This is a column, and the views expressed here are those of Ola Selby.
The re-election of Hassan Moustafa as IHF president is not just a personal victory – it is a collective failure of the global handball community. Once again, the sport has turned away from reform, transparency and accountability. Instead, it has rewarded a system built on silence, loyalty and the preservation of power.This election was never truly about vision or leadership. It was about control – and control won.
In the weeks and months leading up to the IHF Congress in Cairo, one thing stood out more than anything else: silence. As I reported repeatedly for GoHandball, federation after federation declined to speak openly about the election, their preferences, or even the process itself. Doors were closed, questions unanswered, interviews declined. Not a single serious public debate took place.
That silence was not accidental. It was strategic.
In my previous column, “A closed door, three candidacies and an election shrouded in silence,” I warned that when transparency disappears, democracy becomes a formality rather than a principle. Cairo proved that concern justified. When an incumbent president can avoid media scrutiny entirely, while challengers struggle to even be heard, the outcome is already tilted.
Challengers without a fair fight
Gerd Butzeck, Tjark de Lange and Franjo Bobinac entered the race knowing the odds were against them – but likely not expecting the scale of resistance to change. Each, in different ways, represented an alternative path for the IHF: modernization, clearer governance structures, and a break from decades of centralized power.
They must now be deeply disappointed – not only by the result, but by the process. Because this was not a contest of ideas. It was a demonstration of how difficult it is to challenge an established system when voting blocs are secured long before ballots are cast, and when loyalty is rewarded more than competence.
Even before delegates arrived in Cairo, the numbers told the story. Strong backing from African and Asian federations, combined with support from smaller handball nations, made the threshold of 89 votes required to unseat Moustafa almost unreachable. This was not persuasion at work; it was arithmetic.
Four uncertain years ahead
The tragedy is not that Hassan Moustafa won another term. The tragedy is that handball once again failed to ask itself what kind of federation it wants to be.
An organization where power is concentrated, criticism is discouraged, and reform is treated as a threat will not move the sport forward. It will protect itself. And that is exactly what this election represents: self-preservation over progress.
Athletes, coaches, fans and emerging handball nations deserve better than four more years of stagnation wrapped in political stability. But until enough federations are willing to speak openly, and vote accordingly, nothing will change.
Handball had a chance to turn a page in Cairo. Instead, it chose to cling to the past. Again.