International Amateur Handball Federation


The International Amateur Handball Federation was the administrative and controlling body for handball and field handball. IAHF was responsible for the organisation of handball's major international tournaments, notably the IHF World Men's Handball Championship, which commenced in 1938, and the IHF World Men's Outdoor Handball Championship, which commenced in 1938.

History

On 13. September 1925 the first international field handball game between Germany and Austria happened. Because of this event, uniform rules and an international association were desired.
The International Amateur Athletics Federation was founded in 1926 as a commission to govern all ball games played with the hands, such as field-handball, court-handball, volleyball and basketball. In the same year the first international field handball rules were created in The Hague.
Two years later during the 1928 Summer Olympics the IAAF invited national representatives to create an independent federation. Representatives from 11 countries founded the International Amateur Handball Federation on 4th of August 1928 in Amsterdam. The later IOC president Avery Brundage and Lauri Pihkala how invented Pesäpallo were founding members.
The International Olympic Committee recognized handball as Olympic sport in 1933. Three years later during the 1936 Summer Olympics field handball had its first and last appearance at the Summer Olympics. At this point IAHF had 23 members.
In 1938 the first Outdoor and Indoor World Men's Handball Championship were organized by the IAHF.
In 1946 the successor the International Handball Federation was founded by Denmark and Sweden.

Basketball

In 1934 the oversight of Basketball was transfer to the Fédération Internationale de Basketball.

Volleyball

The first attempt to create an independent volleyball federation at the 1934 IAHF congress in Stockholm. During a friendly match between the Czech and French national teams on 26 August 1946 the two nations and Poland created a document to create an international federation. The following year 14 nations founded the FIVB in Paris between 18 and 20 April.

Presidents

Members

Founding members

Others

In 1936 there were 23 members.
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