A total of 32 IFF Member Associations (25 Ordinary Members) attended the IFF Extraordinary General Assembly (GA) on the 11th of December 2021. During the 17th GA it was decided to continue the Future of Floorball testing and to postpone the decisions concerning the Euro Floorball Championships to 2022. In addition, it was decided that the new Rules of the Game will come into force already in February 2022 and that Thailand will qualify for The World Games from the Asia Oceania region.
The IFF President Mr. Tomas Eriksson, opened the IFF Extraordinary General Assembly which was organised as a hybrid meeting in Helsinki, Finland in connection with the Men’s World Floorball Championships.
The IFF GA approves proposals concerning the Future of Floorball testing
The IFF GA decided to approve the IFF Central Board (CB) proposal, in accordance with the IFF Statutes Article 26, to continue testing of the Future of Floorball concept during the season 2021-2022, due to the lack of testing possibilities at IFF Events so far.
The decision about the Future of Floorball will be made by the IFF General Assembly 2022 held in Zurich, Switzerland.
Decisions regarding the Euro Floorball Championships to be made by GA in 2022
The IFF GA decided to approve the IFF CB proposal to the IFF Extraordinary General Assembly that all decisions regarding the Euro Floorball Championships shall be made at the IFF General Assembly in Zurich 2022.
The IFF will organise a consultative meeting for the European Associations on the 12th of December 2021 between 09:30-11:30 in Helsinki to discuss about the renewed proposal of the Euro Flooball Championship concept made by the EFT countries and the IFF.
The new Rules of the Game edition 2022 coming into force in February 2022
The IFF GA approved the IFF CB proposal to introduce the new Game Rules edition 2022 already from the 1st of February and the World Floorball Championships Qualifications 2022, to have the qualifications played with the same rules as the Final tournament. This would be the case for all Friendly Internationals. Otherwise, the new Game Rules would take effect only a week before the start of The World Games 2022 in Birmingham, USA.
Thailand will play at The World Games 2022
The IFF General Assembly did not approve the CB proposal to change the system for qualification of the AOFC team to The World Games 2022, due the issues created by the Covid-19 pandemic. The CB proposal was that Australia’s and Japan’s placings from WFC 2018 should be considered against the placings of the AOFC teams at WFC 2020. Australia was placed 12th at WFC 2018 and Japan 15th. So, if any AOFC team would have been placed 12th or higher at WFC 2020 they would then have qualified to TWG 2022, but if the best placed AOFC team at WFC 2020 is placed 13th or lower, then Australia would have qualified for TWG 2022.
The IFF General Assembly voted on the decision and a majority of the GA participants eligible to vote were against the CB proposal, with ten (10) votes against nine (9). The General Assembly thereby decided that Thailand will play in The World Games 2022.
– Due to the pandemic the situation was very challenging and it is hard to decide on the most fair outcome. I am very happy to see that many of our Member Associations were active in making the final decision and we could decide on the decision by democratic voting, IFF President Tomas Eriksson commented.
