At today’s IHF Extraordinary Congress held in Gothenburg, Sweden the IHF Member Federations voted on the recognition of the North America and Caribbean Handball Confederation (NACHC) and the South and Central American Handball Confederation (SCAHC) as new Continental Confederations. 
    
Mario Garcia de la Torre and Marcel Mancilla Bravo, the Presidents of the Constitution Committees of NACHC and SCAHC, respectively, spoke to the Member Federations and presented the situation and development of handball in the Pan American continent. Both highlighted the many benefits of the division of the continent and pointed out the achievements of the countries in their federations thanks to the International Handball Federation’s enormous efforts since the last IHF Ordinary Congress in 2017 – since then, 21 qualification events have been held and especially for the North American and the Caribbean countries new possibilities have opened up. Canada, for example, qualified for their first Men’s Youth World Championship ever and USA will take part in a Men’s Junior World Championship for the first time in 30 years. 

Afterwards, the motions to modify and amend Article 11 of the IHF Statutes were presented and the Member Federations were asked to vote on each individually. With 145 votes for the recognition of the two confederations and one abstention, the motion was accepted and the North America and Caribbean Handball Confederation and the South and Central American Handball Confederation are now officially recognised, raising the number of IHF Continental Confederations to six. 

Photo: Per Wahlberg