37 IFF Member Associations attended the 13th IFF General Assembly (GA) on December 10th in Riga, Latvia. The IFF President Mr. Tomas Eriksson held the opening speech.
The Road to Olympics
The IFF is celebrating its 30th Anniversary in a situation, where we are growing in most of the fields of activity:
– Number of members – from 31 (2005) to 64 today and a number of more on the way in
– Between 80-85 countries are playing one or the other form of Floorball
– We are now on the Wroclaw World Games 2017 and the Torino European Master Games 2019, which are the IOC Agenda 2020 specified Multi-Sport Events
The IFF General Assembly approved laid down strategy around the three pillars has worked well
– Lobbying – we have increased visibility and awareness
– Marketing and Visibility – our events are well ranked and we are gaining visibility, with 29 televised matches from the WFC and live streams on the Olympic Channel.
– Development of the Sport and the Member Associations – The EOTO process and the IFF License System 2.0 will strengthen our membership service and our members.
New Ordinary Members
The IFF provisional member Thailand was accepted as ordinary member by the IFF General Assembly. The IFF now has a total of 44 ordinary members and 20 provisional members. 31 ordinary members were present at the General Assembly.
IFF Annual Report
The IFF ExCo member Mr. Stephen King introduced the IFF Annual Report 2015-2016:
– The IFF has focused on the 3 core fields of activity being: increased awareness & visibility, lobbying & development and increased marketing revenue & financial resources. We are more visible in the social media and have more broadcasted matches than before. There has also been an increase in the number of countries participating in the WFCQs.
The IFF Plan of Action for 2017-2018
The IFF Vice President, Mr. Filip Suman, presented the IFF Plan of Action for the next two years:
– The ongoing priorities are the lobby work to secure the inclusion of floorball into the multi sport evens, development work for increasing the number of and strengthening our member associations, marketing of the sport and building and spreading the brand of floorball. Now that the IFF is already in the multi sport events such as The World Games it’s important that we maximize the effect of our participation.
General Assembly Elections
The IFF General Assembly elected the IFF President, the IFF Central Board and the following IFF Committees and Commission: IFF Appeal Committee, IFF Disciplinary Committee and IFF Ethics Commission.
IFF President:
– Mr. Tomas Eriksson, Sweden (re-election)
IFF Central Board:
– Ms. Monica Bakke, Norway (re-election)
– Mr. Jörg Beer, Switzerland (re-election)
– Mr. Stephen King, Australia (re-election)
– Mr. Martin Klabere, Sweden (re-election)
– Mr. Carlos Lopez, Spain (re-election)
– Mr. Kimmo Nurminen, Finland (new)
– Mr. Thorbjørn Ovedal, Denmark (new)
– Mr. Ron Spence, Canada (new)
– Mr. Filip Suman, Czech Republic (re-election)
IFF Appeal Committee:
Chairman:
– Ms. Märit Bergendahl, Sweden (new)
Members:
– Mr. Tom Hedkrok, Finland (re-election)
– Mr. Kim-Alexander Hofgaard Jorstad, Norway (new)
– Mr. Giorgio Rambaldi, Italy (new)
Substitutes:
– Ms. Aiga Staltmane – Veksa, Latvia, (re-election)
– Ms. Cui Linna, China (new)
– Mr. Saqib Niaz, Pakistan (new)
IFF Disciplinary Committee:
Chairman:
– Mr. Ismo Haaponiemi, Finland (re-election)
Members:
– Ms. Linda Noppa, Sweden (re-election)
– Mr. Tomas Brezina, Czech Republic (new)
– Mr. Daniel Buri, Switzerland (re-election)
Substitutes:
– Ms. Zhang Jing, China (new)
– Mr. Marcel Wadja, Cote d’Ivoire (new)
– Mr. Artis Krauklis, Latvia (re-election)
– Mr. Saleem Ahmad, Pakistan (new)
– Mr. Petr Vrba, Slovakia (new)
IFF Ethics Commission:
Chairman:
– Mr. Poul Erik Höyer, Denmark (re-election)
Members:
– Ms. Carol Roberts, Canada (re-election)
– Ms. Sylvia Shenk, Germany (re-election)
Presentations of the upcoming World Floorball Championships
Men’s U19 World Floorball Championships 2017 in Växjö, Sweden
The Event Arenas during U19 World Floorball Championships are Vida Arena and Fortnox Arena. Both arenas are in a walking distance from each other. The Vida Arena was built in 2011 and has the capacity of 5,700 spectators.
Women’s World Floorball Championships 2017 in Bratislava, Slovakia
For the first time, the Women’s WFC will be held in Bratislava, Slovakia. The main arena has also hosted the Ice Hockey World Championships few years since, and the arena’s capacity is over 10,000. The tournament starts 1st of December 2017.
Women’s U19 World Floorball Championships 2018 in St. Gallen & Herisau, Switzerland
The Women’s U19 2018 is held in two different cities close to each other. The main arena is located in St. Gallen and is a modern arena with room for over 3,000 spectators.
Men’s World Floorball Championships 2018 in Prague, Czech Republic
The year 2018 will be the 100th Anniversary of Czech Republic. One of the aims of the organisers is to make the WFC 2018 one of the top ten biggest events in the world in year 2018. There are negotiations going with the O2 Arena, which is considered as a possible main arena for the event.
Floorball4all
Floorball4All is an association registered in Switzerland and the goal is to use floorball for helping kids and youth in underprivileged countries. The goals of Floorball4All is also to spread floorball to develop regional and national championships. Floorball4All has promoted floorball in for example Brazil, Haiti, Kenya, Peru, Ecuador and Nepal.
