During the second IFF Central Board (CB) meeting of the year on the 8th of May, the CB decided about the Strategy Implementation process and discussed the upcoming IFF Events and the regional development projects.
IFF Strategy Implementation
The IFF General Assembly has in December 2020 approved the IFF Strategy 2021 -2032 – Strengthening the Foundations and the IFF CB has decided concerning the Implementation Plan for the Strategy, based on the proposal of the IFF Strategy Implementation Working group (SWG).
The concrete work to reach the set targets in the IFF Strategy will be handled by four Strategy Subgroups based on the different Key Performance Indicators defined in the Strategy. The idea is to start the work with the Subgroups already before the summer. The SWG will coordinate the work of the four Subgroups and report continuously on the work done by them.
IFF calls out for participants to the Strategy Subgroups
In the IFF Strategy 2021-2032, there are substantial number of Targets defined for the Key Performance Indicators. The time frame for reaching these targets have been divided into three phases, with the initial one for the period 2021-2024 and the other two for 2025-2028 and 2029-2032. The Strategy has defined what the IFF is striving to achieve, but now we must define what practical actions needs to be taken to reach the set targets.
For this work the IFF invites representatives from the IFF Member Associations and general floorball activists to nominate themselves for the four Strategy Subgroups. The Subgroups will work mainly with the following topics:
- Group 1: Awareness and Visibility
- Group 2: Development, Service Level and Expansion
- Group 3: Governance, Sport Culture and Leadership
- Group 4: Sport presentation and Appearance
—The implementation of the new IFF strategy is a demanding task and therefore we are looking for all kind of people to be involved with the process and that way to enhance the mutual understanding of the new strategy. The more experience we get to the Subgroups the better it is, says Mr. Stephen King, the chair of the Strategy Task Force.
—I’m sure we will be able to recruit the right persons with different competencies and experiences for this project, he concludes.
A letter of interest to join a specific Strategy Subgroup is to be sent to office@floorball.sport by 31st of May 2021. In the letter of interest, please outline what experience are you bringing to the group, what is your area of expertise and what makes you a good candidate.
More about the key priorities from the IFF Strategy document:
- Download the PDF version of the Strategy Implementation Plan
- Download the PDF version of the IFF Strategy
- Access the document on the Digital publishing platform Issuu
IFF Events
Women’s U19 WFC 2020, Uppsala, Sweden – played in September 2021
The Women’s U19 WFC is played 1st – 5th of September 2021. Visit the website here!
The IFU arena is again in use but will be further repaired/renovated during summer to be in full use from the start of the upcoming season and in time for the U19 WFC.
It remains unlikely that Australia or New Zealand will be able to participate, while participation for the other non-European teams (Canada, USA & China) also appears to still be problematic. The Competition Office is looking into the matter of a possibility to replace some of these teams. The Go/NoGo dates are set for the 25th of June for the teams and 2nd of July for the LOC.
Men’s U19 WFC 2021, Brno, Czech Republic
The Men’s U19 WFC is played 25th – 29th of August 2021. Visit the website here!
The preparation of the final round in Brno is ongoing, and the schedule has been updated to the new dates, 25th – 29th of August. IFF has provided a letter of support to the LOC, for their discussions with the National Sports Agency.
It remains unlikely that Australia or New Zealand will be able to participate if the event is held in August, while participation for the other non-European teams (Canada & Japan) also appears to still be problematic. The Go/NoGo dates have been set to 19th of June for the teams and 25th of June for 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!
The ticket sales have been re-started on the 6th of April, for the whole Event. The Volunteer recruitment has also started in April, in cooperation with the Ice Hockey World Championships 2022 and the Volleyball Championships 2022. The promotion of the WFC 2020, will during summer be handled through the Street Floorball SunSäbä-tour and the Finland-Sweden games in September.
The Go/No-go Deadlines are set as follows: Teams 17th of September and for the LOC 24th of September, with the official Announcement on the 30th of September.
Women’s WFC 2021, Uppsala, Sweden
The Women’s WFC is played 27th of November – 5th of December 2021. Visit the website here!
The play-off schedule was published 13th of April and the ticket sales for the final weekend started 27th of April.
When the qualifications all have been cancelled and all teams for the final round are known, the LOC is planning for the ballot of the groups to be held in Uppsala on the 22nd of May. The ballot will be filmed but maybe not live streamed.
Champions Cup 2022, Winterthur, Switzerland
The Men’s and Women’s Champions Cup 2022 is played in Winterthur, Switzerland 15th – 16th January 2022. Visit the website here!
The following teams have earned a ticket to the Women’s CC 2022: PSS (FIN), Thoregruppen IBK (SWE), Kloten-Dietlikon Jets (SUI), CZE champion still to be decided.
