IFF CB meeting news 2/2021: WFC 2024 to Sweden, U19 WFC 2023 to Denmark, U19 WFC 2024 to Finland

During the second IFF Central Board (CB) meeting of the year, the CB decided about the organisers of the future World Floorball Championships. The CB decided to grant Sweden the Men’s WFC 2024, Denmark the Men’s U19 WFC 2023 and Finland the Women’s U19 WFC 2024. In addition, the CB decided about the composition of the Committees and confirmed Athletes’ Commission voting results.

The CB meeting was held on the 19th-20th of February 2021 via Teams. On Friday the 19th February the CB had its working session concentrating on the implementation of the IFF Strategy 2021-2032 and the actual meeting took place on Saturday 20th.

Future World Floorball Championships

Men’s World Floorball Championships 2024 to be played in Malmö, Sweden

Two IFF Member Associations bid to host the WFC 2024: Singapore and Sweden. The evaluation was completed by 12 persons including representatives from the IFF Executive Committee, IFF Rules- and Competition Committee and the IFF office. Based on the evaluations the bids of two interested organisers were even.

– The Central Board discussed the matter extensively and felt that both applications were really well and professionally prepared. It was the first time that IFF had two such equally well-balanced applications, making the decision extremely difficult. The IFF CB decided to appoint the Swedish Floorball Federation as the organiser for the IFF Men’s World Floorball Championships 2024, based mainly on the overall bigger positive declared financial impact for IFF in these difficult times in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, says Mr. John Liljelund, the Secretary General of the IFF.

– The IFF CB wants to congratulate the WFC 2024 organiser Sweden, but also thank Singapore for a very good and professional bid. The CB also wants to congratulate the two future event organisers, Floorball Denmark and the Finnish Floorball Federation.

This is the fourth time that Sweden organises the Men’s World Floorball Championships, the previous being in 1996, 2006 and 2014.

Men’s U19 World Floorball Championships 2023 to be played in Denmark

The IFF CB decided to nominate Floorball Denmark as organiser of the Men’s U19 WFC 2023. This is the first time that Denmark will host an U19 WFC. Floorball Denmark plans to organise the event in Frederikshavn in Arena Nord the 26th to 30th of April 2023, with both playing venues being under the same roof. Arena Nord is the same venue where the Women’s WFC 2007 was played.

There were two Member Associations interested in organising the Men’s U19 WFC 2023; Denmark and Slovakia. Denmark was clearly better in overall evaluation in all different sectors of the bid, which define the event: finances, delivery and development. Denmark reached 250 points more than Slovakia out of 1000 possible points in the evaluation.

Women’s U19 World Floorball Championships 2024 to be played in Finland

The IFF CB decided to nominate the Finnish Floorball Federation as organiser of the Women’s U19 WFC 2024. This is the third time that Finland will host the U19 WFC and 2024 is exactly 20 years since the first Women’s U19 WFC was played in Tampere, Finland. Finland has also previously hosted the Men’s U19 WFC in 2009. The Finnish Floorball Federation plans to run the event in the city of Lahti in the Lahti Sports and Fair Centre, the 1st to 5th of May 2024, with both playing venues under the same roof.

In the end there was only Finland bidding for the event, because due to financial impact of Covid-19 both Australia and Italy withdrew from the bid.

IFF Committees

Rules and Competition Committee (RACC) & Jury group:

Mr. Martin Klabere Chair (SWE) – elected earlier by CB
Mr. Jan Jirovský Vice Chair (CZE)
Mr. Marek Chomnicki (POL)
Ms. Zane Klabere (LAT)
Mr. Kenneth Ho (SGP)
Ms. Meelike Terasmaa (EST)
Mr. Teodor Turay (SVK)
Mr. Ari Vehniäinen (FIN)
Ms. Victoria Wickström (SWE)
Mr. Beat Wullschleger (SUI)
Mr. Tomas Sladky ATC member (CZE)
Ms. (ATC member) – will be nominated by ATC later (until it is set Agata Plechan, Poland is covering the position).

