It turns out: European Youth Handball Championship will not be held in Tel Aviv Israel today

A blow to Israel.

The management of the Handball Association will meet tonight (Sunday), and the main and troubling issue on the agenda - making a difficult decision - is the announcement of the cancellation of hosting the European Youth Handball Championship, which was planned to take place in the summer in Tel Aviv.

This gathering comes after many weeks of claims of procrastination, letters, calls and repeated inquiries - the Ministry of Sports has not yet presented its support for the tournament - whose production cost is estimated at NIS 1.5 million.

The union claims that even before the candidacy for hosting the tournament in Israel, messages were sent that the Ministry of Sports would support its existence.

The Handball Association presented its candidacy to the European Union, and even won hosting.

Only since then - no official commitment has been given, and of course not the amount of support - and the procrastination has continued - despite requests made by the chairman of the Knesset's sports lobby, MK Simon Davidson, who sided with the union.

Tonight, if there is no clear last-minute change - the handball association management may make the decision, due to the inability to financially fund such a tournament without support - which could lead to a financial collapse of the association and a direct meeting of teams - which are in intensive activity week.

The national team will host Hungary on Wednesday as part of the playoffs for the World Cup, and the young teams - the reserve and youth teams preparing for tournaments to be held in Greece and Hungary for the tasks expected for them in the summer.

As soon as the decision is made - a notice will be given to the European Union, and the great fear is that sanctions will be taken against Israeli handball - from fines to suspension.

The chairman of the Handball Association, Doron Gelfand, said even before the meeting: "Indeed, we will hold the board meeting tonight, after which we will have to inform the European Union that we are unable to hold the tournament in Israel.

"The European Union is already aware of the situation, and demanded final clarification last week." 

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