Distinguished guests and Floorball friends,
On behalf of the International Floorball Federation (IFF) I have the pleasure and honour to announce the EuroFloorball Cup finals 2008 in Vantaa in Finland. This is the fifteenth edition, and the IFF is very pleased that both women and men play the EFC under the same conditions.
IFF has, in good co-operation with its member associations, changed the EFC from being organized from Wednesday to Sunday in order to improve the conditions for the participants. Furthermore, for the first time, the second ranked teams in the top ranked nations were able to qualify to the EFC finals. We are all looking forward to evaluating these steps.
Starting from this January 2008, the international calendar is being implemented, and hence during 2008, we will have two EFC finals being organized. It will be a hectic period for all teams and all organizers, so in October we meet again, but in Switzerland! During this EFC the respective associations meet in order to thoroughly go through the IFF calendar starting from January 1st 2008 and plan and co-ordinate all events, including friendly internationals for the bigger nations. IFF will, by initiative by the four nations, Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland, host this meeting.
On the international level the “family” is constantly growing, and by the end of year 2007, we warmly welcomed Israel, Serbia, Argentina and Thailand as new IFF members number 41, 42, 43 and 44. In addition to this Portugal has also applied for membership in the IFF. In order to meet with all Olympic criteria and requirements, IFF needs to grow with quality and in December 2007 we handed in our application for IOC recognition.
The Finnish Floorball Federation, in co-operation with, the city of Vantaa, organizes the EFC. IFF is very pleased with the SSBL as a good organizer, and with top officials and good management. On a number of occasions we have seen top events being organized in Finland, and the level has always been high.
The IFF conveys many thanks to the Finnish Floorball Federation in cooperation with the city of Vantaa for organizing the EuroFloorball Cup finals 2008.
Looking forward to seeing you all and a thrilling tournament,
Yours sincerely,
Tomas Eriksson
IFF President
