The IFF Central Board (CB) had its sixth meeting of the year on September 29th to decide upon the new dates for the Adult World Floorball Championships and the updated IFF competition calendar for 2021. New dates were also set for the Men’s U19 World Floorball Championships Qualifications.
Men’s and Women’s World Floorball Championships
The IFF Central Board earlier decided to postpone the Men’s WFC 2020 in Helsinki, Finland, from being played in December 2020 to 2021, which effects the IFF competition calendar 2021, and especially the Women’s WFC 2021 in Uppsala, Sweden. The Finnish Floorball Federation has applied to organise the Men’s WFC 2020 from the 3rd to 11th of December 2021. This clashes with the dates of the Women’s WFC 2021, which were planned to be played from the 4th to 12th of December 2021.
– IFF has been in contact with both the Finnish and the Swedish Federation and discussed the situation. The main issue has been that there is limited arena availability in Helsinki. After thorough evaluation, the Swedish Floorball Federation and the City of Uppsala has been able to find a new solution, the best available in the current situation, which the IFF is really thankful for. The IFF CB has now approved the Swedish Federation’s proposal to play the Women’s WFC in Uppsala November 27th – December 5th, as this is the only other option in November, prior to the Men’s WFC. This will cause a three-day overlap with the Men’s WFC group stage that we need to take advantage of, says IFF Secretary General John Liljelund.
Adult WFC dates in 2021:
- Women’s World Floorball Championships will be played November 27th – December 5th in Uppsala, Sweden
- Men’s World Floorball Championships will be played December 3rd – 11th in Helsinki, Finland
More detailed event information will be published on the WFC websites: www.wfc2021.se & www.wfchelsinki2020.fi
OTHER UPCOMING IFF EVENTS
Men’s U19 WFC 2021 Qualifications
All Men’s U19 WFC 2021 qualifications have been postponed until January/February 2021.
The EUR qualifications for the Men’s U19 WFC 2021 were originally to be played in August/September but were rescheduled to November. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to limit the possibility and safety of travel, while Floorball activities are still very restricted in many countries. With several of the associations having expressed their concern about being able to participate in events in November, the IFF in co-operation with the local organisers have agreed to further postpone the events, which will now both be played in February 2021.
The organisers and host cities shall remain the same but the dates will now be as follows:
- EUR1 – Lignano Sabbiodoro, Italy: 23rd – 27th February 2021
- EUR2 – Lochow, Poland: 24th – 28th February 2021
COVID-19 restrictions have now forced the postponement of all of the Men’s U19 qualification tournaments. Already announced was the postponement of both the AOFC and AMERICAS groups. They will be played:
- AMER – Arlington, Texas, USA: 6th – 9th January 2021
- AOFC – Singapore: 11th – 16th January 2021
U19 WFC dates in 2021:
- Men’s U19 World Floorball Championships will be played April 28th – May 2nd in Brno, Czech Republic
- Women’s U19 World Floorball Championships will be played May 5th – 9th in Uppsala, Sweden
More detailed event information published on the U19 WFC event websites: www.u19wfc2021.com & www.u19wfc2020.se
Women’s WFC 2021 Qualifications
All of the organisers for the Women’s WFC 2021 qualifications have now been confirmed. The events will be held as follows:
- AMER – Toronto, Canada: 29th – 30th January 2021
- EUR1 – Valmiera, Latvia: 2nd – 6th February 2021
- EUR2 – Lignano Sabbiodoro, Italy: 2nd – 6th February 2021
- EUR3 – city to be confirmed, Slovakia: 3rd – 7th February 2021
- AOFC – Hachioji, Japan: 29th June – 3rd July 2021
More information on the groups will be published in the coming days.
All IFF Events & Organisers 2019-2022 are found here!
FINANCIAL IMPACT OF COVID-19
The financial effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the postponement of the WFC 2020 on the IFF finances and the cash-flow situation has stayed unchanged. The financial deficit caused by the COVID-19 and the postponement of the WFC after all savings made earlier this year through no travel, meetings or visits and no new projects started still points to a loss of 200,000 – 250,000 CHF. Several actions have been taken to try to minimise the effect this loss would have on the IFF operations and the IFF Office during the end of 2020 and the beginning of the 2021, but furloughing of the IFF staff cannot be avoided. The IFF Secretary General is given the task to plan for the process of and coordinate the time for a possible furloughing so that the operations can be kept running as well as possible.
IFF STRATEGY FOR 2021–2032
The IFF CB has a part of the IFF Strategy Task Force (STF) 2nd submission of the IFF Strategy for a 2nd Commentary round received the proposal for the IFF Strategy 2021 – 2032. The STF will discuss all the proposed changes received from the 2nd commentary round in its meeting on the 12th of October and then present a final version to the IFF CB for the next scheduled meeting in end of October.
The minutes from the IFF CB meeting will be published during this week here
For more information, please contact IFF Secretary General John Liljelund, liljelund@floorball.sport (phone: +358 400529031)
