Annexation or fertile inclusion? The origins of handball’s international organisational structures

ABSTRACT Sport scholars have increasingly explored the institutional history of international governing bodies of sport in recent years. Some sports, however, have received little attention. Handball is one of them. Despite handball’s modern impact and its global governing body, relatively little is known about the history of its governing body, the International Handball Federation (IHF) and the attempts to govern handball internationally. The following article traces the history of the first governing body of handball, the International Amateur Handball Federation (IAHF). Dissolved following the Second World War, the story of the IAHF has previously received scant attention from international scholars. By tracing the history of the IAHF, this article argues that sport administrators, including those within Nazi Germany, manipulated the IAHF to support their personal goals.