The World Floorball Championships will be played in December

The Central Board of the International Floorball Federation – IFF has decided to revise the International Competition Calendar starting from January 2008, in order to maximise the value of the competitions for its Member Associations. The biggest change is that the Adult’s World Floorball Championships will move from May to December, starting with the Men’s 7th World Floorball Championships in the Czech Republic. The new International Competition Calendar starts with the changes of the following events in 2008.

• Men’s WFC 2008 moves from May to December, being organised in the Czech Republic
• Women’s U19 WFC is advanced from November to May 2008, organised in Switzerland
• The EFC Final round for the Champions of 2008 is advanced from January 2009 to October 2008

Due to all the changes mentioned above, the whole competition calendar has been reorganised.

“The change is significant for Floorball Internationally and will support the development on a national level as well. I also think that the decisions will have a huge positive impact on Floorball in the future, when it comes to Media coverage and visibility, and thus also attracting co-operating partners and spectators at large. Floorball takes a step in the right direction, with the main international event being played during the season, instead of outside it.”, Mr. Tomas Eriksson, IFF President, says.

The Process of changing the IFF calendar

In its meeting in Varberg the IFF Central Board was of the opinion that the dates for playing the WFC in May, which is due to historical reasons, are far too late in the season. It was decided to form a working group headed by Mr. Orlando, consisting by Mr. Jansson, Mr. Kauppinen and Mr. Suman and the Office representatives Mr. Liljelund and Mr. Kratz to investigate the possibility change of timing of the senior WFC in order to build up a proposal for a possible new International Calendar of IFF.

During its workshop of January 28th, 2007 in Helsinki, the working group evaluated all the known factors related to the present placement of the Adult’s World Floorball Championships in May. Amongst others it was established, that from a sporting perspective, due to the early finish of the relevant championships, a restarting of the movement (players, coaches, associations, spectators and media) was necessary. Furthermore the WFC is always squeezed between Ice Hockey, Football and Olympic games every second year, which are binding huge resources in media and sponsoring thus making it difficult for Floorball to be included in the respective planning.

World Floorball Championships – WFC

The Adult WFC’s shall be played during the second week of December and ending no later than the 14th of December. The main reasons for moving the Adult’s WFC are based on the need to include the competition more as a part of the season and to have more media coverage of the events. In addition the WFC’s can also be better utilized in the marketing both internationally and nationally before and after the event. The qualification for the Adult’s WFC shall be played during the International weekend in February the same year as the final round takes place.

Under 19 WFC

In order to spread the competitions from a sportive and marketing perspective the Men’s and Women’s U19 WFC shall be played in the beginning of May and if needed, the qualifications to the U19 WFC’s shall be played during the same season at the international weekend in September.

EuroFloorball Cup – EFC

The Final Round of the EFC shall be played not later than the second week in October. This gives the participating teams a possibility to use their championship as a marketing factor for their clubs. The qualification for the EuroFloorball Cup shall be played by the end of August.

International weekends

The IFF Central Board decided not to increase the number of the international weekends in Floorball for International Friendly Matches, keeping in mind the needs of the national competitions. The decision is to have international weekends which don’t clash with other Sport Events, during the First weekend of February, Last weekend of April, Second weekend of September and First weekend of November.

World University Championships – WUC

In accordance with the collaboration agreement with FISU, the WUC shall be played during the second week of November in every two even years. The next WUC is played in Finland in 2008.