The continuous work to decide upon the future Champions Cup will continue on Saturday when the IFF and the top four member associations will meet in Zürich, Switzerland.
Background to the present discussions:
The future of how to organise IFF Events has been under a thorough analysis during the last years. IFF has been working with the Member Associations in order to develop the International Competition Calendar, as a continuation to this it is now the time to find a good solution for the European Club Competition. The IFF CB gave the RACC the task to come with a solution, in order to solve the present difficult situation with the abstention of some of the Swedish and Norwegian clubs from the EFC 2009.
The EC/EFC has only twice been organised outside the four big countries. There have been three major changes to the system after the start of the EC/EFC in 1993. The qualifications where installed in 1999 and the 2nd ranked teams from the top 4 countries where given an own spot in 2007. The tournament was moved from January to October in 2008, in order to give the reigning national champions a better possibility to utilize the EFC. A European Club competition is the second most important showcase of elite Floorball on the international level, being the second best possibility to get international TV coverage. The EFC should work as a motivation for clubs in the federation, to be able win something in addition to the national championships.
The basic question is still – How to make the EFC attractive:
– Sports perspective – Quality of the matches
– Publicity perspective – TV, Internet, Press and Spectators
– Money perspective – Costs and Incomes
Common understanding and decisions taken
In the meetings held during 2009 and 2010 the representatives of the four biggest IFF member associations have agreed that there is a need to build a new European Club Competition, which would be attractive also for the clubs of these associations. The IFF CB made in February 2010 the decision to install a new competition mainly the Champions Cup starting from 2011.
In addition to this it was agreed that in order to be able to have a smooth transfer from the present EFC system to the new Champions Cup system, the member associations will do their outmost to ensure the participation of their national champions in the EFC 2010. It has been discussed that the Swedish Men’s champion would be given a spot in the 2nd ranked teams qualifications, in order to keep the system running.
The basis for the coming discussion is to form a new competition for the top teams of European Clubs and then continue with the present EuroFloorball Cup for the teams 5th and lower ranked. The Champions Cup must be open for the winner of the EuroFloorball Cup competition (5th and lower ranked countries) and shall be played with both men and women with 6 or 8 teams per category in one tournament. The competition has to be developed on a long term basis to secure the return on investment for the Clubs, at the same time as we are looking for cutting costs for the organiser and participants.
It has been agreed, as a compromise and after an evaluation that the optimal would be to have the Champions Cup in October, with the earliest possible start with the new system in the season 2011-2012. It has been agreed that there needs to be an organiser appointed for the Champions Cup 2011 by September 2010 as well to prepare the financial framework. The Champions Cup should have the same look and feel regardless of where it’s being played. A generic business model should be built for the competition by a working group.
Issues to be discussed
The working group was given the task to discuss the following issues:
a) Length of the tournament
b) Number of venues
c) Number of teams in the competition – There are two options – 6 or 8 teams:
d) Number of matches for the participating teams
e) Which teams are qualified?
f) Organisers
g) Finances
h) IFF support
How to move on
The task of the working group is to based on the open questions raised in this discussion paper and if some other questions occur, make a proposal for how to organise the Floorball Champions Cup, which can then be proposed for the IFF CB no later than for the meeting in beginning of September.
