The Mediterranean Handball Confederation (Arabic: اتحاد كرة اليد البحر الأبيض المتوسط; French: Confédération Méditerranéenne du Handball), officially abbreviated as MHC, is the governing body of handball in the Mediterranean region.
History
On 12 June 1999 in Cairo (Egypt), the Mediterranean Handball Association (MHA) has been established among the following countries: Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Libya, Morocco, Portugal, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Yugoslavia. The first president of MHA was Dr. Hassan Moustafa (Egypt).[1]
On 22 February 2003, in Rome (Italy), the Mediterranean Handball Association decided to change the original name into Mediterranean Handball Confederation and an Executive Committee was elected Francesco Purromuto (Italy) (President), Rui Coelho (Portugal), Jaume Conejero (Spain), Jean Férignac (France), Taoufik Khouaja (Tunisia) and General Charalambos Lottas (Cyprus), having the task to perform all the necessary acts to summon the MHC Congress for the approval of the MHC Rules of procedure, for the election of the Statutory bodies.
The 1st Congress was held on 28 and 29 February 2004, in Castelo Branco (Portugal), and the following countries participate as foundation members: Albania, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Libya, Malta, Portugal, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey. Each year, the Mediterranean Handball Confederation organises the Mediterranean Men's Handball Championship and Mediterranean Women's Handball Championship on different dates. These competitions are preferably reserved to young athletes.[2]
From 24 to 29 February 2004, the first Mediterranean Men's Handball Championship, was conducted under the aegis of the MHC, in Castelo Branco (Portugal). From 21 to 28 June 2004, the first Mediterranean Women's Handball Championship was held in Misano Adriatico (Italy). The Mediterranean Games with handball as an event were organized for the first time in Tunis 1967 (men's tournament) and Split 1979 (women's tournament).
