IHF

Auto-detected content change during sync (commit 06ffb34)

Recorded May 13, 2026

Indoor handball was introduced for men at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, formalizing the indoor format — IHF-sanctioned, played on a 40m × 20m court with two seven-player teams — as the global competitive standard. The introduction marked the IHF's first Olympic medal-event sanctioning of the indoor variant and effectively retired field handball (which had been on the Olympic program briefly in 1936) as a competitive international format. Foundational milestone that defines what audiences recognize as modern handball today.

Recorded May 8, 2026

IHF expanded team timeout allotment from one per half (the rule that had stood for many years) to three per game with up to two per half, each lasting one minute. The change increased tactical pause-points available to coaches, aligned IHF with broadcasting-friendly stoppage cadence used in basketball and other indoor team sports, and remains the operative team-timeout rule today. Discrete in-game procedural change that shifted match management substantially without altering scoring or substitution rules.

Recorded May 8, 2026

IHF amended the goalkeeper rule to allow any court player to temporarily substitute for the goalkeeper without becoming a designated goalkeeper — directly analogous to ice hockey's empty-net play, where the goalie is pulled for an extra attacker. Effective January 2016 (after first deployment at the women's world championship in December 2015), the rule replaced the prior requirement that the substitute wear the goalkeeper jersey and be designated as a goalkeeper. Drove a measurable uptick in offensive late-game play and remains the operative substitution rule today.

Recorded May 8, 2026

Auto-detected content change during sync (commit b26c38c)

Recorded Mar 22, 2026