The IFF Central Board (CB) had an online meeting on 29th June 2021 to discuss and decide upon the IFF Events in relation to the the current Covid-19 situation. During the meeting, the CB decided to go ahead with the Men’s U19 WFC 2021 in Brno, Czech Republic.
MEN’s U19 WFC 2021
The Men’s U19 WFC will be played 25th – 29th of August 2021. Visit the website here!
The IFF CB Meeting decided to go ahead with the tournament 25th-29th of August 2021 in Brno, Czech Republic. The Covid-19 pandemic still affects the list of countries which can participate. A total of 11 qualified teams (Czech Republic, Finland, Latvia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Slovenia, Russia and Poland) have replied that they are ready to participate and the five qualified teams (Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Norway) have replied that they – due to Covid-19 and travel restrictions cannot participate.
Moreover, the IFF CB decided to include Estonia, Austria, Belgium and Italy as replacing teams. In total, nine countries were approached in relation to being replacement teams based on regional quotas, ranking order of the nations, and their readiness and willingness to participate.
New entry restrictions for Czech Republic that came into effect on 1st July have made it unclear whether Russia will be able to participate or not. Once the situation is confirmed the final list of participating teams and match schedule will be published. Further the CB decided to put forward to the IFF competition office to work with LOC to adapt the schedule to the new teams but still be ready to further adaptions depending on possible changed restrictions nearer the event.
WOMEN’s U19 WFC 2020
The Women’s U19 WFC is scheduled to be played 1st – 5th of September 2021. Visit the website here!
The IFF CB has agreed to put the final decision forward to the IFF Competition office, in cooperation with the LOC, to decide about going ahead with, or cancelling, the Women’s U19 WFC 2020. This will be based on the team’s (2nd July) and LOC Go/No-go answers (9th July). There is a current exchange with all involved parties to determine the best possible solution. Unlike the Men’s U19 WFC 2021 there will be no possibility to include replacement teams to the event due to the Women’s U19 WFC 2022 European qualifications being played in September.
Furthermore, the IFF CB decided to put forward the format of the tournament to the IFF competition office to work with LOC to adapt the schedule based on the number of teams and possible changed restrictions nearer the event.
U19 WFC 2020 AND 2021 PLAYING FORMAT
Due to the possibility of having a reduced number of teams participating in the U19 WFCs a modified playing format may be required. The IFF CB has decided in accordance to the RACC proposal that if once a team needs to play two matches per day during the group stages of the U19 WFC that the match time shall then be 3×15 minutes for the entire group. The play-off matches shall still be played with 3×20 minutes.
— As four matches in three days are considered physically tough, and it is known that in most countries there has been very limited floorball played over the last year, this is the only way possible to decide the group in the three days available for the group matches and making it possible to play semi-finals, Mr John Liljelund, IFF Secretary General explains.
FUTURE OF FLOORBALL TESTING
The IFF CB has made the decision in accordance to the RACC proposal to forward a motion extending the testing period for the season 2021-2022 to the IFF Extra Ordinary General Assembly 2021, held in Helsinki in December 2021. Additionally, the CB decided that the Men’s WFC 2022 qualification shall be played according to the Future of Floorball concept with a match time of 3x15mins and with 17 players and 5 officials.
STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION
The IFF Strategy Implementation working group has held a 3rd meeting on the 23rd of June to discuss the formation and the process to start the work of the four Strategy Implementation Subgroups for the Initial period 2021-2024. IFF received a total of over 50 nominations from 25 countries.
The IFF CB decided to approve the forming of 4 subgroups:
- Subgroup 1 – Awareness and Visibility
- Subgroup 2 – Development, Service Level and Expansion
- Organisational Development
- Coaching & Refereeing Development
- Subgroup 3 – Governance, Sport Culture and Leadership
- Subgroup 4 – Sport presentation and Appearance
INTERNATIONAL WORLD GAMES ASSOCIATION / IWGA
The IFF CB approved the proposal for the IFF World Games 2022 Activation Plan, based on the CB workshop outcome. The proposal has been on a comment round to the USFbA, the whole IFF Office and the IFF Athletes Commission and has been updated according the received comments. The start for the campaign “Road to Birmingham” will be on the 7th of July 2021 – exactly one year prior to the start of The World Games 2022.
NEW DATES FOR INTERNATIONAL WEEKENDS IN 2022
The IFF CB has decided to change the dates for the following international weekends during 2022 due to WFC 2022 will be played earlier in the year than normally.
- September weekend to stay as scheduled (3rd – 4th September)
- October weekend (15.-16.10.) changed to 1st – 2nd October
- November weekend (12.-13.11.) changed to 29th – 30th October
In addition, the Member Associations will be reminded that they can still apply to hold tournaments during other dates, however, the requirement for clubs to release players will not be applicable.
