The GB Women’s team will play their first official international matches since the London 2012 Olympics, when they take on Türkiye in the 2023 World Championship qualifiers in November.
The GB senior women’s team was only re-formed in late 2018 under new coach Paul Dempsey, but due to Covid and the financial situation, they have so far only played friendly tournaments prior to the lockdown. Between 2015 and early 2017 they played six friendly internationals, before the decision was taken to focus on age groups first. Now that British Handball has managed to secure some funding from UK Sport for the national teams, the GB Women’s team is able to enter these competitions. Discussions will now take place with the Turkish and European Federations to agree on the format of the matches.
GB Women Head Coach Paul Dempsey said: “We are delighted to have this opportunity, but we under no illusion that this will be a big challenge for us. We have only just re-emerged from an enforced two-year Covid break, but we will use this opportunity to gain experience for our young squad, and benchmark ourselves”.
BHA Chair Paul Bray added “It is important for our GB Women’s team to get some experience playing in official competitions, and we are grateful to UK Sport for the funding which has allowed them to do this for the first time in 10 years”.
