What is the meaning of meaningless

This season has given me much more pleasure than previous seasons I have to say. It has allowed me time to watch the games as a fan and an analyst without the weekly grind of travel and major research.

It has also given me time to read others views on handball, something I couldn’t always do. You know there is a certain “walking on eggshells” that surrounds handball. You’re not supposed to annoy anyone, say anything negative, and upset anyone, because it’s such a small sport.

In my opinion this only leads to bland articles, bland opinions and in the end a certain cloistered view of our sport. Football perhaps goes too far, but at least there is something in the writing than can be mulled over, something to get your teeth into, “water-cooler moments” you might say.

I was intrigued to read an opinion piece recently, which expounded on the possibility of a “Confederations Cup”. The premise of the article was sound, that another major international competition was needless for already overloaded players.

But three lines caught my eye:

“The Champions league includes too many meaningless games; it hardly makes a difference if you win your group or finish 6th.”

“Players and managers, especially those of top German teams, Kiel Flensburg and RNL, have openly criticised the current mode of CL.”

“As far as I understand, clubs like Veszprem, Kielce or Barcelona never or rarely complain about having too many games to compete in. They play their domestic matches “cruise-controlled” except for some games.”

Let me begin by saying that this Ptolemaic view of European handball is really starting to grate with me. The idea that somehow the entire European handball firmament revolves around the “strongest league” in the world is disrespectful to the other European national leagues.

The inference from the above lines is that: “We, (The German teams) don’t need that many games, but the others do.”

Isn’t it strange that only the German teams have “openly” criticised” the CL, as if in some darkened alley-ways, the rest of Europe was similarly doing the same.

There is no doubt in my mind that some of the strongest teams in Europe come from Germany, but in a league where Kiel has been the dominant team for the last twenty years, it is hardly appropriate to call it the strongest league in the world. The most competitive, perhaps, in terms of actual games, but in the end, apart from the odd year, Kiel come …

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