Over the next ten days, the attention of Europe’s sports fans is likely to turn toward northern Europe. Following the ladies’ world handball championship in France at the end of last year, the best men’s European national teams are now due to meet head to head in Norway. The matches making up the European Handball Championship will be taking place in five Norwegian cities from 17 to 27 January. Federal coach Heiner Brand’s German national team counts among the favorites after their victory in the World Handball Championship of 2007. Henkel’s involvement in the sport of handball has a certain tradition and the company will again be present and visible in Norway.

Handball counts among the most popular ball sports in the world. A total of 16 million German TV viewers watched the World Championship final in 2007 between Germany and Poland. This was the first time that a handball match had headed the list of most watched sports broadcasts in a year. Now the eyes of international sports fans are turning to Norway, for it is here that the 16 best European national teams will be meeting head to head from 17 to 27 January. As reigning World Champions, the German national team counts among the top tips for the European title.
 
Given that the best seven handball nations are all European, viewers and spectators can look forward to a real handball feast. As a foretaste, the German team under Heiner Brand will need to perform at its very best even during the preliminary stages in order to prevail over high-class opponents such as Belarus, Hungary and Spain.

Henkel’s involvement in the sport of handball has a certain tradition. Following the World Championship in Tunisia in 2005, and the 2006 European Championship in Switzerland, the company was again prominent as a sponsor for the World Championship held in its home country, an event crowned on February 4, 2007 with an exciting victory by the German team under trainer Heiner Brand. Now in Norway, the Henkel logo will again be on view both on the advertising hoardings and on the hall floor in the goal area. The referees will also be sporting on their jerseys the slogan “A Brand like a Friend” of the Düsseldorf consumer goods manufacturer. As a sport, handball is extremely popular in markets of importance for Henkel such as Eastern Europe and Scandinavia.

Henkel has long been involved in sporting events at the national and international level. This branded consumer goods producer is, for example, a premium sponsor of DEG Metro Stars which plays in the professional German ice hockey league. Within Düsseldorf, its city of domicile, the company also, for example, promotes the Henkel Race Day featuring the “Preis der Diana” German Oaks and is a sponsor of the Tennis World Team Cup. On the international stage, the World Ice Hockey Championship in 2008, to be held in Canada, the beach volleyball tournaments in Paris and Klagenfurt (Austria) and also the above-mentioned handball events count among the sporting spectaculars sponsored by Henkel.