NAVI MUMBAI HANDBALL CLUB

Handball has developed from a number of similar games, which were in existence at the start of the 20th century. These games were played in Central and Northern Europe and in 1926 Standard International Rules were established. In 1928 the International Amateur Handball Federation was established by 11 countries during the Summer Olympic Games. This body later became the present International Handball Federation.

In the early part of the century Handball was an eleven-a-side game played outdoors on a soccer pitch and indeed this version of the game is still played by ‘Veterans’ in countries such as Austria and Germany.

As the popularity of handball spread throughout Europe, major modifications were being considered in Northern Europe due to the more severe climate. The need for indoor handball became apparent. As an indoor game, handball became faster and more colourful and rapidly grew to become popular throughout Europe.

Indoor handball and the outdoor field version enjoyed equal popularity until the late 1960’s. In 1965 the Olympic Committee approved indoor handball for the Olympic Games and the name ‘Handball’ now refers exclusively to the indoors 7-a-side version.

The first IHF men’s indoor World Championships were held in 1954 and Sweden emerged as the champions. Three years later Czechoslovakia won the first Ladies Championships. The Scandinavian countries, along with Germany and the former Soviet Union, were traditionally the powerhouses in world Handball. This has been changing over the past decade as the popularity of the sport has increased in the Southern and Western European countries as well as in the Far East. We now have very strong national teams from other nations France, Denmark, Egypt, and Korea.

Handball has yet to gain a significant foothold in the English speaking world but even so is played in all parts of America, Canada, Australia, Britain and Ireland. Teams from these countries regularly compete at World and Olympic championships but as yet they have not broken into the top ranking nations.