All cases that come to the committee are dealt with by a panel of three people. During his time as manager, Fathy has been involved in the processing of three cases. He has withdrawn from dealing with other cases due to conflicts of interest, the president claims. Hassan Moustafa (in the middle) in the stands during Norway’s opening game in the World Cup against Greenland. On the far left sits Secretary General of the IHF, Amal Khalifa. Far right is EHF president Michael Wiederer. Photo: Beate Oma Dahle / NTB Wildcards for nations that are not qualified In 2017, the Norwegian men’s national team took silver in the WC in France. This despite the fact that they were not actually qualified for the championship. The IHF has a tradition of handing out wildcards for the WC, i.e. a WC place for teams that did not make it through the original qualification. LAUGHTER: Kåre Geir Lio and Hassan Moustafa just before the EHF congress in September. Photo: Halvor Ekeland / news This practice has also been met with fierce criticism. In 2015, Australia was banned from the World Cup even though the country had qualified. According to the IHF, there were a number of criteria Australia did not meet. In came handball superpower Germany instead. In 2021, Greenland felt robbed when their qualifying tournament was canceled due to corona. The IHF gave the place to the USA. Reason? Among other things, the TV market could be further expanded with the participation of an important player in “the development of handball worldwide”, according to the IHF. – If so, is it good for the sport of handball? That’s probably good from a business perspective. But it is incredibly bad from a sporting perspective. At the same time, there is great uncertainty about how decisions are made about who will join, says Jens Sejer Andersen. But for Moustafa, the wildcard scheme makes sense. – There are no requirements to get wildcards. You have to choose so that you get a strong tournament. The name of the country/club and the skills are important when we hand out wildcards, explains Moustafa and adds: – It’s about what the WC needs. WRONG: When Moustafa was to call out the medalists after the WC in 2021, he presented Denmark as the silver winner. The only problem was that Denmark had not played the final at all. They finished third, while France took the silver behind Norway. Photo: Beate Oma Dahle / NTB During this year’s WC, the IHF again received criticism. Two years ago, they decided to increase the number of World Cup nations from 24 to 32. Norway exited the group stage with 59 more goals scored than conceded. – When the differences are so big, it has nothing to do with the WC. Increasing from 24 to 32 teams seems to me to be far too much. Although the basic idea is to spread the handball, this does not belong in a championship. Hassan Moustafa and the IHF have a wet dream that the USA will adopt handball. Until that happens, this has nothing to do with it, TV 2’s handball expert Bent Svele told news earlier in the championship. Not surprisingly, Moustafa disagrees. – We have made handball more global by increasing it to 32 teams in both senior, junior and youth championships. – Handball has become more and more popular all over the world, with larger numbers of spectators, more TV viewers and enormous development on social media, especially for the younger generation. It shows that the IHF’s rule changes keep handball’s development on the right track, he says. WC TROPHY: Hassan Moustafa hands out the WC trophy to the Norwegian national team after the WC in 2021. Photo: Beate Oma Dahle / NTB In two years, when his current presidential term ends, Hassan Moustafa will have turned 80. He has been in office since 2000. Nevertheless, it is not certain that the handball association will then get a new president. – I don’t know if I will run for re-election yet. I have been president for 23 years and I do not know how the situation will turn out and what will happen. I have two years to go, so I’ll make up my mind by then.
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Handball’s pharaoh – Sport Langlesing
