The IFF Central Board (CB) had its seventh meeting of the year on 31st of October to discuss the virtual IFF General Assembly 2020 and approve all the related documents. A new Temporary Transfer rule due to COVID-19 was also approved as well as the international referee and observer nominations 2021-2022.

IFF General Assembly 2020

The 16th IFF General Assembly 2020 will be held over Teams on Friday the 11th of December as a virtual meeting at 8:30 CET. The invitation has been sent out on the 9th of September.

The recommendation to the Member Associations is to only use one computer/account to participate in the meeting. If there will be an election for the Central Board members, the voting will take place with Webropol. The anonymous links will then be delivered beforehand to the persons who will vote for the Member Associations and the IFF office needs to secure that everyone has received the link. If any other voting will occur the voting shall be handled with Mentimeter, because simple yes/no voting is relatively easy to handle with that software.

The IFF CB approved the following documents for the IFF General Assembly, that has to be sent out to the member associations, no later than 30 full days prior to the meeting, on the 9th of November. The CB discussed and approved the following documents:

• Final Announcement
• Proposal for IFF GA Agenda
• Proposal for IFF Annual Report 2019-2020
• Proposal for IFF Plan of Actions 2021-2022
• Proposal for IFF Statutes update 2020
• Proposal for IFF Budget 2021 – 2022
• Proposals for IFF Financial Report and Auditors report 2018 – 2019
• IFF Proposal: IFF Strategy 20212-2032 – Strengthening the Foundations
• IFF Motion: Decision on Euro Floorball Championships
• List of Nominations

The CB also decided to propose to the GA to enlarge the number of CB members from 9 to 9-11 CB members, in order to have broader representation reflecting the IFF development.

The IFF Office will send out the invitation for nominations for the IFF Committees in the beginning of November, in order to have the information of candidates before the IFF General Assembly.

AOFC Annual General Meeting

The Asia Oceania Floorball Confederation is planning to organise the AOFC General Meeting digitally on the 29th of November and the invitation has been sent out. The agenda for the meeting will be finalised by the end of October.

IFF Events

Champions Cup 2021, Winterthur, Switzerland

The Champions Cup is planned to be played 9th – 10th of January 2021. Visit the website here!

The draw for the semi-finals was carried out on the 26th of September. The Go/no-go date for the event is set to 6th of November.

The Champions Cup Steering Group meeting will be held on 2nd of November to discuss among other topics the Champions Cup 2021 in Winterthur and the Go/No-Go decision, the Implementation plan of the Champions Cup concept, the proposal for the CC agreement, the CC regulation and the CC sales presentation.

Men’s WFC 2020, Helsinki, Finland – played in December 2021

The Men’s WFC 2020 to be played from the 3rd – 11th of December 2021. Visit the website here!

Currently TV negotiations are ongoing and the IFF has made an agreement for the TV broadcast with YLE for the Finnish games and with Swiss TV for the Swiss games and the semi-finals and finals. These agreements have been re-confirmed for the WFC 2020 played in 2021. The agreement with Czech Floorball for the TV broadcast in Czech TV is approved but has to be confirmed also for 2021. Discussions with the other possible takers are ongoing.

Women’s U19 WFC 2020, Uppsala, Sweden – played in May 2021

The Women’s U19 WFC is played 5th – 9th of May 2021. Visit the website here!

The Go/NoGo dates has been discussed between LOC and the IFF to be set to 8th of March for the teams and 12th of March for the LOC. The LOC is preparing an information letter to the teams.

Women’s WFC 2021, Uppsala, Sweden

The Women’s WFC is played 27th of November – 5th of December 2021. Visit the website here!

The WFC qualifications will be played according to the Future of Floorball concept with match time 3 x 15 minutes and team delegations consisting of 17 players and five officials. Currently all WFC 2021 qualifications are in preparation to be played the set dates, but the IFF competition office will discuss with respective organiser of possible alternative dates should a postponement be needed.

