IHF Trophy/EHF Trophy

[theroonba]

2 questions here:

1) After the EHF Trophy for the smaller countries became a youth event (U-23) 7 or 8 years ago, what outlet do the national teams of the smaller federations have for national team handball except for the IHF Emerging Nations Championship? Many of the teams (Ireland, Azerbaijan, Malta, etc.) have continued competing in the EHF Trophy with their U-23 national teams, but their senior national teams have not joined the regular EHF competitions (European Championship qualifying, for example)

2) The IHF Trophy is meant to be about development in developing handball nations across all continents, but it is only Under-21 level. Many teams who have played in this tournament have not played international handball (with senior national team) ever, or for a very long time. So how can the national team develop if there is no outlet for them after they reach 21 years of age? For example, in Oceania, only Australia and New Zealand play at senior level these days, despite the presence of other competent teams in the region (Tahiti, New Caledonia), who seem to only play at U-21 level now.

Incidentally, I maintain a world ranking of all handball nations (men and women) based on results in international competitions from 2000-2020, with continent-wise rankings also available on the page. It's certainly more useful as a comparison of teams than the practically useless IHF ranking. Many of the teams on the ranking have not played for a number of years, however, and this is related to my questions above.

http://theroonba.com/handball/men/ranking.html
http://theroonba.com/handball/women/ranking.html

[mikh]

The EHF teams you mentioned have played in the Qualification Phase 1 of the Euro 2022 earlier this year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Euro ... on_Phase_1
I agree that EHF has to make the effort to provide more competition for these teams, since the little funding they receive nationally is largely dependant on the chances they get to qualify for WCh or ECh.

You're right about Tahiti and New Caledonia, but since they're TOM and DOM of France and not full members of IHF, I'm not sure they can qualify for any WCh (unlike Greenland for example). Their national leagues are integrated in the French national system and any good player coming out has a chance to move to Europe and represent France. Didier Dinart is an example, since he's a Gouadeloupe born French player.