Asian Handball Federation

The Asian Handball Federation (AHF) is the governing body of handball and beach handball in Asia. It has 44 member countries, mostly located on the Asian continent, but excludes the transcontinental countries with territory in both Europe and Asia – Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russian Federation and Turkey – which are instead members of European Handball Federation (EHF). Three other states located along the western fringe of Asia – Cyprus, Armenia and Israel – are also EHF members. Hong Kong and Macau, although not independent countries (both are special regions of China), are also members of the AHF.

One of IHF's six continental confederations, the AHF was formed officially on 26 August 1974 in Tehran (Imperial State of Iran), on the sidelines of the 7th Asian Games 1974. The AHF headquarters is located in Kuwait City (Kuwait). Its current president is Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah from Kuwait, who is a member of House of Al Sabah, the ruling family of Kuwait.

History

The Asian Handball Federation (AHF) is in one way absolutely unique: during its history to date it has had only two presidents, and they were father and son.

When in 1976 the federation was officially founded and Sheikh Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah was elected as president, the sheikh had already contributed significantly to efforts around the sport. In 1974, during the 7th Asian Games in Tehran (Iran), he applied as head of the Kuwaiti delegation at the executive committee for the inclusion of handball into the sports programme and the foundation of a continental handball federation. Handball was at that point already widely spread in Asia. The leaders of the Asian Games accepted handball as an official sport and asked the sheikh to act as interim president and to prepare the statutes of the federation. In this task he was supported by the Secretary General Syed Abul Hassan (Pakistan).

Presidents

^1 Sheikh Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah died on 2 August 1990 during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait while defending Dasman Palace. Mohammed Ali Abul served as acting president until the war finished in 1991. ^2 Sheikh Ahmed stepped down from AHF presidency following a guilty verdict against him in a Swiss forgery trial. Therefore, 1st Vice-President Yoshihide Watanabe was appointed as acting president till further orders.

Secretaries-General

Executive committee

The following is the AHF Executive Committee for 2017 – 2021.

Council

The following is the AHF Council for the term 2021 — 2025.

Commissions

The following are the AHF Commission members for the term 2017—2021.

Tournaments

AHF

• Asian Men's Handball Championship
• Asian Women's Handball Championship
• Asian Men's Junior Handball Championship
• Asian Women's Junior Handball Championship
• Asian Men's Youth Handball Championship
• Asian Women's Youth Handball Championship
• Asian Games
• Asian Youth Games
• Asian Men's U-17 Handball Championship
• Asian Women's U-17 Handball Championship

Club

• Asian Club League Handball Championship
• Asian Women's Club League Handball Championship

Beach

• Asian Beach Handball Championship
• Asian Youth Beach Handball Championship
• Asian Beach Games

Zones

West Asia

• West Asian Women's Handball Championship
• West Asian Games

South Asia

• South Asian Men's Handball Championship
• South Asian Women's Handball Championship
• South Asian Games

Southeast Asia

• Southeast Asian Games

East Asia

• East Asian Games

Current champions

(Titles) (*) Record titles

Disputes

A dispute arises between the International Handball Federation (IHF) and the AHF following a controversial decision to replace referees of opening match of Asian Men's Handball Qualification Tournament for the 2008 Summer Olympics between Kuwait and South Korea played on 1 September 2007 in Toyota (Japan). AHF replaced experienced and IHF nominated German referees Lemme and Ulrich with Jordanian referees Al-Shoubaki and Hirzallah, neither of whom stood on the list of IHF-qualified referees having "IHF Status", meaning that they had not completed the Global Referees Training Programme (GRTP), a program established by the IHF for the development of IHF-level referees. The Jordanian referee pair completely destroyed the South Korean team with more than 20 wrong decisions only in first half of the match which favoured the Kuwaiti team. IHF COC Chairman Aleksandr Kozhukhov (Russia) who was appointed by IHF as supervisor for the event and member of AHF Technical Committee Khalaf Al-Enezi (Kuwait) intervened into the matter at half-time of the match and asked the referees to be fair but the South Korean team nevertheless could not get the result in their own favour losing the match by 28–20.

Later, on 17 December 2007, in an IHF Council meeting held in Paris (France), IHF decided not to approve the results of the event conduct by AHF and decided to replay both men's and women's events due to biased referee allegations. AHF objected against this decision and warned all the AHF member federations not to participate in the replay organised by IHF. Only South Korea and Japan participated in the IHF replay and South Korea won both men's and women's matches. On February 5, 2008, AHF imposed a fine of $1000 on both the Japan and South Korea and banned them from participating in any event organised by AHF until the fine is paid.

When the matter becomes that complicated, both AHF and IHF mutually decided to took the case to Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for decision. The Kazakhstan Handball Federation and Kuwait Handball Association also want to become a party in the case but CAS refused their appeal. On 20 May 2008, after hearing all the parties, CAS decided to approve the result of IHF men's replay and also approved the AHF organised women's event results.

Members

First level

• Bahrain Bahrain
• China China
• Iran Iran
• Iraq Iraq
• Japan Japan
• Kuwait Kuwait
• Qatar Qatar
• Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia
• South Korea South Korea
• United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates
• Oman Oman

Second level

• Chinese Taipei Chinese Taipei
• Jordan Jordan
• Kazakhstan Kazakhstan
• Lebanon Lebanon
• North Korea North Korea
• Syria Syria
• Thailand Thailand

Third level

• Afghanistan Afghanistan
• Bangladesh Bangladesh
• Bhutan Bhutan ✝
• Brunei Brunei
• Cambodia Cambodia
• Timor-Leste East Timor
• Hong Kong Hong Kong, China
• India India
• Indonesia Indonesia
• Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan
• Laos Laos ✝
• Macau Macau China
• Malaysia Malaysia
• Maldives Maldives
• Mongolia Mongolia
• Nepal Nepal
• Pakistan Pakistan
• Palestine Palestine
• Philippines Philippines
• Singapore Singapore
• Sri Lanka Sri Lanka
• Tajikistan Tajikistan
• Turkmenistan Turkmenistan
• Uzbekistan Uzbekistan
• Vietnam Vietnam
• Yemen Yemen

• ✝ non-active member

Sponsors

• Al-Kass Sports Channel
• SK Group
• Molten Corporation
• Gerflor

External links

• (in English and Arabic)