Enlarge image
André Fuhr's dubious methods are the cause of the turbulence
Photo: Jürgen Pflugsdörfer / IMAGO / Sportsword
After the massive allegations of psychological violence in women's handball, the German Handball Federation (DHB) has appointed the first people to its announced expert commission.
The DHB Presidium appointed Carmen Borggrefe and Christian Pfeiffer, among others, as experts "who should focus on what happened and, above all, give impetus for improved prevention".
The association announced this on Saturday morning.
Carmen Borggrefe heads the “Sports Sociology and Management” department at the Institute for Sport and Human Movement Sciences at the University of Stuttgart and is a member of the DHB’s Science Network.
Christian Pfeiffer, as former director of the Lower Saxony Criminological Research Institute and former Lower Saxony Minister of Justice, is to examine criminal law relevance.
The revelations by SPIEGEL about the Bundesliga coach André Fuhr and his rude manners with players had previously led to violent turbulence in the clubs concerned and in the DHB.
In the Bundesliga, Fuhr had worked for HSG Blomberg-Lippe, TuS Metzingen and Borussia Dortmund, and the DHB had employed the coach between 2019 and 2022 as a coach for the junior selection.
BVB had already agreed in September to terminate the contract with coach Fuhr, who categorically denies all allegations to SPIEGEL through his lawyer.
"All of handball has to face the fundamental process, but it's also about lessons for future action," said DHB President Andreas Michelmann: "We are responsible for the players entrusted to us, but we also have to clearly see where we need help need to meet the demands placed on us.
That's why we act.
With the people who have now been appointed, we have recruited top executives in their respective fields.«
Read a comment on this – »The culture of looking the other way«
Also national coach Gaugisch in the criticism
According to the DHB, the commission is to be supplemented “with a representative for those affected by athletes in Germany and a specialist advisor”, and the committee is to start its work “soon after the European Championships for women (November 4th to 20th) at the beginning of December”.
The national team is trained by Markus Gaugisch.
In the past few days, Gaugisch has also been asked what he knew about the serious allegations.
mfu/sid
