The IFF Central Board (CB) had its fourth meeting of the year on June 15th to discuss the present COVID-19 situation. During the meeting, the CB decided to postpone the Women’s U19 World Floorball Championships from September 2020 to May 5th–9th 2021.
Women’s U19 WFC 2020 to be played in May 2021
The Swedish Floorball Federation had together with Uppsala Municipality and the IFU Arena handed in an application to postpone the Women’s U19 WFC 2020.
– The IFF CB decided to postpone the Women’s U19 WFC 2020 and the WU19 WFC will be played from the 5th to 9th of May 2021 based on the application from the Swedish Floorball Federation, in order to secure the health and safety of the athletes. In addition, we believe that all qualified teams should have the possibility to participate in the event. The event is still called U19 WFC 2020 and will be played in the IFU Arena in Uppsala. The U19 WFC 2020 will also be played with the same age group as originally invited for, IFF President Tomas Eriksson informs.
The prevailing COVID-19 situation does not grant a possibility to organise the event in Uppsala in September 2020. The reasons for this are mainly the fact that the safety of the players cannot be fully secured and consequently the present Health authorities restriction of a maximum of 50 persons gatherings in public places, which means that there are no possibilities for the any spectators in the arena.
COVID-19 pandemic implications on other IFF Events
Some IFF Member Associations who have raised their concern for the upcoming IFF Events in the later part of 2020 and in beginning of 2021. The concern is whether it is safe to travel to the event, without any quarantines and if the countries will have the opportunity to actually practice at all before the time of the event, regardless if it is a qualification to the U19 WFC 2021 or some other events. Based on this the IFF Competition department has prepared some basic guidelines for how IFF could move forward in this problematic situation.
Men’s U19 WFC 2021 Qualifications
The basic situation for the U19 WFC 2021 qualifications is still a bit unclear, as none of the qualifications will be able to be played during the original planned dates in August or in beginning of September. Here is the present situation concerning the U19 WFC 2021 qualifications:
AMERICAS – USA (Original plan 29th – 30th August)
Event will be postponed from these dates. New dates / location is yet to be confirmed, but the discussion has started between USA and Canada.
EUR1 – Italy & EUR2 – Poland (Planned for 11th – 15th November)
In this situation the LOC’s need to set a date for final confirmation from their side if there is a possibility to hold the event as now planned. The final confirmation from LOC’s must be given by the 21st of August and the participating teams need to confirm their possibility to participate by the 31st of August. If the LOC can’t organise or the teams can’t at that stage confirm participation, the IFF will need to reconsider the situation.
AOFC – Singapore (12th – 17th October)
The Travel restrictions in AOFC area have not yet been lifted. Current situation is:
- International travel from Australia is only allowed for ‘essential’ purposes and permission must be applied for from the government. Returning travellers must quarantine in a designated facility
- New Zealanders are advised not to travel overseas at this time. The New Zealand Government has raised its travel advice to “do not travel” — the highest level — regardless of destination. Returning travellers must quarantine in a designated facility
- Travel between Australia and New Zealand is likely to be opened up in July, but it is not clear what the quarantine restrictions will be
- Travel between Singapore & Japan is limited. Japanese citizens returning to Singapore must quarantine
- Travel between Singapore & China has been opened to ‘essential’ travel only. Passengers need to be sponsored by a government agency or a company.
Based on the current travel information it is highly unlikely that the event will be able to go ahead as planned, with all teams participating. The IFF CB decided based on the IFF Competition department’s proposal that the LOC needs to provide a final confirmation by the 3rd of August and from the teams no later than the 10th of August. The Competition department will also begin working on an alternative plan, including the possibility of splitting the AOFC qualification into one Asian and one Oceania group, based on travel possibilities
Men’s WFC 2020
The Go/No-go date has been set to the 1st of October. The Finnish Floorball Federation and the IFF will meet with the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Health in the end of August to discuss the situation and the possibilities to organise the championships in December 2020. The IFF will collect the information from the qualified teams whether they are able to participate in the WFC 2020 in December no later than the 25th of September.
Champions Cup 2021
The CB has set a Go/No-go date for the Champions Cup, which is the 6th of November, based on the proposal by the Swiss Floorball Association.
The COVID-19 situation is also being monitored in relation to other events scheduled to be held in 2021, like the World Floorball Championships Qualifications.
Euro Floorball Championships consultative meeting postponed
The Consultative meeting concerning the Euro Floorball Championships originally planned to take place during the U19 WFC 2020 has been postponed to the 30th of October 2020. The IFF will send out information about the place of the meeting later.
