Portuguese Handball Federation

The Handball Federation of Portugal is the national handball association in Portugal. FPA is a full member of the European Handball Federation and the International Handball Federation.
The organisation oversees the national teams that represent Portugal in the international handball competitions, as well as all the club competitions within the country.
It also runs the derivate forms of the sport in Portugal, namely beach handball and adapted handball.

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History

The Handball Federation of Portugal was founded on 1 May 1939 as Federação Portuguesa de Andebol, by means of the handball associations of Porto, Coimbra and Lisbon.
At first, the federation established the nationwide rules of handball in its 11-a-side variant. The 7-a-side handball was introduced in Portugal in 1949.
In 1946, FPA became one of the founding members of the International Handball Federation. Later, in 1991, FPA also became a founding member of the European Handball Federation, which succeeded the IHF.
During the first decade of the 21st century, the Federation held a legal and lobby dispute with the Liga Portuguesa de Clubes de Andebol, a short-lived independent organisation that sought to oversee the professional club handball in Portugal. Since 2008, it again became the sole governing body of handball in Portugal.