Handball players from Norway beat France in a time of 29:22 on Sunday and were crowned world champions for the fourth time. Hassan Mustafa, President of the International Handball Federation (IHF), gave a speech at the medal ceremony. He didn’t seem to notice that France had lost the final not long ago.
The first Egyptian congratulates the Norwegians on their world championship title, then the Danes congratulate the silver – not the actual runner-up France. This is followed by a raucous whistle party in the Catalan town hall of Granollers. Everyone seems to have noticed what Mustafa did there.
He doesn’t notice his mistake
Because Denmark beat hosts Spain in the match for third place with 35:28 and thus bronze, not silver. The 77-year-old looks on in astonishment, not knowing what’s going on. He continued his speech without hesitation and congratulated the French women for getting third place.
Then the 77-year-old bends slightly over the podium. It looks like someone is telling him he made a mistake. The reaction of the President of the International Federation of Migration Engineering: «Denmark is in second place, right? I do not understand.”
This is disrespectful to France.
Speech leaving players in disbelief: “Is it normal that the FIFA president does not know who came second after the final? “I don’t think so,” said Beatrice Edwig of France, 33, on the Danish TV channel TV2. “This is disrespectful to France.”
Even in the camp of Mustafa’s “favorite” Danish women, it was almost impossible to believe what was happening. “That’s a lie,” thought national athlete Ann-Mate Hansen (27). She also told the Danish handball portal hbold.dk that you have to control things like that, if not, “you have to write it down on a piece of paper”.
You don’t know if he noticed his mistake, but an apology is the slightest thing. In the end, silver medals were handed out to the French women. (Che)
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