CHINA will introduce its first-ever Men’s Handball Super League (CHL) in June, marking a new era of professional handball in the country.

To be started in Beijing on June 28, the four-team league will not be played on the usual home-and-away format, instead it has three stops in Beijing, Jiangmen of Guangdong Province and Suzhou of Jiangsu Province.

Beijing Guangcai, Jiangsu Wuyue, Guangdong Luhuansimiao and China’s national club, will compete in a round-robin tournament first to decide their rankings, before the finals will be bracketed again among the four teams with a double elimination format.

Handball made its Olympic debut at the 1972 Munich Games. Its governing body, International Handball Federation (IHF), was established in 1946, representing 209 member federations.

Handball, which was introduced in China in the 1930s, made it to the National Games in 1959. Twenty years later, China became an IHF member.

In 1982, China won the men’s handball event at the Asian Games in New Delhi, India. Two years later, its women’s team finished third in the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.(Xinhua)