Bribery is hurting handball - By Frank Bachner

Corrupt referees, manipulating officials: In handball, matches can apparently be bought. At the center of the controversy is the president of the IHF.

The fall of Uwe Schwenker is noticeable on the golf course. One simply has to look at the time. In the past, during the good times, Schwenker played a few holes and then went to the office until 10 p.m. Back then, he was still one of the most influential officials of the German Handball Federation. In those days, he was also still the manager of THW Kiel, the jewel of German handball: German champion numerous times as only recently for 2009, and the winner of the Champions League 2007. Now Schwenker plays golf in the afternoon as well. He no longer has to go to the office.

The good times for Schwenker ended on April 7. On that day, the 50-year old lost his job as the manager of THW Kiel after he had already given up his post with the federation. The former national team player is at the center of a scandal which has shaken German handball. So far, there are only accusations, nothing has been proven yet but the circumstantial evidence speaks for itself.

Schwenker is alleged to have bribed referees. He supposedly manipulated 10 games in the Champions League, the bel étage of European handball. But most importantly, he is accused of interfering in the game that Kiel fans celebrated as if they won the lottery: the finals of the Champions League 2007. Kiel beat SG Flensburg-Handewitt and the victory assured Kiel sponsorship deals, money and an enhanced image. Before the finals, ?96,000 is supposed to have changed hands.

Schwenker denies all of that but there are minutes of meetings and there are witness testimonies. Andreas Rudolph, president of the Bundesliga team HSV Hamburg, says that Schwenker had alluded to manipulation of the game in a conversation during a meeting at Rudolph's country home.

According to Thorsten Storm, manager of the Bundesliga team Rhein-Neckar Löwen, the former Kiel coach, Zvonimir Serdaru?ić, had reported bribery in collaboration with Schwenker. Serdaru?ić had transferred from Kiel to the Löwen. In the meantime, he has withdrawn from the contract again. Prosecutors have long since become involved.

But this is no longer just about the THW Kiel. It is about bribery and corruption in international handball. It is just that through the case of Kiel, increasingly more details are coming to light. These days, just how much manipulation exists in the popular Olympic discipline is emerging.

One example is the scandalous game between Kuwait and South Korea on Sept. 1, 2007 in Toyota, Japan. This was a decisive match as it allowed the winning team to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. South Korea was the odds-on favorite but Kuwait won 28:20. The referees from Jordan had made calls so one-sidedly in favor of Kuwait that spectators were throwing plastic bottles onto the court.

In South Korea, where handball is widely popular, millions of fans were shocked and outraged. The Referees Commission of the International Handball Federation (IHF) analyzed 38 controversial scenes of the game on video. The conclusion: Kuwait benefited 38 times from the referee's decisions.

And that despite the fact that the Jordanians were not supposed to be umpiring at all as they did not even have a license from the IHF. Two experienced Germans were supposed to run the game, Frank Lemme and Bernd Ullrich. But three hours before the game, they were replaced by the Jordanians. Lemme watched the game from the stands and said, "I have never experienced anything worse - it was shameful."

Many experts claim that Hassan Moustafa, president of the IHF, was behind the whole debacle. He is an Egyptian who apparently runs his federation like a dictator, who charges travel expenses without receipts and who does not think much of doping checks. Moustafa owed a Kuwaiti a favor, that much is certain, and that Kuwaiti is very influential. Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah is the president of the Asian Handball Federation.

Angrily, the International Olympic Committee threatened to throw handball out of the Olympic lineup, if the controversial game was not repeated immediately. The IHF conceded and South Korea finally got to play in Beijing after all. Moustafa denies any involvement in the scandal.

Yet nobody believes in chance anymore. Not in South Korea, where handball players are huge stars anyway. And Egypt, where handball has become a national sport by now, also has its skeptics. And the fans in other countries are stunned by the continuous flow of revelations.

The German referee Ullrich reported that a stranger suddenly placed $50,000 (?41,000) in his luggage at a game in Russia between Chekhov and the Spanish club Valladolid - a game for the European Handball Federation Cup. Chekhov officials deny any attempts at manipulation. A French referee also claims that he received "an envelope with many euros" from a Russian after the first round of the Women's Handball Champions League finals between the Russian team Zvenigorod and Hypo Niederösterreich. He claims to have returned the envelope immediately. The fact that attractive, young women offer their services to referees is already considered normal.

And all that, many critics say, is due to the fact that the world federation has no clear guidelines for referees to abide by and that bribery or bribery attempts are not being punished consistently enough.

Well, it's not unusual if the president himself comes under suspicion. But now, Moustafa has gone too far. Jean Kaiser from Luxembourg, a former official of the European federation, will run against the Egyptian for president at the IHF congress in June. But Moustafa still appears pretty relaxed. No wonder: He has a home game - the IHF congress will take place in Cairo.