For the WFCQ AOFC in Japan the Go/NoGo dates were set to 19th April for the teams and 26th April for the LOC.

Men’s U19 WFC 2021, Brno, Czech Republic

The Men’s U19 WFC is played 28th of April – 2nd of May 2021. Visit the website here!

All U19 WFC 2021 qualifications are currently in preparation to be played at the set dates.

The Go/NoGo date for the final round was set to 8th of February for the teams and 1st of March for the organiser. The local organisers have also initiated a discussion with the IFF competition office of possible postponement dates of the Men’s U19 WFC to the month end July-August, should this be needed. The situation will be continuously monitored.

Men’s WFC 2022, Zurich, Switzerland

The invitation to the WFC 2022 was sent 14th October with 31st of December as last day to register. So far three countries have registered, Finland, Slovakia and Sweden.

The Men’s WFC visuals will be released on the 5th of November.

Women’s U19 WFC 2022, Wellington, New Zealand

The to the U19 WFC 2022 was sent on the 21st October with 31st of December as the last day to register.

Other Events

Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games
The Asia Indoor and Martial Art Games, which will be organised in Thailand and played in Bangkok and Chon Buri. The dates are set to 21st – 31st of May 2021.

SEA Games in 2021
The SEA Games will take place in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2021. The dates are 21st of November – 2nd of December. The SEA Games Council is to decide upon the programme, based on the appeals made concerning a total of 24 sports, the Vietnamese LOC wants to remove from the programme.

FISU
There has been no contact from FISU in regard to the new World University Championships 2022 in Liberec, Czech Republic.

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 leads to furloughing of the IFF staff. As IFF has secure at least the 50.000 EUR support from the Finnish Ministry of Education, the needed time of furloughing has decreased from the original 60 days. The decisions based on the co-determination negotiations can be made earliest on November 3rd.

Temporary Transfer rule due to COVID-19

The IFF office has received a lot of inquiries related to the transfers and the Covid-19 situation. Since some of the IFF Member Associations have been forced to stop their seasons temporarily the IFF office has prepared a temporary transfer rule, which is valid from the first of November 2020, in order to make it slightly easier for the players to continue playing in other countries and leagues and when wanting to return to the ordinary club. The transfer fee is the ordinary fee, but the transfers are handled as express transfers. Also the players under the age of 18 are released from paying the transfer fee if they want to return to their original countries to play.

IFF Strategy for 2021–2032

The sixth Strategy Task Force STF meeting was held over Teams on the 12th of October, in which the last additions and changes based on the feedback from the 2nd commentary round were made to the IFF Strategy. The STF has also decided to have a last meeting on the 16th of November to discuss the plans for Implementation and make a proposal to the CB how the work for building an Implementation plan could be handled.

The IFF CB approved the final IFF Strategy 2021-2032 text during the meeting.

Referees and Referee Observers 2021-2022

The IFF Referee Committee (RC) has asked for proposals for the international referees and international observers by the 30th of September 2020. The RC received proposals from 25 IFF Member Associations and the RC proposes altogether 142 referees and 31 observers to be approved by the IFF CB.

The number has increased compared to the last round in 2018 by 10 % and especially the number has grown in the AOFC area. The IFF CB approved the nominations according to the RC motion. Check all the nominated referees and referee observers here

Athletes Commission

IFF Office has sent out the invitation to the Member Associations to nominate one female candidate for the Athletes Commission elections of 2021 for four female members. As approved by the IFF Central Board in June 2016, ATC members are elected for a term of four years and the elections are held during the WFC Qualification events. Via the elections, the players will elect a minimum of three representatives, and the IFF CB can (if they choose), based on regional aspects, elect one member to the Athletes Commission.

In 2021, it will be the female members who will be up for election. As the dates for the Women’s WFC Qualifications vary greatly in 2021 it is most likely that much of the voting will take place online. The new term for the female ATC members will be from February 2021 – January 2025. The current male members were confirmed at the beginning of this year and their term will end in January 2024.

The minutes from the IFF CB meeting will be published during this week here