At its meeting in Bern, Switzerland, on March 4th, 2008 the Executive Committee (ExCo) of IFF dealt with the withdrawal of the Argentinean Floorball Federation from the Men’s World Floorball Championships 2008, C-division in the Slovak Republic.

The ExCo noted that the Argentinean Floorball Federation (AAUF) has through Mr. Uli Reinmann, who has been communicating for the AAUF, on the 27th of December applied for a wild card, in order for Argentina to be able to take part in the WFC 2008 C-division, in the Bratislava the Slovak Republic from the 21st to the 27th of April.

However the ExCo established, with great regret, that the Argentinean Floorball Federation have in their letter dated on the 23rd of February, 2008 decided to withdraw from the WFC 2008 C-division, due to problems related with finding players that can attend in the championships. This despite the fact that there in the application for the wild card, which was given by the IFF CB, it was clearly mentioned that the players wants to participate. The IFF ExCo further established that the Argentinean decision to withdraw from the WFC 2008 and its reason, harms the image of Floorball and the IFF, and furthermore creates unnecessary problems also for the organiser – the Slovak Floorball Federation.

The ExCo discussed the problematic situation, which has occurred when Argentina has informed that they can not participate in the C-division. The ExCo does not agree with the Argentinean federation’s behaviour, first being keen and enthusiastic and then withdraw just some months later. Despite the clear rule violation, the ExCo hopes that the positive development of Floorball continues in Argentina.

The applicable IFF regulations are referred to in the Juridical Regulations Article 8.

The ExCo decided, in accordance with the Juridical regulation, to sanction the Argentinean federation with a fine of 3.000 CHF and also holding back the participation fee of 2.000 CHF, but that the Argentinean Federation would not however, for development reasons be excluded from the two (2) subsequent official tournaments.The fine is due to be paid within 30 days of the official information, latest on April 11th, 2008

A possible appeal, according to the Juridical Regulations section 2 Article 48, shall be directed to the IFF Appeal Committee in writing.