Hoyvík handball club H71 announce that they have appealed the European Handball Federation Court of Handball’s decision to rule in favor of Ukraine’s HC Galychanka Lviv on a scheduled match that has not been played as yet, citing it as unfair.
The court should have taken into account that this matter was a result of unforeseen circumstances, H71 maintains.
Last week the EHF declared that the Court of Handball had ruled that the women from H71 lose their quarterfinal match against HC Galychanka Lviv 10-0, because the Faroese team failed to show up at the match on February 13th.
H71 chose not to travel to Ukraine after the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs advised citizens against traveling to the country due to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, and after the teams failed to reach an agreement regarding the match, the decision fell to the Court of Handball.
“The main point of the appeal is that H71 is clearly the only handball club outside of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus to be thrown out of European cup without the possibility of having their match rescheduled from February 13th,” Anna Dam, chair of H71 says.
Anna Dam points out that on February 14th, the day after H71 was supposed to face against HC Galychanka Lviv, the EHF cancelled a match between Ukrainian HC Motor Zaporozhye and PSG from France, which was supposed to be played a few days later, due to the situation in Ukraine.
“It doesn’t add up that the EHF says it’s safe to play in Ukraine on Sunday the 13th but then changes its mind on Monday the 14th and takes the concerns of a bigger club seriously, although the political situation is unchanged from the previous day.”
“On the contrary, H71 is punished because the EHF had not taken the necessary measures in time,” Ms. Dam said. “Although we are a tiny club in the North Atlantic, we feel compelled to speak up and appeal so the EHF has the chance to right this wrong.”
H71 stresses that the club tried their best to reach an agreement with their Ukrainian opponents, who did not seem as willing to resolve the issue.
HC Galychanka Lviv has agreed to the possibility of having the match in the Czech Republic, and H71 has now taken them up on the suggestion and expressed their willingness to play the match on Czech ground on March 23rd or 24th. The winner fo the quarterfinals is supposed to face off against Rocasa Gran Canaria on the 26th or 27th.
Ms. Dam says H71 is even willing to take care of all the organization and cover all the expenses.