The second IFF Central Board (CB) meeting of the year 2023 took place over the weekend in Malmö, Sweden. Over the two-day meeting, the CB discussed the future hosts of World Floorball Championships, Future of Floorball survey and the status of upcoming events.
On Saturday the CB had its working session and concentrated on the Future of Floorball project, had a vast discussion and also decided the next steps to be taken regarding the project. The IFF CB will in its next Working session come back to the topic. The CB also discussed about the Floorball Fit For Future, which is an Erasmus+ project led by the Czech Floorball.
WFC hosts awarded
The bidding processes for the WFCs 2025, 2026 and 2027 have been carried out and the bids have been evaluated. The IFF office launched three separate bids in March and the deadline to answer the bids was set to be the 7th and 14th of April 2023. The evaluations made by the IFF CB, Rules and Competition Committee (RACC) and staff members were due on the 28th of April.
The plan for the WFC 2025 is to split it between two cities, Brno and Ostrava in Czech Republic: the group stage to be played in Brno and the play-off games in Ostrava. The concept is the same as it was for the Women’s WFC in 2013. The finals would be played in Ostravar Arena and the competition days to be from 5th – 14th December 2025. Spectator capacities; Brno 2 900 and Ostrava over 10 000 spectators.
The WFC 2026 is planned to be played in Tampere, Finland from 4th – 13th December 2026 in three arenas. The Hakametsä Ice Hall will be the A-arena and Kauppi Sports hall the B-arena. From the play-off stage the new Nokia Arena will become the A-arena while Hakametsä will be the B-arena. Capacities; Kauppi Sports hall 1 300, Hakametsä Ice Hall 7 000 and Nokia Arena 13 000 spectators.
The WFC 2027 is planned to be played in Turku, Finland. The main venue being the Gatorade Arena, which is the same venue which was used in the Men’s U19 WFC 2009 and the B-arena being the Kupittaa Sports hall. The planned playing days from 3rd – 12th December 2027. Spectator capacities; Kupittaa Sports hall 2 850 and Gatorade Arena 11 800 spectators.
Future of Floorball questionnaire
The IFF launched the Future of Floorball questionnaire in April and by the deadline of 30th of April has received a total of some 1000 answers. The questionnaire was published in the following languages; Czech, English, Finnish, French, German. Spanish and Swedish. The IFF received replies from 28 member associations. The IFF office will further work with the results of the survey and work closely with all the stakeholders.
New member
The IFF CB approved Solomon Islands as provisional member of the IFF. Welcome to the floorball family! IFF has now 79 Member Associations.
Upcoming events
Women’s U19 WFCQ 2024
18 teams have registered for the U19 WFC 2024 so only one qualification is needed to play for the two EUR spots. The qualification will be played with four teams (Denmark, France, Hungary and Italy) in Besancon, France from 25th – 27th August 2023.
Men’s EuroFloorball Challenge
Men’s EuroFloorball Challenge is planned to be played from 23rd – 27th of August in Besancon, France in conjunction with the U19 WFC 2024 EUR qualification and that contract discussions are ongoing.
Champions Cup
The invitation to the Champions Cup 2023-2024 has been sent with deadline of 31st of May to register and that the detailed planning regarding match schedules and related matters will start thereafter.
The Champions Cup Steering Group, the CC stakeholder countries competition departments, the RACC and the competition office have prepared a final proposal of the Champions Cup Home & Away Regulations. The draft Streaming Guidelines for the Champions Cup has been prepared and sent to the stakeholders for feedback.
The IFF office & RACC are still to create the guidelines for the Technical Delegates that will be appointed for each home and away match. This will include details on how disciplinary matters will be dealt during the event.
Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games 2023, Bangkok, Thailand
The preparations for the 2023 AIMAG in Thailanda are running as planned with Floorball on the program. The event will be organised from 13th – 30th November. The 2025 edition in Saudi Arabia is decided and it is vital for Floorball to appear that there is a need of a build up of a NSA of Floorball in Saudi Arabia.
IFF has provided its feedback to the Floorball Handbook for the AIMAG 2023.
Women’s WFC 2023, Singapore
The ballot was held in the beginning of April, with a really good production and output made by KIN Productions, the SFA LOC Events partner. The first version of the Match schedule has been prepared but the publishing has been delayed due to the question of venues. The IFF has informed that due to delays of other sports, mainly FIS-Ski’s calendar planning, there will be two occasions when the match schedule can be changed due to TV takers needs, as for example both the Czech and Swiss TV’s do not know what times they have for floorball. The first date is in end of June and the second in October, to avoid too many changes of the match program.
The minutes have been published here
