The IFF Central Board has confirmed that the IFF will continue working in the direction of a change to 4-year WFC cycle. In addition, a change to the rules regarding representing two countries has been approved.
International Calendar
The CB confirmed the agreement to continue working in the direction of a change to a 4-year WFC cycle, with the already established Calendar Working Group given the task of determining how best to move forward with these plans. The CB also decided that with the already agreed and communicated decision to move the U19 WFC to February, to help national leagues better build a season calendar, there is a need to make an update to the U19 WFCs plan.
To avoid the situation where an U19 World Floorball Championships is played close to an adult World Floorball Championships of the same gender, the years of the U19 WFCs will be switched. In order not to lose any generation, which would miss the chance to play an U19 WFC, the events will be organised as follows: the Women’s U19 WFC 2026 in May and 2027 in May, the Men’s U19 WFC 2027 in February and 2028 in February. From then on the U19 WFC will be played each year in February, with alternating genders each year, thereby keeping the U19 WFC played every second year for each gender, as is the same in the current calendar.
Representing two countries – IFF Competition Regulations Update
The IFF rules previously stated that a player who held citizenship of two countries could represent one country at junior level (U17 & U19) and another at senior level (U23 & adult), however, after several different situations the IFF found this rule was limiting for players who had the possibility to represent two countries. Especially at junior level, where a player is still developing and their pathway towards a senior team position remains unclear, a change to this rule would allow junior players more opportunities to experience international competition and pursue their possible place in an adult national team. The proposal was to change the rule to allow a player to represent two countries at U17, U19, or U23 level but only one at adult level.
The proposed rule change was approved by the CB with the new regulation wording, which is valid in both the Competition Regulations – National Teams & Competition Regulations – Friendly Internationals, as follows:
3.2 A player may represent two separate nations in an U17, U19 or U23 national team. They may represent one of either of these same nations at adult international level. Once a player has represented a nation in an adult team in a recognised international match this then becomes the only nation they can represent at any international level (U17, U19, U23, or adult).
3.3 A player may represent only one nation within a single event, which includes qualifications for a final round event.
IFF Event Manager, Ms Sarah Mitchell, said “this change will benefit the development of the junior players. While also helping some of the smaller national associations to have more players available to represent them, the players will still be free to pursue their dream of representing a larger floorball country in the future.”
The Meeting Minutes have been published and can be found here.
