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After the Olympics, the BBC is considering spending 20 million pounds – around NOK 185 million – to start a TV channel dedicated to what is considered mini-sport in the UK. It reports Glass.

Great Britain does not have a handball culture, but the sport was very popular among people both in arenas and at home in living rooms during the London Olympics. Hence, handball is highlighted as a possible investment sport for the channel that may be in the pipeline.

– It would be nice to have such a channel, now is the time to try to capitalize on the popularity of handball that England experienced during the Olympics Norwegian-British Britt Goodwin told bt.no.

He was part of the British Olympic team. The team lost all of its games, but the experience remained positive.

– It was great to be involved. The support we’ve gotten from the community and on Twitter has been incredible. We had to show England what handball was all about, and I was really surprised by how positively we were received. For example, I was afraid that the media would slaughter us a bit because we lost, but the opposite happened.

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Britt Goodwin (tv) was on the British Olympic team. (Photo: Scanpix NTB)

— Championship poisoning

For the world of handball, it would undoubtedly be a positive thing if a large country like England developed into a handball country to be reckoned with, not least financially. But TV 2’s long-time handball commentator Harald Bredeli believes that stable and long-term interest in English handball is a utopia.

“I’ve been wrong before and I hope I’m wrong this time, but I don’t think Great Britain will ever be a country to be reckoned with in handball. It’s funny that there was such enthusiasm and interest in the sport when the British “discovered” it during the Olympics, but I think that’s a result of championship intoxication. Just like we did at the Olympics in Lillehammer. It was a great event, as were the Sydney Olympics in 2000 – and Australia hadn’t really been a handball country at those championships, he said.

Loss of financial support

And even if the powerful government channel is considering launching a handball venture in one form or another, there is currently little indication that the UK will increase its sporting investment in handball after the Olympics. On the contrary, according to Goowin.

– I doubt whether financial support for this sport will be good enough. The financial support that has existed so far will most likely be lost UK Sport. This is likely to happen in a sport that could not earn Britain a medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

UK Sport annually supports British sport with around £100 million. Without support from there, handball got worse in England.

— This is a shame, because the demand from the younger generation who want to start handball is currently very large. “The financial situation also means we are not allowed to participate in WC qualifying now,” said Goodwin.

– Best in the bar

Handball leagues exist in the United Kingdom. Most of the players are foreign students.

“The level is like the Norwegian 5th division,” said Goodwin.

However: On the men’s side, the Great Danes team has participated in the European Cup. Several years ago, they were interested in meeting Stord.

– There they pay more attention to their achievements on the bar, and not on the field grins Harald Bredeli – and refers to the drunken party mentioned among others, by bt.no.

Whether and when the channel will become part of the BBC’s announced smaller sports channels remains unclear. Bredeli remains hopeful, even though he is pessimistic.

– There is nothing better than Olympic handball which causes a new area to look at handball, he says.