The ambitions of women's handball in Montpellier driven by the marriage between the MHB and the HBF3M

Tous unis à la table du mariage entre le MHB et le HBF3M. Midi Libre – JEAN MICHEL MART

The announcement was officially made Thursday evening July 4 at the FDI Stadium: the MHB, which opened up to recreational women's handball three years ago, is joining the HBF3M women's club with the ;objective of moving towards the high level and professionalism of women.

It has been several months since Céline Allègre, president of the HBF3M women's handball club, and Vincent Hugonnet, president of the MHB association, have been working to unite; the marriage was recorded this Thursday evening at the FDI Stadium at the end of an ordinary and extraordinary general meeting in order to modify the statutes, and a press conference to present the objectives. : development, always, and the perspective of female professionalism. "Today, HBF3M integrates Montpellier Handball into a single entity" welcomed the president of SAS Julien Deljarry. "It’for us is a reflection of the continuity and evolution of Montpellier Handball."

A budget multiplied by four

The MHB " will thus take over the management of the HBF3M which will be called Montpellier Handball with a high-level women's section which will integrate the MHB Academy& quot; explains its president, Vincent Hugonnet. "The goal is to set high-level goals",with an accession to D2 targeted within two seasons. And a budget which will increase from 103,000 euros, the smallest of N1 to 450,000 with the support of local authorities (50,000 euros from the Metropolis , 100,000 euros from the City of Montpellier). "We already have the MHB Academy on boys and when we started talking with Céline, we realized that the symmetry between boys and girls existed, so behind it, if we’ ;rsquo;heard on a common project, this integration could be done with the greatest ease, this is what was the case. A need to expand the Academy from 65 young people to more than 130. "This will bring us a little more know-how, integration of volunteers into the club, which will also allow us to grow. It was important to have this project over the next 3 or 4 years of structuring our Academy."

"Proud of the work accomplished"

Continuity in the project with jerseys, MHB colors but matches which will continue to be played at Spinosi at the request of the girls. "When we created the agreement, the idea was to refocus all the players who played handball on the Metropolis and allow them to play at the highest possible level, explains Céline Glee. Our system could not continue, if we want to go to the high level, we must have financial and structural means ; the MHB offers us to join the Academy and for all the young girls, this will offer them possibilities that no club today offers to young girls. I am very proud of the work accomplished with Vincent to allow our young girls to have a real playing career within Montpellier.

A historic event for Montpellier

A historic moment highlighted Christian Assaf, vice-president of the Metropolis, alongside his counterpart from the City, Hervé Martin, "because nothing more important has happened spent in Montpellier sport than this marriage for a very long time! The clubs and the girls deserve it…" Back in Bougnol with his hat as regional advisor, representing the president of the Occitanie Region Carole Delga and his vice-president Kamel Chibli, Patrice Canayer also ;rsquo;is congratulated for such a union. "Sport, the sports association, on a territory, must be a place that reflects society where we exclude all sectarianism, all communitarianism, and we work for life in society, together; It therefore seemed incongruous in our time to have only male and female clubs. Sport must have this quality of bringing people together, an example of what life in society should be and this marriage is one of them." Pointing out a challenge for its future. "The most important challenge you have to take on, the challenge of women's sport, is not the high level but managing to become professional in sport high level. Not professionalism or we will turn to the communities and say that we have to pay for women's sport. Women's sport must succeed in creating its model of professionalism and that's why I am very happy that this is happening in Montpellier because the MHB club has always known how to be innovative. The expectation of what is going to happen is that you manage to demonstrate that there is a path to high-level female professionalism.