The groups for the 2017 Women´s World Floorball Championships qualifications have been decided. There will be a total of 6 groups – one in the Americas, one in Asia-Oceania and four in Europe.
A new record of 30 teams registered for WFC 2017. Three countries will make their debut at this level – Ukraine, Iran & Thailand. For Ukraine & Iran this will be the first-ever international appearance for their women´s team, while Thailand will be hoping to follow up from their strong international start at the 2015 SEA Games, where they finished second to Singapore. Slovenia, Austria & Korea are all returning after a break from competing at this level.
In Europe, there will be four qualification groups with two event locations. EUR 1 & EUR 4 will play in Madrid, Spain, while EUR 2 & EUR 3 will be hosted by Celano, Italy. The Asia-Oceania qualifiers will return to Wellington, New Zealand which successfully hosted the Men´s AOFC qualifications in 2014, while the location of the Americas qualifications is still to be confirmed.
All teams, apart from the host country (Slovakia), will have to qualify for the Final Round via the qualifications. After being exempt from the qualifications in 2015 due to their hosting of the final event, this will be the first time that the Finnish women´s team have ever participated in a qualification round for WFC.
Event Dates
EUR1 & EUR4: Madrid, Spain 1.-5.02.2017
EUR2 & EUR3: Celano, Italy 1.-5.02.2017
AOFC: Wellington, New Zealand 31.01.-5.02.2017
AMERICAS: To be confirmed
Groups
The qualification groups are composed according to ranking as follows:
| EUR1 | EUR4 | AMERICAS | |||
 |
Sweden (1)* |  |
Czech Republic (4) |  |
Canada (16) |
 |
Norway (8) |  |
Latvia (5) |  |
USA (17) |
 |
Denmark (10) |  |
Hungary (15) | ||
 |
Slovenia (24) |  |
Spain (19) | ||
 |
France (25) |  |
Ukraine (-) | ||
| EUR2 Italy | EUR3 | AOFC | |||
 |
Finland (2) |  |
Switzerland (3) |  |
Australia (12) |
 |
Poland (7) |  |
Germany (6) |  |
Japan (13) |
 |
Russia (11) |  |
Netherlands (14) |  |
Singapore (18) |
 |
Italy (22) |  |
Estonia (20) |  |
Korea (21) |
 |
Great Britain (26) |  |
Austria (27) |  |
New Zealand (23) |
 |
Thailand (-) | ||||
 |
Iran (-) |
*Numbers in brackets show the current ranking based on the results from the last two WFC events. Countries with no ranking are participating in their first WFC and will receive a ranking after the event.
Qualification System
In Americas 1 team will qualify and in AOFC the top 4 teams will qualify.
In Europe, a total of 10 teams will qualify according to the following:
– The two best teams from each qualification group will qualify; and
– The the two best 3rd placed teams will qualify
The calculation of the best 3rd teams will follow this order: 1. Average number of points 2. Average goal difference 3. Average scored goals 4. Lottery drawing
