EGYPT's was re-elected president of the International Handball Federation (IHF) in sweeping elections which took place in Cairo. Mustafa, IHF president for the past eight years, now has four more years ahead of him. His only opponent, Jeannot Kaiser from Luxembourg, received 25 votes. In the elections held at the JW Marriott Hotel in New Cairo, 115 eligible voters supported the 64-year-old office-bearer. "I am very happy that the congress honoured the efforts made by the IHF and my humble self," Mustafa said after his re-election. "I was re-elected because I have shown complete commitment and dedication to the sport and succeeded in fulfilling most of my promises to develop the sport worldwide," Mustafa said. "Since I became IHF president in 2000 and until now I did a lot of things to develop handball worldwide. And I'm sure the congress recognised that and appreciated my effort and that's why they re-elected me. "I concentrated on increasing IHF income to make money to develop handball. We have 183 countries playing handball but many of those countries need help to develop the sport. We have a very good project called Challenge Trophy. We organised training and refereeing courses. "There have been many achievements in the past years. The sport became more popular, in fact the third most popular sport in the 2004 Athens Olympics after athletics and swimming. More than 1.5 billion people watched the last World Championships on TV. And in Europe, handball has become the second most popular sport after football. "Meanwhile, we are working on attracting more federations to join the IHF. We have a special project to develop handball in nations like the US, China, India and Australia. All of this makes me proud that I've done a good job in handball. " Mustafa's story is one that contains many firsts -- the first non-European to become head of the IHF and the only Egyptian sportsman who has been a player, referee, coach and an administrator. And it was only natural that, as his career progressed, he was invariably the youngest holder of whatever position he occupied. The youngest of four brothers, Mustafa was born in July 1944 in Sayeda Zeinab, one of the oldest districts of Cairo. He grew up in the neighbourhood playing football in the streets before his passion was drawn to handball and it became his beloved sport. Mustafa still plays football with his friends during his leisure time. At the XXXII Ordinary Congress, Mustafa spoke about the activities and achievements made during the legislative period in the president's report and highlighted his perspective on the development of world handball. Three days before the elections, IHF Council and Confederations meetings were also held in Cairo. Delegates registered Bolivia, Indonesia, Malawi, Peru, Singapore, St Kitts and Nevis and Tadzhikistan as full members. The new National Federation of New Zealand was also accepted. The congress agreed to hold an extraordinary congress where important structural decisions are expected be taken. As for the rest of the seats, delegates from 147 countries elected the Spaniard Miguel Roca Mas as first vice president. The new secretary- general is the Frenchmen Joel Delplanque and Sandi Sola from Croatia was appointed treasurer. Naser Abu Marouq (Kuwait) and Francois Gnamian (Cote d'Ivoire) will continue to lead the Commission for Coaching and Methods (CCM) and the Medical Commission (MC) respectively. The congress elected Leon Kalin from Slovenia chairman of the Commission of Organising and Competition (COC). From now on the Playing Rules and Referees Commission (PRC) will be managed by German Manfred Prause and the Commission for Promotion and Public Relations (CPP) will be led by Fabiano Redondo from Brazil. The Congress elected Zoran Radojicic from Montenegro to the chairman of the Arbitration Tribunal. In contrast Charalambos Lottas from Cyprus continues to preside the Arbitration Commission. The auditors of the new legislative period are Gènal Ensari from Turkey and Alexis Manouvrier from France.