The following teams have earned a ticket to the Men’s CC 2022: Classic (FIN), Falun (SWE), Floorball Köniz (SUI), CZE champion still to be decided.
Men’s WFC 2022, Zurich, Switzerland
The Men’s WFC 2022 is played 5th – 13th of November in Zurich and Winterthur. Visit the website here!
The LOC has set a target of 150.000 spectators for the Event and the LOC has secured the Swiss National TV SRG as the Official Broadcaster, which will broadcast all Swiss matches and all matches from the quarter final stage. The promotion of the event will start in the autumn of 2021, together with the start of the ticket sales. During the summer SUHV will run a Mobiliar Street Floorball Tour to promote the WFC and launch Street Floorball in Switzerland.
WFC 2022 Qualifications
The IFF Competition office has asked for organisers for the qualifications and that some Associations have already shown interest to organise. The aim is to have the organisers ready by the end of May to give sufficient time for planning the events.
The 36 teams registered are Switzerland (organiser), Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Latvia, Slovakia, Estonia, Canada, Poland, Australia, Thailand, USA, Singapore, Japan, Russia, Spain, Slovenia, Korea, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, New Zealand, Hungary, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, France, Liechtenstein, Ukraine, Philippines, Cote d’Ivoire, China and India.
Women’s U19 WFC 2022, Wellington, New Zealand
The Women’s U19 WFC will be played the 4th – 8th of May in Wellington, New Zealand.
The main risk with the U19 WFC 2022 still is the uncertainty with regards to international travel. The NZ government has earlier indicated that it will be towards the end of this year before overseas travel is becoming more normal again and that is under the provision that the vaccination is working. So at this stage LOC thinks that international travel to NZ will be possible in May 2022 but it might be a while before flight offerings are back up to what they used to be before Covid-19.
18 teams have registered, 13 from Europe, three from AOFC and two from Americas. Nine European teams, two Americans teams, and three AOFC teams, including New Zealand as the host, are directly qualified.
WU19 WFC 2022 Qualifications
The qualification for the last two spots is planned to be played in Saku, Estonia 8th – 11th of September 2021 with four teams participating: Denmark, Estonia, Hungary and Italy.
Other Events
International World Games Association/IWGA
The World Games 2022 will take place 7-17 July 2022 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
The discussions are now mainly concerning possible changes in the match schedule, due to the Opening Ceremony and BOC initiatives. The local preparations for the TWG 2022 include planned test event and seminars in Birmingham in September 2021.
Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games
The Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (AIMAG) will be organised the 10th-20th of March 2022 in Bangkok and Chon Buri, Thailand.
University Sport/FISU
The preparations of the FISU University World Cup Floorball has started. The event will be organised in 20th to 24th of June 2022 in Liberec, Czech Republic, and will be the first with University teams.
Regional Floorball Development projects
Each IFF CB member is reporting on matters related to their responsibilities. The responsibilities to be reported are Latin America/ Mr. Lopez, the Six Nations group/Mr. Houman and the Erasmus+ 4Floorball project/Mr. Suman.
Six Nations group
Slovakia will be the host of the Six Nations tournaments for both genders, during the international IFF weekend in week 42 (October). The tournament will be played using the playing time of 3×15 min, in a single round robin and will be arranged in the same arena. More details regarding the tournament will be informed at the Six nation steering group meeting before the summer.
In connection to the tournament a seminar will be held, which will be free and open to other member associations. Invitations will be sent out before the summer. The seminar will be conducted by Mr. Jiri Jakoubek from Czech Floorball. The seminar will consist of elements about long-term athlete development.
Latin America
The first video conference with the Latin America countries held on the 28th of March. The idea for the meeting was to improve the communication flow between the countries. The meeting was attended by Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia. Both the Dominican Republic and Venezuela had some issues to join the meeting but have been in contact since then.
After the meeting some new actions have been taken or started. Brazil continues its activities and also started a new process in order to get official recognition within the Brazilian Olympic Committee. In Colombia it is needed to register the organisations Central Board and legalise Floorball Colombia as first step to join IFF. The Colombian Floorball are having their Constitution Assembly on the 7th of May, to form the federation officially. In Peru some “separated” groups” are now working together so they can coordinate a first national championship and also with the focus on registering Floorball Peru, there needs to be at least eight clubs to do this.
Erasmus+ 4Floorball
The start of the Czech Erasmus+ project Floorball – Fit for Future has been somewhat delayed due to the Covid-19 situation. Czech Floorball has gathered the nine participants for an initial meet & greet session in the end of March and are planning to hold the official start-session of the project in June.
The minutes from the IFF CB meeting will be published soon here
