The IFF Central Board (CB) held its third meeting of the year via the online platform Teams on the 22nd and 23rd of May. During the meeting the CB discussed the impact of the Covid-19 on the IFF Events.
One important discussion topic in the meeting was the future of IFF Events and what would be the impact of the Covid-19 if events set for 2020 can’t be organised. The main approach is that all WFC events shall be played even though those would be postponed and the IFF then needs to negotiate with the local organisers how and when the events can be organised.
– The CB evaluated the situation with the World Floorball Championships in 2020 and felt that it is important to play the events, even with a smaller number of teams, than to cancel them. The main reasons being the “once in a lifetime” for the U19 WFC and financial reasons for the organisers and the IFF. IFF is now working towards a Go/No-Go date for the U19 WFC around mid-June and end of September for the WFC together with the organisers, during these unsure times, the IFF Secretary General, John Liljelund, informs.
Regarding the Euro Floorball Cup and EuroFloorball Challenge the IFF CB decided to cancel these events for the year 2020 due to the lack of participants and organisers due to the present Covid-19 situation.
The IFF Central Board also congratulated Mr. Chaiyapak Siriwat, The President of the Thailand Floorball, for being elected as the Vice-President of the Olympic Council of Asia.
Upcoming IFF Events
Women’s U19 WFC 2020
The 9th Women’s U19 World Floorball Championships were postponed from May 2020 to the 2nd to 6th of September 2020 due to the Covid-19. The IFF is still positive that the tournaments would take place, but the pandemic situation is still open. Many countries are now planning to open up the borders and ease the restrictions, but the global situation will have its affect on the event.
The IFF is working closely with the LOC and IFF has also through consultation with the IOC and the WHO been preparing a Covid-19 safety protocol for IFF events. The Swedish authorities are planning to give the new recommendations of travelling during the beginning of June 2020 and the IFF CB will evaluate the U19 WFC 2020 in its next meeting on the 15th of June.
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. The ticket sales has started through Ticketmaster. Due to the fact that the AOFC qualification was cancelled the AOFC countries qualifying to the Final round have been decided by the official IFF ranking. The ballot was however organised on the 10th of March 2020 just before the Covid-19 travel restrictions.
The IFF has been negotiation about a Go/No-Go day for the WFC 2020 with the LOC and Finnish authorities and the preliminary date has been set to end of September.
Visit the WFC 2020 website here.
Champions Cup 2021
The CC 2021 will be played in Switzerland in Winterthur 9.-10.1.2021. The logo for the event has been approved and the website has been opened. So far there are three teams registered, but there is still time until the end of registration 30.06.2020. The LOC is already working on the practical arrangements.
Visit the Champions Cup 2021 website here.
Regarding the approval of the Champions Cup Home & Away concept, Czech Republic, Finland and Switzerland have confirmed and approved the concept. Sweden has made a positive decision about the concept in their CB meeting on the 18th of May. The IFF Office has been working on the sales presentation for the Champions Cup in order to start the sales in the end of September to be able to start the project. The COVID-19 has of course heavily affected the possibilities to sell any event presently.
Men’s U19 WFC 2021
28 teams have registered for the 11th Men’s U19 World Floorball Championships will be played in Brno in Czech Republic in the period 28.04-02.05.2021. The planned venue is the same, where the Women’s WFC 2013 was played. There are plans for the qualifications, but the schedules are still open due to the present situation. The IFF competition department is negotiating with the possible organisers to organise the qualifications later in the autumn 2020.
Women’s WFC 2021
26 teams have registered for the event 13th Women’s World Floorball Championships (WFC) played in Uppsala, Sweden, December 4th – 12th 2021. Only the organiser, Sweden, receives direct qualification to the Final Round and the qualifications are played in February 2021.
Visit the WFC 2021 website here.
Men’s WFC 2022
The 14th Men’s World Floorball Championships will be played in Switzerland. The WFC 2022 arenas are Swiss Life in Zurich and AXA arena in Winterthur.
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 5.11-13.11.2022, but the time will be confirmed.
The LOC has already started the marketing work to find sponsors for the event.
Euro Floorball Cup and EuroFloorball Challenge
The IFF Central Board decided to cancel these events for the year 2020 due to the lack of participants and organisers due to the present Covid-19 situation.
Organisers for WFC 2023 and WFC 2024
The IFF has received letter of interest, but it seems that the negotiations and bidding need to take place later due to the fact that it’s really difficult for the IFF members to plan events without knowing the financial impacts. The IFF CB will revert to this topic in its meeting in September.
Other Events
World University Floorball Championships 2020
The International University Sports Federation (FISU) has informed together with the Local organiser the the event has been cancelled due to the Covid-19
The World Games 2021
The World Games 2021 in Birmingham, USA have been postponed to 2022 and the event is now called TWG 2022, and will be played 7-17 July 2022 with floorball included on the programme.
Special Olympics World Games 2021
The Special Olympics World Winter Games 2021 has been changed to be the World Winter Games 2022 and the new organiser will be announced later.
Asia Indoor and Martial Arts Games in 2021
The Asia Indoor and Martial Art Games will be played in Bangkok and Pattaya preliminary during the third week of May in 2021 and floorball is on the programme among only 24 sports: There are in total 45 Asian countries, as well as Oceania 17 countries which are eligible to register through their respective NOC, this is s a huge step towards floorball being included in the Asian Games.
Rules of the Game & Updated Regulations
Rules of the Game 2022
The rule reference group had its meeting on the 24th of March through Teams regarding the new rules and several IFF member associations have informed that they are willing to test certain new rule proposals for the test, All rule proposals have been sent to Member Associations, IFF RC, IFF RACC, IFF Athletes Commission and office for feedback until 31st of May. The rule reference group will then handle the feedback in a meeting in June.
IFF Athletes’ Commission
The male members of the ATC were elected during the WFC 2020 qualification tournaments and for the cancelled event in Asia-Oceania the teams were invited to vote by email. Also the organising country (FIN) and directly qualified countries (USA & CAN) voted by email. The result of the election was as followed:
Jarno Ihme (FIN) 220
Tomas Sladky (CZE) 186 (re-election)
Sergio Garcés (ESP) 158
Junoh Lee (KOR) 130 (re-election)
Anže Šneberger (SLO) 125
He Xiaolong (CHN) 86
Marian Hrabovyk (UKR) 56
The ATC has held its first meeting on the 9th of May discussing among other things the IFF Strategy, Athletes presence in IFF Social media and planned the future work.
IFF Member Associations
The IFF CB is following up on Member Associations that have depths and their payment plans are continuously being evaluated and followed. Currently, the IFF is following the pay-off plans of Canada, Cote d’Ivoire, Malaysia, Russia and Slovenia.
IFF Office
In accordance with the previous CB decisions, discussions with the Finnish Association and the Ministry of Education and Culture has been held and agreements for hosting of the IFF Office and the Employment of the IFF Secretary General on behalf of IFF with the Finnish Federation has been signed for 2021-2024.
