The Morning Club - 5 September: Emergency pod as Berlin is rocked

We launch the new handball season with a celebratory episode, reaching episode 300 of the podcast! In the eight years since we began, the handball world has changed a lot, so we look back at our first episodes to compare and contrast how things were and where we are today. Plus, we welcome Brian Campion back to the mic to celebrate with us.

As if the Bundesliga needs drama like this to garner attention! In one of the sport's most shocking turn of events in years, if not ever, Stefan Kretzschmar and Jaron Siewert have departed Fuchse Berlin. We dive into the timeline, the background and plenty more as we come to terms with a this news in an emergency morning club.

With HB Ludwigsburg filing for insolvency just over a year after reaching the Champions League final, the women's handball community has been dealt another major blow. Following Tobias Reichmann's column stated that women's handball should dream less, accept the reality and lower expectations, former German international and current team manager Anja Althaus bit back and led the charge in calling him out. We speak to Anja in the first of a two-part interview about the reaction and the state of women's handball in Germany. Part 2 is available on Tuesday for everyone on patreon.com/handballhour

During and after the beach handball EURO in Türkiye, Chris had the chance to speak to an array of fascinating people in the beach handball community, to get their thoughts on the latest major championship, their personal perspectives and the sport in a wider sense. We hear from Germany's gold medal winner Severin Henrich, Greece's Labrina Tsakalou, Malta's Liam Harrison and EHF Beach Handball Commission Chairwoman Gabriella Horvath.

We're in Türkiye for the EHF Beach Handball EURO 2025 and with the tournament at the halfway mark, it's a great time to check in with a couple of the protagonists. Liam Harrison is making his EURO debut with Malta and speaks about the experience so far, how the national team and sport have developed at home and what his hopes are for the future. Gabriella Horváth is both an EHF Executive Committee Member and the Hungarian Handball Federation Secretary General, so she gives some thoughts on the tournament as a whole and her home nation in the first part of our interview with her. Part 2 will be featured in a wider review of the tournament and a look at the sport as a whole next week.

We look back at the Men's Junior World Championship and the lessons it has taught us about the present and future stars of the sport, plus we unpack the Champions League group phase draw.

SC Magdeburg are Champions League winners and while they may have made it look easy on Sunday, they've done it the hard way this season. We look back at their triumph over Berlin in the final and how they got there, from a losing record in the group phase, squeaking past Veszprém and Barca and the subtle but massive improvements since last year.

The biggest weekend of the handball calendar is upon us and we celebrate with a big preview of the showdown in Cologne with Björn Pazen and an interview with Vincent Gerard. The Champions League winner and Olympic gold medallist retired after Paris 2024 and battling through a tough season to even get there, but accepted the call from Barça after their own injury problems between the posts. We speak to Vincent about his unexpected comeback, returning to this level, the hardships of last year and what it takes to come out on top in Cologne. With Björn, we dive into the four contenders and Saturday's semi-finals. How will Berlin react after claiming a historic first Bundesliga title and is Mathias Gidsel on the verge of the greatest single season in handball? Can Nantes upset the favourites and reignite the fine tradition of surprise winners? We discuss how reigning champions Barça will shape up after their routine end to the domestic season. And will we see Zombie Magdeburg strike once again with Gisli Kristjannson, or can they go all the way with Felix Claar at the wheel?

This is a teaser of our latest Morning Club episode, which is available in full exclusively on patreon.com/handballhour It's the wonderful time of the season where we're treated to multi-game league finals in countries like Hungary, Poland and Denmark, which are serving up plenty of drama and entertainment. Ahead of their impending first league title, Berlin announced a spicy new signing but the biggest transfer news is the transfers that won't be happening as Sporting hold on to Costa, Costa and Salvador Salvador. Plus we react to the first episode of entrepreneur and returning handball player Lewis Howes documentary as he chases his Olympic dreams at the age of 42.

Györ are the queens of Europe once again following a weekend where they did not trail for a single minute. We look at their journey to gold and where they had the edge over their Danish opponents, bask in the brilliant glow of Katrine Lunde and wonder where it all went wrong for the two teams still haunted by the semi-final curse.