Recruitment and cross-sport exchange at EHF Heads of Refereeing Convention

More than 60 participants attended the two-day event to analyse the current state of referee recruitment and exchange best practices aimed at building sustainable long-term strategies.

The convention began with a welcome speech by EHF President Michael Wiederer, and an introduction by EHF Chief Sports Officer Markus Glaser, followed by a presentation on the 2025/26 season in EHF Officiating, held by EHF Officiating Unit Coordinator George Bebetsos.

“Through presentations, panel discussions, and thematic working groups, participants addressed topics such as referee retention, abuse towards officials, women in refereeing, digital recruitment tools, incentives, and new recruitment channels,” underlined George Bebetsos.

Experts from other sport disciplines, such as football, volleyball and basketball were among the speakers at this year’s event, facilitating cooperation and knowledge transfer between federations.

Karim Sahmoud, Refereeing Development Coordinator at UEFA, Avelino Azevedo, Secretary of the European Refereeing Commission at CEV, Jutta Ehrmann, Head of Refereeing at DHB and Davorin Nakic, Head of Officiating at FIBA Europe took the stage to bring to attention proven recruitment strategies and provide valuable insights for sports officials.

“A key highlight of the convention was the participation of representatives from UEFA, FIBA Europe, and CEV, whose contributions added significant value to the discussions and underlined that referee recruitment and retention are common challenges across all team sports.”

“The cross-sport exchange of experiences, ideas, and best practices proved extremely valuable and demonstrated the importance of closer cooperation between European sports federations in officiating matters,” added George Bebetsos.

On the second day, participants received academic insights from Dr Tom Webb, Assistant Professor in Applied Global Sport Management, Research Centre for Resilient Business & Society, Coventry University, and took part in thematic working groups, where they contributed to developing concrete proposals on referee recruitment.

“The convention confirmed a shared willingness among federations to continue exchanging knowledge and working together towards the long-term development and sustainability of officiating across European sport,” concluded George Bebetsos.

Photos © Eva Manhart