Written by Frédéric Cano
For its 4th season in the elite of French Handball, the LH achieved the feat of qualifying for the qualifying round of the next European Cup. By securing a place in the Top 5 of the Liqui Moly StarLigue, the Limougeaud club has reached a milestone. Interview with Alain Aubard, the executive director of the club.
While restrained, Alain Aubard, the executive director of Limoges Handball, is still on cloud nine. After a season where the LH stood up to the big names in the championship, he relishes thinking about how far he has come since the creation of the club nineteen years ago.
How would you describe the past season?
Alain Aubard: It’s historic! Sportingly speaking, finishing 5th in the Liqui Moly Starligue, with 36 points, goes beyond our expectations. And then qualification for the next European Cup and the European Men’s Handball League – second European Cup after the Champions League – is the icing on the cake! We have really reached a new level.
When we think about how far we have come since the creation of the club in 2005. First in Nationale 1, at the bottom of the rankings, we said to ourselves that D2 was not for us, and then when we moved up to D2 , the D1 seemed inaccessible to us. We moved up to D1 without imagining playing in the European Cup one day and now, here we are. Today, we have to stay in the ball of contenders to play for the top 5 every year.
What are your ambitions in the European Cup?
The European Cup is another level. We go there humbly like a team discovering, but with ambition. First, we will have to obtain our ticket during a qualifying round, which will be played over two matches (back and forth), the last weekend of August and the first of September, to access the phase of chickens. We will know the name of our opponent in this jump-off at the beginning of July.
Have you built next year’s team based on this European deadline?
No. We work from year to year to build the team. We started in the fall of 2023 without knowing that we would qualify, but unlike other years, there will not be many new players. Usually, we recruited six or seven players and this season, there will only be two.
We are playing the stability card and that is very good. With Dragan stopping, we lost a lot of experience, but we are counting on young people to replace him. You will have to be patient and hope that the mayonnaise sets.
Sportingly, you are the “flagship” club now ahead of Limoges CSP in our region, because of your ranking and the year’s performances, what does this represent for you?
We are very proud, but it is not an ambition to become the flagship club. Above all, we have a lot of respect for Limoges CSP, because we know where we come from. We don’t have the same track record by far, but we will try to write our own history.
Can you count on a growing audience on match nights?
It’s true that the public is growing in number. There are the faithful who have followed us since the beginning and then there are the new ones. When they come to watch a match for the first time because they were invited by friends, they come back because they see a beautiful spectacle. We have a young audience, people come with their families.
Officially, the EHF (European Handball Federation) has not yet published the list of teams qualified for the next European Cup. Without much suspense, the LH should appear there, we are told at the club. Response at the beginning of July.
The resumption of training is scheduled for July 22.
