The IFF Champions Cup Steering Group (CCSG) held its first meeting of the year on the 28th of January over Teams, deciding about the next organisers of the Champions Cup (CC) and the documents related to the new Home & Away concept for the CC that will start during the season 2023-2024.

The CCSG includes the following representatives Mr. Tomas Frank and Mr. Jan Jirovsky from Czech Republic, Mr. Pekka Ilmivalta from Finland, Mr. Magnus Nilsson and Mr. Mikael Ahlerup from Sweden, Mr. Michael Zoss from Switzerland and Mr. John Liljelund from the IFF, who acts as the groups interim chair.

CC 2022 in Switzerland & CC 2023 in Finland

As the Champions Cup 2021, which was planned to be played on the 10th to 11th of January 2021 in Winterthur, Switzerland was forced to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the CCSG has now agreed that the organisation of the present format of the Champions Cup will continue for 2022 and 2023. As also the Men’s World Floorball Championships have been moved from December 2020 to December 2021, the Finnish Floorball Federation wished to organise the CC in 2023, instead of only one month after the Men’s WFC in Helsinki. It was therefore decided that Switzerland will organise the CC in 2022 and Finland will host the CC in 2023. The dates will be decided during the coming weeks.

Champions Cup Home & Away Concept

The CCSG also discussed the introduction of the new Home & Away Champions Cup Concept, which is planned to start in the season 2023-2024 with eight teams for both men and women. The CCSG finalised the proposal for the Champions Cup Stakeholder agreement and the Champions Cup regulation 2023, which will now be discussed by the respective stakeholders Central Board’s during February, after which the final decision of starting the new Champions Cup competition model will be taken in September 2021.

In the initial stage of the Champions Cup it is only the Top 4 countries participating with two teams for men and women. The idea is to enlarge the number of participating countries in a second phase in the coming years, with the aim to build this to a large competition in Europe. In the new format of the Champions Cup the National Champion, the winner of the regular season, the runner-up or the winner of the National Cup are the two teams that are eligible to participate in the Champions Cup.

More information on the Floorball Champions Cup and its current form.