The third IFF Central Board meeting of the year 2024 took place in Winterthur, Switzerland on the weekend. During the working sessions both on Friday and Saturday the CB discussed the new planned competition calendar as well as the CB documents for the upcoming IFF General Assembly in December 2024. 

Strategy

The first stage (2021—2024) of the IFF Strategy implementation 2020-2032 is ongoing very well and most of the topics are either finalised or are ongoing as planned. The work for the next phase of implementation (2025—2028) has also already started.

IFF General Assembly

The IFF CB announced the 18th IFF General Assembly to take place on the 14th of December 2024 in conjunction of the Men’s WFC 2024 in Malmö in Sweden and the invitation will be sent out to the IFF member associations 90 days prior to the actual meeting. The CB together with the IFF office is preparing the required documents for the GA.

The nominations and motions from the IFF member associations need to be handed in to the IFF latest 60 full days prior to the meeting and that date is the 14th of October 2024. The IFF needs to send out the Final announcement and the IFF reports, budget, and other documents to the member associations latest by 14th of November 2024, the full 30 days prior to the IFF GA. The registration for the General Assembly will be open until the 22nd of November 2024.

New Competition Calendar

The IFF CB discussed in its workshop on Friday and Saturday, the need to find a balance for the International calendar, as the number of events have grown causing a too big burden for the national associations. The CB is looking to work towards to find a solution for moving into a 4-year cycle, instead of the present 2-year WFC cycle.

The IFF has been looking on different models of how to solve the issues with the IFF Event structure and will in the coming weeks organise a consultative webinar for the member associations to explain the reasons behind the thinking and the possible ways forward.  Based on this feedback the CB Calendar Working Group  will continue to work on a proposal for changes of the IFF Event structure and the International calendar.

Rules testing

Swedish and Swiss federations to test rule changes in their highest leagues during the season 2024—2025 concerning the players to sit down in the substitution areas and specifications to the so called Zorro in conjunction of a penalty shot.

3v3 WFC Feedback Report & Proposal

An online feedback survey has been completed as part of the review of the first 3v3 WFC 2024. A total of 161 responses were received with the average experience rating for the event being 7.9 out of 10.

There was feedback collected on the number of players & officials, playing format, field size, and special features like the goalkeeper ball bag. Respondents were asked for their suggestions on changes for future events and the number one answer was that the event should be held over more days.

The feedback will be used to make changes to the playing format and regulations proposal for 3v3 WFC 2025, however only minor changes will be possible to implement for the next edition as some elements (such as the number of days) have already been set with the organisers. After the 2025 event a more comprehensive review will be carried out, and bigger changes may be proposed, based on the feedback from both events.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Men’s WFC 2024 from 7th—15th December 2024 in Malmö, Sweden

An updated match schedule has been published but further changes are still expected based on Swedish TV requests, in regard to the Swedish quarterfinal starting time.

The TV discussions with potential TV takers are ongoing and discussions are held with Germany and Poland. The other countries will be contacted in beginning of September and the offer for the bi-lateral services will be sent out during September.

The Media Accreditation will open during September.

Men’s U19 WFC 2025 from the 29th of April to the 4th of May 2025 in Zurich,  Switzerland

The LOC staff will be complete from the start of October. Grasshoppers Zurich will be responsible for 90 per cent of the event volunteers and the build-up of the arenas will be supported by the civil defence.

The 3v3 WFC will be played on Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd of May 2025, with a training day on Thursday. The tournament will be played in the AXA Areena and the Tennis-Arena in Winterthur. The LOC also requested a change to the U19 WFC match schedule with only two games to be played at Swiss Life on Saturday. The match schedule is in the final stages of discussion between the IFF & LOC.

Qualifications

The AMER qualification event took place in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada from 2nd – 4th August, with Canada defeating the USA in all three games and qualifying to the final round.

The AOFC qualification will be played from 20th – 22nd  September in Honiara, Solomon Islands. In connection with this event there will be coaching & referee development clinics and first-time international friendly matches for Solomon Islands against and both New Zealand and Singapore.

The EUR1 qualification took place in Pruszcz, Poland from 4th – 8th September. Estonia and Spain qualified from the final round from this event.

A host for the EUR2 qualification is not yet confirmed, however one National Association is in discussions about hosting the event in Jan/Feb 2025, but is awaiting confirmation of a venue, which they will not know about until during September

EuroFloorball Cup & EuroFloorball Challenge – cancelled

The decision has been taken, by the IFF Office, to not play either of these events in 2024 due to the lack of organisers. There were several teams interested in playing but none of them were able to act as organiser.

Women’s WFC 2025 from 6th—14th December 2025 in Brno & Ostrava, Czech Republic

The IFF and LOC have begun discussions about the match schedule for the event. As the event will be held in two different cities the move from one to the other mid-way through requires the need for a slightly different match schedule than for past events. There are currently multiple versions being considered.

Qualifications

The qualification groups for WFC 2025 have been confirmed with some hosts and event dates still to be confirmed.

The European qualifications will be held in two locations. EUR1 with 10 teams will be played in Valmiera, Latvia from 28th January – 1st February 2025. EUR2 with 8 teams will be played in Lignano Sabbiadoro from 29th January – 1st February 2025.

Discussions are in progress with Singapore Floorball Association to host the AOFC qualifications with 8 teams from 18th – 22nd March 2025.

The AMER qualifications will be hosted by USA. Original plans for it to be played in Fort Worth, Texas have had to be changed as the planned venue is not available. Dates and city are to be decided.

Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games 2024, Bangkok, Thailand – cancelled

The Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games have unfortunately been cancelled by the Asian Olympic Committee. The organising committee failed to meet the deadline set by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) to confirm the budget, infrastructure and other requirements, and therefore took the decision to cancel the event.

This is a very disappointing outcome for Floorball as this was the first time that it had been included on the AIMAG programme, with the strong backing of Floorball Thailand. The next event is scheduled to be held in 2026 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. An announcement on the dates will be made soon by the OCA.

SEA GAMES 2025 Thailand

The host city contract was signed in early June. Floorball is included on the programme. The SEA Games (9th -20th of December 2025) do clash directly with the WFC, so the teams playing in both will have to go directly after the WFC to the SEA Games.

CB Minutes have been published here