The IFF Central Board held its fifth and last meeting of the year in Neuchâtel, Switzerland on December 13th. The IFF CB decided that the IFF will sign the UN Sports for Climate Framework and discussed the future floorball events.
IFF Sustainability actions
In preparation of the future IFF strategy the IFF CB decided to include the Sports for Climate Action framework as basis of the sustainability elements in the strategy and sign the UN Sports for Climate Action Initiative declaration.
Here is the declaration that the IFF commits to:
We, the signatories to the Sports for Climate Action Initiative support the goals of the Paris Agreement in limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and affirm our commitment on behalf of our organisations to:
- Undertake systematic efforts to promote greater environmental responsibility;
- Reduce overall climate impact;
- Educate for climate action;
- Promote sustainable and responsible consumption;
- Advocate for climate action through communication.
The elements will cover IFF office, CB, referees in travel and events as well as events/bidding process and partnerships/sponsors.
Upcoming IFF Events
Champions Cup 2020
The Champions Cup 2020 – Final Four will be played in Ostrava, Czech Republic, 11th to 12th of January 2020. Get your tickets here!
The draw for the semi-finals has been made and here are the CC 2020 semi-final pairs:
Women
Semi-final 1 Täby FC (SWE) – Vitkovice (CZE)
Semi-final 2 SB-Pro (FIN) – Kloten-Dietlikon Jets (SUI)
Men
Semi-final 1 Classic (FIN) – SV Wiler-Ersigen (SUI)
Semi-final 2 Storvreta (SWE) – Vitkovice (CZE)
Visit the CC 2020 website here.
Women’s U19 WFC 2020
The 9th Women’s U19 World Floorball Championships will be played 6th – 10th of May 2020 in Uppsala, Sweden. For the Women’s U19 WFC in 2020, a new playing system will be used. 16 teams will play in one division (rather than the old A- & B-divisions) and are divided into four groups according to ranking and ballot.
The ticket sales for the event has started. Get your tickets here!
Visit the Women’s U19 WFC 2020 website here.
Men’s WFC 2020
The 13th Men’s World Floorball Championships will be played 4th – 12th of December 2020 in Helsinki, Finland. A total of 35 IFF member associations have registered to the Men’s WFC 2020, among them is the first ever registration from Africa – Côte d’Ivoire – who will compete in the European qualifications.
The tickets sales for the final weekend packages for the Hartwall Arena and the packages for the Finnish fan’s (follow your team) started on November 8th. The Preliminary round and quarter-final daily tickets will be on sale from March/April 2020. The group ballot will be held on March 10th 2020 in the Casino Helsinki, Fennia hall, with invitations to be sent out in early 2020.
Visit the WFC 2020 website here.
In Europe there are three qualification groups – EUR1 in Frederikshavn, Denmark; EUR2 in Poprad, Slovakia; and EUR3 in Liepaja, Latvia – while in Asia-Oceania the qualification will be played in Bangkok, Thailand. The World Games 2021 being held in Birmingham, USA in 2021, it was important that North America was fully represented in the final round, so both Americas teams – USA & Canada received direct qualification. More information on the qualifications from the IFF WFCQ 2020 event pages:
- EUR1 Frederikshavn, Denmark, 30 Jan – 2 Feb 2020
- EUR2, Poprad, Slovakia, 30 Jan – 2 Feb 2020
- EUR3, Liepaja, Latvia, 29 Jan – 1 Feb 2020
- AOFC, Bangkok, Thailand, 2 – 7 Mar 2020
Women’s WFC 2021
The 13th Women’s World Floorball Championships (WFC) will be played in Uppsala, Sweden in the period 04-12.12.2021. The qualifications, if more than 16 teams register, shall be played in the period 01 – 07.02.2021.
Only the organiser, Sweden, receives direct qualification to the Final Round. The IFF has sent out the invitation to the event and the deadline to register is December 31st 2019.
Men’s U19 WFC 2021
The 11th Men’s U19 World Floorball Championships will be played in Czech Republic in the period 28.04-02.05.2021. The qualifications, if more than 16 teams register, shall be played in the period 07 – 13.09.2021.
The IFF has sent out the invitation to the event and the deadline to register is December 31st 2019. If correctly registered and all obligations according to the financial regulations and licence criteria are fulfilled the following teams are directly qualified: Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Latvia, Slovakia, Denmark, Germany and Norway.
Women’s U19 WFC 2022
The 10th Women’s U19 World Floorball Championships will be played in Wellington, New Zealand, in May 2022. New Zealand has previously hosted Men’s and Women’s WFC qualifications as well as a Men’s U19 WFC qualification but this will be their first final round event.
Men’s WFC 2022
The 14th Men’s World Floorball Championships will be played in Zurich, Switzerland.
The time frame is different than usually, due to the fact that the Football World Cup will be played in December 2022. The IFF Central Board decided after having communicated with the Swiss Floorball Association, that the WFC 2022 will be played within the time period 15.10-06.11.2022.
Other Events
World University Floorball Championships 2020
The International University Sports Federation (FISU) will organise the World University Floorball Championship 2020 in Koper, Slovenia, from the 24th to 28th of June 2020. The registration for the event is now open and the entry forms must be submitted in the FISU Online Accreditation System according to the procedure laid down by the Organising Committee and must be received six months prior to the event. More information found here
FISU has also informed that from 2022 onward, the competitions in floorball, American football, handball and cheerleading will be held as University World Cups – a competition between university teams rather than national team squads – instead of a Championship.
The World Games 2021
The World Games 2021 are held in Birmingham, USA, 15-25 July 2021 with floorball included on the programme.
The IFF has also applied for full participation in the TWG 2021 Demonstration Sports Program, which provides opportunities to present the sport at the TWG Plaza, in the City and the venue during the tournament. The USFbA is planning to run the US Open in Birmingham in August 2020, which can act as a test event before the World Games.
The TV production will be done by the IBS, like in Worclaw and floorball, like most sports will preliminary have the last two days (semi-finals and medal matches) produced for the TWG Channel.
Visit The World Games 2021 website here.
Special Olympics World Games 2021
The Special Olympics World Winter Games 2021 will be held in Östersund in Sweden, and floorball is on the programme as an official sport. There will be around 54 floorball teams participating from all continents.
A test tournament will be arranged in Östersund in Sweden with 12 floorball teams participating, February 1st- 5th.
Visit Special Olympics 2021 page here.
Asia Indoor and Martial Arts Games in 2021
Floorball is on the programme of the Asia Indoor and Martial Arts Games in 2021. These Multi Sport Games are organised every four years by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), and the 2021 event has been awarded to the Thailand Olympic Committee.
The preliminary dates are April 24th until May 2nd. The host cities are Bangkok, and Pattaya. A total of only 20 sports have been confirmed to be on the programme and the new confirmed sports are Netball, Taekwondo and Floorball. The OCA has decided that not only countries from Asia (45), but also countries from Oceania (17) may take part, a total of 62 countries.
Future of Floorball
The IFF CB also discussed the IFF Test tournaments with the Future of Floorball basic concept (3 x 15 mins/17 players + 5 officials/10 minutes intermissions) and the IFF Euro Floorball Championships, but no decision were yet made.
IFF Anti-Doping topics
On December 9th the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA’s) Executive Committee (ExCo) unanimously endorsed the recommendation made by the independent Compliance Review Committee (CRC) that the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) be declared non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code (Code) for a period of four years. This will also have consequences for the IFF as Russia cannot be given the right to host any IFF Event and Russian government representatives may not attend any official events. The recommendation not to include athletes into major events does not cover qualification events nor age group championships.
RUSADA will now have 21 days to accept the above-referenced notice. If RUSADA disputes WADA’s allegation, the matter will be referred to CAS. The IFF will follow up on the recommendations and try to gain as much information as possible about how the different consequences shall be interpreted. WADA has also stated that it will liaise with Code Signatories and other stakeholders who may be affected by this decision, in order to clarify the next steps while bearing in mind that the case may still be appealed to CAS.
WADA has also informed that the Bangkok Laboratory is suspended (taking effect 18 November 2019), so the IFF cannot use this laboratory for sample analysis.
IFF License System update
The CB also discussed the IFF License System and the updated Tier Group list. Many of the Member Associations still need to develop their activities in order to fulfil all requirements. The topic will be presented at the IFF Associations Meeting 2019, in conjunction with the SportAccord Good Governance survey to explain the need to create and implement new policies and documents both nationally and internationally. IFF will use the WFC 2021 registration as a test, before the Tier system takes full effect in 2023.
New IFF Member Association in Pakistan
The IFF CB also decided to replace the Pakistan Floorball Association (PFA) with the new Pakistan Floorball Federation (PFF) as the new provisional member. The PFF will take over all the floorball activities in Pakistan. Mr. Shakeel Akhtar is the President of the Federation with headquarters in Gujrat.
IFF Office
In accordance with the previous CB decisions, discussions with the Finnish Association and the Ministry of Education and Culture has been held during the autumn, to ensure the interest of the Finnish Federation to host the IFF Office for the next four year term and for the Ministry of Education and Culture to support the SSBL for hosting the office. As a result of these discussion, the Ministry of Education and Culture has informed that The Ministry has supported the IFF Office in Finland for several years and would contribute to the effective function of the Office in Finland also in the future. The IFF CB decided to start the process of keeping the IFF Office in Finland for the years 2021-2024.
The Final decision will be made during the IFF CB meeting in March 2020.