Referee Committee (RC):

Mr. Carlos Lopez, Chair (ESP) – elected earlier by CB
Mr. Peter Harris (AUS)
Mr. Petr Cerný (CZE)
Mr. Mika Saastamoinen (FIN)
Mr. Peter Zámecnik (SVK)
Mr. Ola Hamberg (SWE)
Mr. Lukas Gyger (SUI)

Medical Committee (MC):

Dr. Walter O. Frey Chair (SUI) – elected earlier by CB
Dr. Tiina Nylander Vice Chair (FIN)
Dr. Lars Erik Bartels (DEN)
Dr. Jonathan J. Koo (CAN)
Dr. Patricia Wallace (AUS)

Athletes’ Commission (ATC)

The CB confirmed the successful female candidates to the Athletes’ Commission for the term of 1st March 2021 – 28th February 2025.

Josefina Eiremo re-elected (SWE)
Lara Heini (SUI)
Kabaziba Daphine (UGA)
Yui Takahashi re-elected (JPN)

Agata Plechan (POL) is the Chair of the ATC (elected earlier by CB).

IFF Events

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 Swedish Floorball Federation (SIBF) and the local organisers (LOC) have decided that even if the event will have full audience restrictions, they are prepared to organise the event, regardless the loss of income. The biggest concerns the organiser have at the moment, are related to Covid-19 protocols and the effect these will have on the organisation.

There has unfortunately also been found some deficiencies in the roof construction of IFU arena on Friday the 5th of February due to massive amount of snow, so the city of Uppsala has closed the complete arena the same day. The Swedish Federation will follow-up the situation with the city of Uppsala and keep IFF aware of any development and how this would affect the organisation of the Women’s U19 WFC 2020.

The Go/NoGo date for the teams is 8th of March and the 12th of March for the LOC. The IFF will then together with the Swedish Floorball Federation and the LOC make all appropriate decisions by the middle of March.

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!

So far, the following eight countries have advised that they cannot participate in the event if organised in the end of April: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Japan, New Zealand, Germany, Norway and Slovenia.

The Go/NoGo date for the teams is the 8th of February and the 1st of March for the LOC. The Czech Floorball Central Board held a meeting on the 16th of February to handle the issue from the LOC point-of-view regarding organising on the planned dates or to postpone the event. The CB decided that the IFF competition office will ask the participating teams for a clarification of their possibility for participation and report this to the Men’s U19 WFC 2021 LOC.

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!

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

Women’s WFC 2021 Qualifications

WFCQ AOFC in Japan
The event has earlier been postponed to be played 29th June to 3rd July. The Go/NoGo dates are 19th April for the teams and 26th April for the LOC.
WFCQ Americas in Canada
The event has been postponed to the 11th to 12th of June in Guelph (Ontario) but due to the state-of-emergency lock-down the LOC hasn’t yet been able to secure the date with the venue. Currently only Canadian citizens may cross the border. The Go/NoGo date is set for the 9th of April for both teams and the LOC.
WFCQ EUR1 in Latvia
The event has been postponed to be played 15th to 19th of June. Germany and Norway have also switched qualification groups. The Go/NoGo dates are 12th of April for the teams and 16th of April for the LOC.
WFCQ EUR2 in Italy
The event has been postponed to be played from the 25th to 29th of May. The Go/NoGo dates are 29th of March for teams and the 2nd of April for the LOC.
WFCQ EUR3 in Slovakia
The event has been postponed being played from the 26th to 30th of May. The Go/NoGo dates are the 29th of March for teams and the 2nd of April for the LOC.

Men’s WFC 2022, Zurich, Switzerland

The 14th Men’s World Floorball Championships will be played the 5th – 13th of November in Zurich and Winterthur, Switzerland. A total of 36 teams have registered, 24 from Europe, 9 from AOFC, 1 from Africa and 2 from Americas. Switzerland as the organiser is directly qualified.

