Michael Wiederer has announced he will seek a third term as president of the European Handball Federation (EHF).
The long-serving 69-year-old Austrian announced his candidacy in an official letter to the EHF’s 50 member federations, with elections to take place at the 17th EHF Congress on September 19 and 20 in Andau, Austria.
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Wiederer first became EHF president in 2016 when he was elected at that year’s congress, succeeding Jean Brihault from France, having served 25 years as secretary general of the EHF.
He was re-elected unopposed for a second term in 2021.
Wiederer wrote in his letter: “We are all fully aware of the challenges Europe faced within the last four years, and this for sure affected sport, and particularly the handball sport. The European Handball Federation, its leadership together with all those being in function, be it on an elected or professional level, worked hard to keep the sport on track.
“This was only possible due to excellent communication processes within the system, and thus including the national federations and the various stakeholders, as well due to the interaction with partners and media.
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By GlobalData“This must be continued on a business but also on a personal plane, understanding that handball needs the involvement of enthusiasts at all levels for securing the further development of the sport on technical and promotional fields.”
Wiederer concluded: “Considering the consistent overall situation and the tasks and responsibilities to come, I am highly motivated to lead the executive committee of the European Handball Federation in the next electoral period together with those representatives, you – the national federations – elect to the different functions on the sport-political and technical level.”
Wiederer is the fourth president of the EHF and the organization’s second-longest tenured leader.
The first EHF president was Swede Stefan Holmqvist, who headed the federation from its foundation in 1991 until 2004. Holmqvist was succeeded by Tor Lian, who was the president from 2004 to 2012. Brihault succeeded Lian at the EHF Congress 2012 and served in the role until 2016.
Wiederer has overseen significant commercial development at the EHF since taking the reins, most notably the near-€600 million ($724 million), 10-year deal with the Infront agency and DAZN, the international streaming platform, that began in 2020.
However, Infront and the EHF restructured the exclusive media and commercial rights agreement in 2023 after DAZN pulled out of the joint venture.
Through the revised model, which is still running until 2030, Infront still holds the media rights to the EHF national team (EHF Euro events, including qualifiers and the EHF Beach Handball Euro) and club competitions.
The agency also retained the marketing rights to the corresponding EHF national team tournaments, with the handball federation’s in-house EHF Marketing arm taking back the rights to club competitions. The production of the EHF Euro events is also fully handled by Infront Productions.
