EHF strengthens technical cooperation with FIBA Europe

In December 2009 the Association of European Team Sports (ETS) was created with the main objective to represent and promote the interests of European team sports and to discuss questions concerning team sport on political and technical level in Europe.

The members of ETS are CEV (volleyball), EHF (handball), FIBA Europe (basketball), FIRA-AER (rugby), IIHF (ice hockey) and UEFA (football). ETS also allows its members to maintain friendly relations and to foster cooperation, exchange of experience and information between them.

In December 2010, Antonio Ojeda from FETC (FIBA Europe Techno Centre) was invited to Norway and Denmark at the occasion of the Women’s EHF EURO 2010. Find the full article here.

Back then, two specific tools – already in use for FIBA Europe – were piloted in handball: “Observer” is comprehensive analysis software (for refereeing, coaching and more) based on real-time video footage from the matches. The software is linked to an “Online Platform” in order to provide this data in a web interface.

On 9-11 February 2011 a workshop within the framework of the cooperation between FIBA Europe (Basketball) and the EHF took place in Vienna, Austria. The goal was to continue working on mutual projects, to strengthen the relationship and to introduce a new product to the EHF.

Digital ScoreSheet

At the workshop in Vienna, the product “Digital ScoreSheet” was presented for future use in Handball. It handles game data according to the rules of the game, which is connected to videos from the match. For instance, goals scored are clickable and viewable in real-time.

Thus the match officials are not only supported but can also double-check their remarks instantly and therefore improve the quality. After the final whistle, a DVD is produced automatically by the “Digital ScoreSheet”, including a video of the full match, the match report as a pdf as well as a digital score sheet.

The DigitalScoresheet data can easily be filtered and supports efficient searches for specific details.

Cooperation Milestones

As a result of the great success achieved at the pilot projects carried out, the EHF will have “Observer” software in use for all of their handball events in 2011.

The “Online Platform” will be further tested at several specific events as the M17 EHF EURO in the Czech Republic and the W19 EHF EURO in the Netherlands.

As a future project, the EHF and the FIBA Europe Techno Centre will research a software product that links videos to all match statistics and can be displayed at any place in real-time.

“Technology and experience from Basketball could be introduced in the fields of handball in an adapted version to bring great benefits. For instance, IT support for officiating is incorporated into game administration in Basketball. In order to find new, innovative solutions, a comparing view to other sports might bring ideas for a broad discussion in handball as well,” said Helmut Höritsch of the EHF Competence Academy & Network.

After the EHF Executive Committee have already approved the cooperation based on the successful pilot projects, the Technical Delegation of the EHF is now to decide on further steps in the cooperation, including the set-up of a schedule for project phase starts and project coordination.