The IFF CB decided that the African teams shall play in the European qualifications as in the WFC 2020, and that these shall be played in three places with two groups of four teams. 10 teams will qualify from EUR/AFR (Group winners, 3rd place winners and the best 4th placed team based on the results of the group matches). The AOFC shall play in one place with 9 teams divided in two groups with four teams to qualify (group winners, 3rd-4th placed teams) and Americas shall play best of two matches in one place, where the winner qualifies to the final round.

Women’s U19 WFC 2022, Wellington, New Zealand

The 10th Women’s U19 World Floorball Championships will be played the 4th – 8th of May in Wellington, New Zealand. 18 teams have registered, 13 from Europe, three from AOFC and two from Americas. Eight European teams and New Zealand (organiser) are directly qualified.

The IFF CB decided that the two remaining teams from AOFC (Australia and Singapore) and the two teams from Americas (Canada and USA) shall also be directly qualified and that five European teams shall play in one qualification where three teams qualify to the final round. The European teams can’t be named until after the U19 WFC 2020 is decided.

Champions Cup

According to the decisions made by the Champions Cup Steering Group Switzerland will host the CC 2022 and Finland the CC 2023. The CC 2022 will either be played in December 2021, between 27th or 30th of December or on the 15th to 16th of January 2022. The stakeholders are presently processing the options from their own perspectives.

The IFF CB also approved the new CC Agreement for the Home & Away Concept starting in the season 2023-2024 and the CC Regulation 2023.

Euro Floorball Cup 2021

Due to the Covid-19 situation and the effect this have had on both IFF events and national leagues, several countries lack champions and therefore the IFF CB decided that the EuroFloorball Challenge (EFCh) and EuroFloorball Cup (EFC) will not be organised in 2021.

Other Events

Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games
The Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (AIMAG) will be organised in Thailand and played in Bangkok and Chon Buri. The event has earlier been postponed to 10th-20th of March 2022.

FISU University World Cup Floorball
FISU has also confirmed the dates for the University World Cup Floorball, which are the 20th to 24th of June 2022. The event will be organised in Liberec, Czech Republic, and will be the first with University teams.

FISU has also approved the nominations of Mr. Carlos Lopez as the FISU Technical commission chair and Ms. Meelike Terasmaa as the vice-chair for the next four-year period.

Covid-19 protocols and regulations

The IFF office has prepared several documents regarding Covid-19 and the running of events. The IFF Covid-19 Event Protocols provide the guidelines for each event LOC and will act as the basis for their own Covid-19 Implementation Plan. The IFF Restart Guidelines give information on steps that can be taken and matters that need to be considered when associations &/or clubs are restarting their floorball programmes.

The CB approved both of these documents as well as the proposal for the handling of the Covid-19 tests for IFF personnel attending IFF events. Costs for testing will be shared by the IFF and LOCs depending on the event, and the regulations that are in place at the time of the event.

Exemptions in transfer rules for Intercontinental Visitor Transfers

The IFF CB decided to approve the proposal from the United States Floorball Association (USFbA) for an exemption in the date range of the Intercontinental Visitor Transfer period to start June 1st instead of July 1st. The decision was made in order to make it possible for the North American Floorball League (NAFL) to have players coming from abroad.

Strategy implementation

The IFF CB decided to form a strategy implementation group (SWG) that consists of a total of five persons. Two members from the CB and two from the Member Associations and one from the office. Then there would be four sub-groups, one for each Key Priority Area (Awareness & Visibility, Development & Service Level, Governance & Sport Culture and Sport Presentation & Appearance). The main idea is that the SWG will coordinate and steer the strategy implementation together with the different sub-groups and other entities who have been given the responsibility to conduct the tasks mentioned in the strategy document.

The proposal for the Strategy Implementation working group is: