Denmark are historic world champions in handball – controversial judges had to judge the final: “They are innocent”

The WC final in handball came to a historic end. Denmark beat France in the final to become the first men’s team to win three consecutive World Cup titles. The final match in Stockholm was refereed by a controversial pair of referees.

It was at the beginning of the handball World Cup that Danish TV2 came out with a report that had been kept secret until then, in which eight pairs of referees were suspected of match-fixing in the years 2016 and 2017.

Two of the pairs were involved in the ongoing championship in Sweden and Poland, and the European Handball Federation EHF said that it did not see anything suspicious in the designated matches.

When the WC ended today, it was one of the accused pairs, the North Macedonians Gjorgji Nachevski and Slave Nikolov, who served justice in the final between France and Denmark. The former was also linked in the report to organized crime in the Balkans.

– This case is quite old, but I have full confidence that it has been thoroughly investigated by the European Union, by Austrian police and Europol.

– They have not found any reasons for any sanctions against these judges. Therefore, they are innocent, explains the International Handball Federation’s head of referees, Per Morten Sødal Sportbladet.

Lauge Danish final hero

One is innocent until proven guilty, the judge base pointed out.

– For us, the best handball players and teams should be judged by the best referees.

Looking at recent championships, the final itself had a familiar outcome.

Not in this WC tournament either did any team manage to stop the Danish dynamite. Denmark thus secured a third straight World Cup gold as the first men’s team ever.

The Danes got the match off to a flying start, but France managed to work their way back before the break. The Danish odd-goal lead still grew after halftime and the red and white stormed to their third straight title – and also their third overall – with the numbers 34-29.

– I can’t understand this, I’m so proud. We have had a fantastic tournament. Today we needed a little extra help, and we got that from the bench. They solved this, says the Danish national team captain Nicolai Jacobsen emotionally DR.

Celebrated hero in the Danish team was Rasmus Lauge. Big star Mikkel Hansen had a more hidden role as Lauge delivered a phenomenal ten goals in 27 minutes of play.

Final hero Lauge has had injury problems and missed the start of the championship. Before his discharge in the final, he had played just 23 minutes without putting a single ball in.

– We have missed him. He gave us a little more speed than Hansen could give today, and that was incredibly important, continues Jacobsen.

Sweden missed out on a medal at home

Sweden entered the home championship with high hopes. Last year they took gold in the EC and the year before that they won silver in the WC.

In the home championship, where the team played in Gothenburg and Stockholm, the quarter-final victory against Egypt was expensive. Game engine Jim Gottfridsson went there with a hand fracture that required surgery.

Without its superstar, Sweden could not beat France in the semi-finals. In the bronze medal match against Spain, there was another heavy defeat.

This after a blue-yellow collapse. Despite a four-goal lead at halftime, there was no bronze medal celebration in front of the home crowd, as Spain turned around and won 39–36 in front of over 22,000 in the stands in the Swedish capital.

– We completely neglect it in the second half. I don’t understand what we are dealing with, Oscar Bergendahl told SVT.

The high-scoring match offered a historically high number of late goals for the Swedish side. Never before has a Swedish men’s national team conceded 39 goals in a match, the previous record was 37.

– There is nothing meaningful to say, I am terribly dissatisfied. Tom, sad and disappointed, commented the team’s star goalkeeper Andreas Palicka The Express.