The Men’s WFC 2020 AOFC Qualifications are scheduled to take place in Bangkok, Thailand from 2nd – 7th March 2020. Due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) situation, a consultation process has taken place, involving all of the AOFC participating countries, the host country, and various IFF committees. Based on these discussions and current information given by the World Health Organisation and the participating country governments, the decision has been taken to play the Men’s WFC 2020 AOFC Qualifications, as planned.
– With no official World Health Organisation (WHO) or participating country government bans on travel to/from Thailand, and with 7 of the 8 teams re-confirming their willingness to play the event, we have decided that the event will go head. Only Philippines, whose government already has in place quarantine restrictions for returning travellers, has withdrawn from participating, says John Liljelund the IFF Secretary General.
Due to the withdrawal of Philippines, the match schedule has been changed and the event will be shortened by one competition day. The new competition days will be 2nd – 6th March. An updated match schedule can be found here.
– With the co-operation of the event host organisation and the assistance of government officials, special protocols, such as temperature screening, will be put in place at the competition venue. Even though the seven national associations have said they will participate, it may be likely that individual players will decide to withdraw. For this reason, the IFF will allow teams to change their player list up until 72 hrs prior to the event, this includes adding new players that may not have been on their original team list, says the IFF Event Manager, Sarah Mitchell.
Regardless of this decision today, the IFF, Floorball Thailand, and the participating countries will all closely monitor the information from WHO and various government bodies and any change in travel advice may still lead to the event being cancelled.
