The IFF Central Board (CB) had a hybrid meeting during the Women’s U19 World Floorball Championships (WFC) 2020 in Uppsala, Sweden to discuss and decide upon the IFF Events in relation to the current Covid-19 situation. During the meeting, the CB approved the joining of IFF Member number 75, Colombia. 

New member

The IFF Central Board deciced to approve the Colombian Floorball Association as the provisional member number 75 of the IFF. Floorball has been growing in Colombia and now the association has reached the point that they were ready to apply for the membership. IFF congratulates Floorball Colombia.

Upcoming events

Men’s WFC 2020

Men’s WFC 2020, Helsinki, Finland – played 3rd-11th of December 2021. Visit the website here!

The LOC is monitoring the Covid-19 situation together with IFF on a continuous basis and the preparations are moving forward quite normally at this point. The Go/No-go Deadlines are set as follows: 17th of September (Teams) 2021 and 24th of September 2021 (LOC), with the official Announcement on the 30th of September 2021. Information on Go/No-go for both Men’s & Women’s WFC should be sent to the teams by the time of the CB by the LOC.

The IFF Competition office has started to look for replacement teams should any qualified team not be able to participate due to Covid-19. The replacements will be based on ranking and regional quota.

Women’s WFC 2021

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

The IFF Competition office has started to look for replacement teams, if any of the qualified teams would not be able to participate due to Covid-19 related reasons after the Go/No-go dates 17th of September for the teams and LOC 24th of September.  The replacements will be based on ranking and regional quota.

Men’s WFC 2022

Men’s WFC 2022, Zurich, Switzerland – played 5th-13th of November 2022. Visit the website here!

The preparations for the qualifications are ongoing. For Europe the organisers and groups are set with Italy, Latvia and Poland and preparations are ongoing.

The Asia Oceania Floorball Confederation (AOFC) is discussing how to solve the qualification. A proposal has been made where the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games would act also as a WFC Qualification event and IFF with AOFC is seeking a solution of how include Australia and New Zealand, who are not part of the AIMAG event.

The AMERICAS qualification will be played in Arlington, Texas in the period 23rd-27th of February 2022 and preparations are on-going.

U19 WFC 2022 

Women’s U19 WFC 2022, Wellington, New Zealand – played 4th-8th of May 2022.

The qualification for the last two spots will be played in Saku, Estonia 8th – 11th of September 2021 with four teams participating (Denmark, Estonia, Hungary and Italy). The CB decided to start discussions with Floorball New Zealand to clarify the New Zealand authorities present view of travel restrictions that might affect the championship.

Champions Cup 2022 

Champions Cup 2022, Winterthur, Switzerland – played 15th-16th January 2022. Visit the website here!

The CB decided that since no WFC has been played and the nation ranking therefore remains the same as last year, and the uncertainty due to Covid-19 of the possibility to organise a ballot in connection with a match, no ballot will be organised. The teams participating in CC 2022 will replace the teams of the same nationality in the ballot from last year and the schedule built accordingly. The Go/No-go deadlines are set for the teams on the 1st November 2021, LOC 5th November 2021.

IFF Strategy 2021-2032

Strategy Implementation

The CB approved the report on the work of the IFF Strategy Implementation working group (SWG). The Implementation work has slowly started after summer in the four Strategy Subgroups, confirmed by the IFF CB in the end of June. The Subgroups 3 (Governance, Sport Culture and Leadership) and Subgroup 4 (Sport Presentation and Appearance) have had their first meeting in end of August. The Subgroup 1 (Awareness and Visibility) and Subgroup 2 (Development) are going to have their first meeting in beginning of September.

Ranking of the teams considering WFCs

Ranking for teams not able to participate in the WFCs was discussed and Rules and Competition Committee (RACC) decided to propose that the ranking for the adult WFCs shall be made according to the proposal.

Women’s WFC – No qualifications were played. Teams that play WFC 2021, including possible replacement teams, will be given the actual result from the event which is added together with their result from WFC 2019 to give their ranking. The teams who have qualified for the final round but cannot participate and all teams registered to the qualifications, will be given the same result as 2019. Exception will be for those teams who had a result of 27th or lower in 2019 – they will be given the result of 26th as this is the number of teams that registered for 2021.

Men’s WFC – Only AOFC did not play the qualification. Teams that play WFC 2020, including possible replacement teams, will be given the actual result from the event which is added together with their result from WFC 2018 to give their ranking. The teams who have qualified for the final round but cannot participate and for teams who could not participate in the qualifications (AOFC) will be given the same result as 2018, with the exception of USA who would  be placed 16th (19th 2018). Teams having played the qualification shall be given the actual result according to normal comparative event calculations for rankings.

Physical Play Project

The working group set by the IFF Referee Committee (RC) for the Physical Play Project has completed the document for the interpretation of the physical play in Floorball. The working group had members from the EFT countries and the work lasted almost six months altogether. The Physical Play educational document will be take in use right away in IFF events and will also be presented to the IFF member associations.

Ms. Plechan nominated for WADA Athlete Commission

The ATC has decided that Ms. Agata Plechan will be nominated again for the WADA Athlete Commission for the fourth time. Nomination must be submitted to WADA by 1st October.  This is the fourth time that IFF is nominating Ms. Plechan for this committee, however, now with her position as the ATC Chair and member of the IFF CB her nomination is much stronger than previously.

IFF Hall of Fame

The IFF preparations to launch the IFF Hall of Fame are on-going. The IFF received over 50 submissions from 9 member federations and have been summarised. The Selection Committee will be summoned for a meeting to get organised and discuss the selection criteria. A second meeting, to make the final selections, is planned for end of September / beginning of October. This will leave enough time to contact the chosen persons and prepare awarding material. The persons to be inaugurated will be awarded at the WFC 2021 in Uppsala and WFC 2020 in Helsinki.

The elected IFF Hall of Fame Selection Committee:

IFF Central Board:

Mr. Stephen King (AUS), Mr. Martin Klabere (SWE), Ms. Agata Plechan, ATC (POL), Mr. Filip Suman (CZE) and Ms. Kaarina Vuori (FIN)

National Team Coaches:

Mr. David Jansson, SUI Men’s Head coach (SWE), Mr. Petri Kettunen, CZE Men’s Head coach (FIN), Mr. Giorgio Battaini, former ITA Women’s Head coach (ITA) and Mr. Zednek Skruzny, former CZE Men’s Head coach (CZE)

ATC representatives:

Ms. Lara Heini (SUI) and Mr. Sergio Garces (ESP)

IFF Media:

Mr. Jürg Kihm (replacement for Merita Bruun during her maternity leave) (SUI) and Ms. Mari Myllärinen (FIN)

IFF Sales Coordinator:

Mr. Tero Kalsta (FIN)

The minutes from the CB meeting will soon be published here.