Preparation tournament for the next European was also made known about the withdrawal of the Montenegro national team

The 49th edition of the Yellow Cup Handball Tournament, which was going to take place in the Swiss city of Winterthur, was canceled today, due to the withdrawal of Portugal and Montenegro, to “avoid unnecessary contacts”, due to the covid-19 pandemic.

“Changed to the restrictions imposed by the European Handball Federation in relation to the EHF Euro 2022, where each athlete can only enter the competition 14 days after having been positive with covid-19, the men’s selection A rejected the Tournament, in which it has already participated for several The occasions, in order to avoid unnecessary contacts and excessive exposure before the European Championship, “began by justifying the Portuguese Handball Federation, through a statement.

In addition to the Montenegrins, the “heroes of the sea”, commanded by Paulo Jorge Pereira, would measure the frame in the tournament with Switzerland and Ukraine, before starting their participation in the European championship, scheduled to take place between January 13th and 30th, in Hungary and Slovakia.

Thus, the Portuguese team, which “has already suffered some cases of covid-19, prefers to protect itself and will continue the preparation” in Matosinhos, until 11 January, the day it travels to Hungary.

The Portuguese will compete for the seventh time in the European Championship, having played games in Group B of the preliminary round against the Magyars, Iceland and the Netherlands, always in Budapest.

Regarding the unprecedented presence of the “quinas” team in the Olympic tournament, played in the summer of 2021, Humberto Gomes and Alexis Borges left the squad, by technical option, while Pedro Portela, Luís Frade, André Gomes and João Ferraz missed the European´2022 due to injury, and of the 20 calls called, two will have to be discarded by the Portuguese selector.