By Boris Esono Nwenfor
BUEA, Cameroon – The Great Britain Women’s Team has been chosen as a wildcard to replace Cameroon by the International Handball Federation after the Handball Lionesses failed to get visas to travel to Debrecen, Hungary, where the tournament is taking place.
On Tuesday, 9 April, the IHF Executive Committee met in an extraordinary meeting to discuss the limited options and decided to award the place mainly under the light of development purposes to keep the competition as fair as possible. Great Britain is part of the IHF New Markets Project and is keen to participate, as well as able to arrive on very short notice in Hungary.
Great Britain has only played at one previous Olympic Games, after they were awarded a host place for London 2012, but finished bottom of their group. GB team will take on Hungary, Japan and Sweden from 11-14 April and they must finish in the top two, out of four teams, to qualify for the Games.
Six teams have already obtained their Paris 2024 Olympic quota spots in women’s handball. The six qualified teams include reigning champions France, Denmark, the Republic of Korea, Angola, Brazil, and Norway.
“The national team of Cameroon failed to comply with the documentation required for the visa to travel to Hungary in time to take part in the Paris 2024 Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournament #1, in Debrecen, Hungary, despite all efforts made by the Hungarian Handball Federation, the International Handball Federation, the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the German Embassy in Yaoundé, Cameroon over the last weeks,” a release from the International Handball Federation indicated.
“Therefore, and by article IV.1.2.3 of the Regulations for IHF Competitions, the IHF aimed to award the place to another African team, but all the teams contacted by the IHF together with the African Handball Confederation (CAHB), could not confirm their participation, due to the lack of time for preparations and travel. Therefore, according to the article quoted above, “the open place will be awarded as a wild card by the IHF Executive Committee.”
The objective of the decision according to the International Handball Federation was to allow all teams a fair chance of having the same number of matches to try to find the best possible balance and to provide the best chance of progression for all the teams involved.
Great Britain will face Hungary on Thursday, 11 April, at 15:30 CEST, featuring against Japan on 12 April, at 20:30 CEST, with the last match being against Sweden, on 14 April, at 16:45 CEST.
