The sixth IFF Central Board (CB) meeting of the year took place on the weekend in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The IFF Central Board was working with the documents for the upcoming IFF General Assembly, which will take place in Zurich on the 12th of November 2022. The CB worked mainly with the Annual Report and the Plan of Action. The CB also discussed about the IFF OTT solution and about the Future of Floorball project. The IFF is sending all the documents to the members on the 12th of October 2022 latest.
Future of Floorball
The IFF CB proposes to the IFF General Assembly to enlarge the scope of the concept of the Future of Floorball and to not only contain the present proposed elements of changes that are needed to enhance the Product of Floorball. We need a broader and inclusive analysis of the key factors to further develop floorball. This process will then allow to have a better understanding which possible changes could be made and why they are needed, before any decisions can be taken in the IFF General Assembly.
The fact is that the proposal introduced in the IFF Association Meeting 2017 was not tested and evaluated among the IFF member associations and a thorough analysis of the effects was not conducted due to the Covid pandemic. Based on the discussions within the Floorball Community, it has become evident that the Future of Floorball proposal can only be a part of the answer to the current issues our sport has, namely the gap (different skill levels) between the national teams in the IFF Events, the quality of our product, the visibility of floorball in TV as well as other channels and raising the awareness of the IFF Events.
The primary objective for IFF going forward, must be to find ways to enhance the Floorball product and our Major Events. In order to do this, the community must understand and agree what are the needs which could be changed to the product itself, but also how we can close the gap by strengthening the operations of the member federations, as there are no shortcuts for this.
The IFF CB therefore proposes that there will not be any decision made to continue with the current Future of Floorball format proposal as such, but instead continue the evaluation of, in which direction our sport needs to develop, based on an inclusive process run with all the stakeholders of Floorball.
The task of the IFF Central Board is to create a proposal, through involvement of all the stakeholders in various workshops, for a Development Plan of what we want our product to look and feel like in the future and how this it can be reached. The aim is to have the work finalized by the IFF GA 2024, with first proposals discussed already at the Association Meeting 2023.
Rules and Competition Committee
The CB decided based on the proposal from the RACC to change the age range so that all players in the U19 WFC (qualification and/or final round) must be aged at least 15 years old no later than 30th June in the same year of the final round and turn 19 years old no earlier than the 1st of January in the same year of the final round to be eligible to participate.
Referee Committee
The IFF Central Board approved the international referees and international observers for the upcoming period of 2023-2024 based on the proposal by the IFF Referee Committee. The list of approved referees and observers can be found here.
The RC is also organising atwo day seminar for the international observers in conjunction of the upcomng Men’s WFC 2022 in Zurich during the first weekend of the event from the 5th to 6th of November 2022.
IFF EVENTS
WFC 2022
The WFC organisation is running on full speed and the volunteering situation is on track, with two training events to be held for the key volunteers in October. The 3rd information letter to the Teams has been sent on the 27th of September. The LOC and the IFF Office are having bi-weekly coordination meetings to discuss the open questions.
The sales of sponsorship have moved to sales of any still free space and the implementation of the sponsorship packages. The ticket presales have picked up as expected and the LOC has been able to release some more tickets for sale for the opening weekend, as sponsors, invited guests and IFF has defined their final needs. The next bunch of tickets for the final weekend will be released in the beginning of October. There has been a very limited demand for international travel packages provided by Gast. Presently some 70% of the budgeted ticket sales seems to be able to be achieved. The LOC is running a national campaign and a ticket promotion for the Swiss quarter-final in November in the Zurich region.
The official WFC 2022 song has been released on September 30th. The final of the Mobiliar Street Floorball Tour will be played on the 22nd of October at the Zurich main train station, with a lot of activities and with the appearance of the Swiss National Team.
As a part of the sustainability project the LOC will push for the chartered WFC trains for both weekends of the WFC. The IFF Officials will have free transport on the public transportation in the whole Canton of Zurich with their accreditation.
Women’s WFCQ 2023
The schedules for the Women’s WFCQ 2023 EUR Qualifications to be played in Italy (Lignano Sabbiadoro) and Latvia (Koceni) 31st January – 4th February 2023 have been published and preparations are ongoing.
The Americas qualification is planned to be played in Canada but city and date are not yet fixed. Discussion on dates are ongoing between Canada and USA.
For the AOFC qualification the AOFC is still to inform of place and date.
U19 WFC 2023, WFCs 2025 and WFCs 2026
The preparations for the U19 WFC 2023 are ongoing and the first information letter is under preparation to be sent to the teams having qualified as well as the teams still to play the qualification. The ballot and a draft schedule is under preparation. The logo and graphics for the event have been finalised.
The U19 WFC 2023 AOFC qualification was played in Wellington, New Zealand 29th September – 1st October 2022 with Australia and Singapore qualifying for the final round.
The Men’s U19 WFC 2023 qualifications in Europe will be played in Austria (Salzburg) and Spain (El Escorial) 24th – 28th January 2023 Schedules have been published and preparations are ongoing.
The bidding process for U19 WFC 2025 & 2026 and the WFC 2025 has started.
The IFF CB approved the motion for the IFF GA, concerning the creation of the Euro Floorball Championships and the IFF will send out a request for letters of interest for the organisation of the Euro Floorball Championships 2025 Men and 2026 Women, in order to be able to appoint the organiser as soon as possible.
Champions Cup 2023
The preparations for the Champions Cup are ongoing and the tournament will be played in Lempäälä in Finland in the Bläk Boks venue
The ballot took place 17th September in connection with home matches for Classic and TPS and the schedule has been published.
The minutes from the IFF CB meeting will be published soon here
