The 17th IFF General Assembly (GA) was held on Saturday, 12th November 2022 at Swiss Life Arena, Zurich in Switzerland.
The General Assembly was open at 08.30 and all 59 participants were welcome. There were 35 members nations present; 30 of them are ordinary members and five are provisional members. The GA unfolded smoothly and the main points to highlight are concerning the Future of Floorball and the European Floorball Championships.
Future of Floorball
The IFF Central Board (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 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.
The General Assembly decided to approve this CB proposal.
European Floorball Championships (EFC)
The main points from the presented proposal are:
- that the EFC should be played during the International Weekend in beginning in September, as a 7 days tournament, making it possible to prolong the season during the spring to strengthen the national leagues
- to start the EFC with the Men in 2025, so that the EFC is played with a different gender than the WFC each year
- to start the EFC with 8 teams, but with the possibility to enlarge it to 12 teams after a few years to give more countries the possibility to participate in the event, if there is willingness for it
- that the top 7 European nations from the previous WFC and the host nation shall be directly qualified for the EFC
- that the teams directly qualified to the EFC are not to play the WFC qualifications for the next WFC, meaning that these countries are directly qualified for the next WFC, if they participate in the EFC
The General Assembly decided to approve this CB proposal.
Before the GA closed there were several presentations from the Local Organizers for the next IFF events Men’s U19 WFC 2023 (April) in Denmark, Women’s WFC 2023 (December) in Singapore, Women’s U19 WFC 2024 (April) in Finland and Men’s WFC 2024 (December) in Sweden.
The full minutes from the 17th General Assembly can be read from here.
