Ahead of the World Championship being played in Germany and the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Norway joined forces and appealed to the International Handball Federation (IHF) not to have to play in white shorts. The federation's rule is that participating countries need to have player uniforms in both dark and light colors.
The Danes have now been told by the IHF that they do not have to wear the white shorts in any of their three opening matches. This was decided at a meeting on Thursday, writes Danish TV2.
"We have only been met with kindness from the IHF after our latest requests. The fact that we struggled a lot before has now started to pay off in the form of a good and constructive dialogue with the IHF," says Morten Henriksen, sports director at the Danish Handball Association, to TV2.
Light-colored shorts are not desirable among female athletes due to the risk of bleeding during menstruation, but handball has not yet changed any regulations to accommodate the athletes.
Denmark opens its World Cup campaign on Thursday with a match against Japan in red shorts, followed by an away match against Croatia, where the team will wear black shorts. The group stage concludes with a home match against Romania for the Danes.
If Denmark advances from the group stage, there are no guarantees that they will be able to avoid the white shorts.
We have been informed that they will take our wishes into account as much as possible and see if it is possible for us not to play in white shorts – but reserve the right to use white shorts if they cannot find another solution, says Henriksen.
Denmark will face Japan at 8:30 PM on Thursday evening. At the same time, Sweden will play their World Cup debut against the Czech Republic.
