Final Standings

Place	Country	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1	Moldova	6	5	0	1	223	85	10
2	Azerbaijan	6	5	0	1	179	104	10
3	Great Britain	6	4	0	2	114	134	8
4	Malta	6	2	0	4	107	158	4
5	Liechtenstein	6	2	0	4	126	160	4
6	Ireland	6	0	0	6	84	188	0

Reference: Compiled from Results & Table in [1]

Group A Results

Date	Time	Team 1		Team 2
17.12.2003	15:00	Azerbaijan	32	Liechtenstein	16
17.12.2003	17:00	Great Britain	9	Moldova	38
17.12.2003	20:00	Malta	25	Ireland	14
18.12.2003	09:00	Azerbaijan	29	Great Britain	14
18.12.2003	11:00	Liechtenstein	17	Malta	20
18.12.2003	13:00	Ireland	6	Moldova	47
18.12.2003	17:00	Liechtenstein	23	Great Britain	27
18.12.2003	19:00	Moldova	46	Malta	13
18.12.2003	21:00	Ireland	10	Azerbaijan	36
19.12.2003	15:00	Azerbaijan	20	Moldova	19
19.12.2003	17:00	Liechtenstein	23	Ireland	22
19.12.2003	19:00	Great Britain	19	Malta	16
20.12.2003	13:00	Great Britain	26	Ireland	12
20.12.2003	15:00	Moldova	41	Liechtenstein	16
20.12.2003	17:00	Malta	17	Azerbaijan	43

Reference: [1]

Group A Table

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
*Azerbaijan	5	5	0	0	160	76	10
*Moldova	5	4	0	1	191	66	8
^Great Britain	5	3	0	2	95	118	6
^Malta	5	2	0	3	91	139	4
+Liechtenstein	5	1	0	4	95	142	2
+Ireland	5	0	0	5	66	157	0

Reference: [1]

Finals & Placement Matches

Date	Time	Team 1		Team 2
		5th-6th Place
21.12.2003	11:00	Ireland	18	Liechtenstein	31
		3rd-4th Place
21.12.2003	13:00	Malta	16	Great Britain	19
		Final
21.12.2003	15:00	Moldova	32	Azerbaijan	19

Reference: [1]

Report

The Men’s Challenge Trophy was the European Handball Federations competition for emerging Nations. Having competed with club sides & countries like Greenland in the mid-1990s, Ireland entered this competition for the first time in 1999.

In Ireland’s third time entering the competition in 2003, they lost all their matches for the second time in a row, although this time they came close against tiny Liechtenstein in the group phase, losing 23-22, only to lose by a wide margin (31-18) in the 5th-6th place playoff to the same opposition.

Moldova won the Tournament this time around, after losing the previous two finals.

About

Olympic Handball, sometimes called Team Handball or European Handball, is a team sport similar to Indoor Soccer or Futsal, except hands are used rather than feet.

The object of the sport is to pass the ball using only the hands in order to get into a semi-circle around the opposing teams goal, where a shot may be taken. Each score counts as one goal, and the court is the exact same as a Futsal court indeed Futsal was invented as an Indoor version of Soccer, using the Olympic Handball court.

The sport was invented in Germany & Northern Europe at the end of the 19th Century & beginning of the 20th Century.

References

Websites

[1] European Handball Federation (2018) 2003 Men’s Challenge Trophy [Internet] Available from: http://www.eurohandball.com/trophy/men/2003/round/1/Final+Round [Accessed 25 October 2018]

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Alan Delaney.

About this document

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the

Eirball | Irish, North American & World Sports Archive

Last Updated: 26 September 2019

(c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2019

You may quote this document in part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the authors. All Rights Resereved.