Type Handball federation Area served France Website www.ff-handball.org | Location Paris Key people Joël Delplanque | |
 | ||
The French Handball Federation (French: Fédération française de handball) (FFHB) is the national handball association in France. FFHB organizes team handball within France and represents French handball internationally. It sorts under the French Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. The federation is a member of the European Handball Federation (EHF) and the International Handball Federation (IHF). The president of FFHB is Joël Delplanque.
Contents
Club handball
The federation organizes the National League for club teams, and the French Cups for men and women (French: Coupe de France masculine and French: Coupe de France Féminine). The winners of these tournaments qualify for European Leagues and Cups — the EHF Men's Champions League and the EHF Women's Champions League, and the Men's EHF Cup Winners' Cup and Women's EHF Cup Winners' Cup.
International handball
France hosted the men's World Championship in 1970 and 2001, and the women's World Championship in 2007.
The men's team
The men's national team is reigning World Champions, Olympic Champions and, since Jan 31st, 2010, European Champions, making it the first team in the world to win the three titles in a row. It is widely regarded as the best current men's handball team in the world. The team has won the World Championship title four times, in 1995, 2001, 2009 and 2011, and the European Championship twice, in 2006 and 2010. The men's team won gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Head coach for the men's national team is former player Claude Onesta.
The female team
The best results for the France women's national handball team are the victory at the 2003 World Championships in Croatia, and the silver medals from the 1999 World Championships. The team was placed fifth at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Head coach for the women's national team is Alain Portes.