The visit to the Zamet Centre was organised within the nomination as candidate for the European Handball Championship in 2014. Namely, the Croatian Handball Federation and the Hungarian Handball Federation have submitted joint candidacy for the European Handball Championship in 2014. The Croatian Handball Federation nominated among candidates also the City of Rijeka, a city where part of this sports competition would be held.

Ian Tuik is responsible for visiting the sports facilities proposed for holding sports meetings, and the final decision on the county hosting the European championship will be passed by a particularly set up commission at the E H F Congress in September in Denmark, country opposing the Croatian and Hungarian candidacy.

"The opinion that I will hand over to the commission about the Zamet Centre and the conditions for holding the European Handball Championship definitively will be positive. I congratulate local administration and architects on the design and construction of this wonderful structure – my impression of the sports and accompanying facilities of the Zamet Centre is very positive. Also, the whole visit and sightseeing was organised on a very high level, which proves the professionalism on the part of the organiser and the Croatian Handball Federation," said Tuik, emphasising that Croatia and Rijeka have a special love for handball which is successfully played here.

Deputy mayor Željko Jovanović pointed put his satisfaction with the fact that Mr. Tuik after the visit confirmed that the Zamet Centre is a top notch structure, where all conditions are in place for the further development of handball in Rijeka, where big competitions can take place. Given the fact that at the Zamet Centre the 11th European Individual Chess Completion for men and women is in course, the organisation of which was found to be very successful, Jovanović expressed his belief that Rijeka would also prove to be a good host to the European Handball Championship.

Jovanović also mentioned that at the sports hall of the Zamet Centre, if it is to host the European Handball Championship, there will be no need for additional works, since the architects already during designing envisaged the possibility how to get 3,000 seats at the sports hall, which is conditional for such a structure to be organised a competition of such level. This was explained to the president of the competition commission of the European Handball Federation by the architect Silvije Novak, a member of the architecture studio 3LHD, that designed the Zamet Centre. Let us remind you that a couple of days ago the Zamet Centre was awarded the "Building of the Year 2009" prize in the category of sports architecture by the most visited Architecture website in the world ArchDaily, competing with 900 projects published in 2009.

The today's visit to the Zamet Centre has been held in the presence of the representatives of the Croatian Handball Federation, the head of the City Department of sports and technical culture Veljko Karabaić and the director of the company "Rijeka sport" Zlatan Hreljac with associates.

Detailed information about the Croatian and Hungarian candidacy for the European Handball Championship in 2014.
(S.R.)