The IFF floorball family now has a total of 74 members when Togo Floorball was approved by the IFF Central Board (CB) as the newest IFF member. The IFF CB also decided to remove the clause concerning the marking of the grip from the Material Regulations 2020. In addition, the IFF CB appointed new IFF Event organisers.

Togo new IFF member

Togo Floorball (Association Club les Pionniers de floorball du Togo) is registered with the Togo Sports Authorities and is currently representing all floorball activities in Togo. Dr. Esso-Wazina Cozi Adom is the President of the association. Togo has already participated in the first Africa Floorball Cup in 2018 and there are currently six floorball clubs in Togo and a total of 70 players, 17 women and 53 men. The Togo men’s team will also participate in the 2019 edition of the Africa Floorball Cup taking place in Nairobi, Kenya, 21st – 22nd of September. More on Togo Floorball here.

The IFF CB also decided to replace the China Floorball Federation with the new China Floorball Union as the new provisional member as China Floorball Union has taken over all the floorball activities in China and have the support of the national sport authorities.

New IFF Event organisers

Women’s U19 WFC 2022

The IFF CB decided to appoint Floorball New Zealand as organiser of the U19 WFC 2022 final round to be played in Wellington. New Zealand has previously hosted Men’s and Women’s WFC qualifications as well as a Men’s U19 WFC qualification but this will be their first final round event.

Upcoming IFF Events

Africa Floorball Cup 2019

The 2nd edition of the Africa Floorball Cup 2019 will take place on the 21st to 22nd of September in Nairobi, Kenya. There are three women’s teams taking part: Burkina Faso, Kenya and Uganda and seven men’s teams: Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, Togo and Uganda.

The playing format is three versus threee and goalkeepers and the play time is 2 x 15 minutes. The IFF is also carrying out a one-day seminar in three categories; coaching, refereeing and good governance during the Africa Floorball Cup 2019.

EuroFloorball Cup 2019

The EFC 2019 will be played in Malacky, Slovakia, October 9th – 13th 2019. The EFC is the championship tournament for the fifth and lower ranked European national club champions. The tournament is played with six teams for both men and women (12 teams in total).

Visit IFF Women’s EFC 2019 page here.

Visit IFF Men’s EFC 2019 page here.

Women’s WFC 2019

The 12th Women’s World Floorball Championships will be played December 7th – 15th 2019 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The ticket sales has now reached over 2 000 sold tickets and a lot of tickets are reserved. The slogan of the WFC 2019 is #floorballized and you can read more about the campaign here. TV negotiations are ongoing and the WFC 2019 will be on TV in at least the following countries: Czech Republic, Finland, Latvia, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland. TV discussions are also ongoing with Denmark, Germany, Norway, Singapore, Thailand and there is also interest from Brazil to stream matches with Portuguese commentary.

Visit the WFC 2019 website here.

Champions Cup 2020

The Champions Cup 2020 – Final Four will be played in Ostrava, Czech Republic, 11th to 12th of January 2020. The Champions Cup will be played with the current “final four” format until 2022 and the IFF CB has already started the process of evaluating the format and to possibly create a new format for the Champions Cup in the future.

From 2023 forward the Champions Cup will be played with a new Home & Away concept.

Visit the CC 2020 website here.

Men’s WFC 2020

The 13th Men’s World Floorball Championships will be played 4th – 12th of December 2020 in Helsinki, Finland. A total of 35 IFF member associations have registered to the Men’s WFC 2020, among them is the first ever registration from Africa – Côte d’Ivoire – who will compete in the European qualifications. The local organiser is planning to launch the first wave of the ticket sales in October 2019.

Visit the WFC 2020 website here.

In Europe there are three qualification groups – EUR1 in Frederikshavn, Denmark; EUR2 in Poprad, Slovakia; and EUR3 in Liepaja, Latvia – while in Asia-Oceania the qualification will be played in Bangkok, Thailand. The World Games 2021 being held in Birmingham, USA in 2021, it was important that North America was fully represented in the final round, so both Americas teams – USA & Canada received direct qualification. More information on the qualifications from the IFF WFCQ 2020 event pages:

Women’s U19 WFC 2020

The 9th Women’s U19 World Floorball Championships will be played 6th – 10th of May 2020 in Uppsala, Sweden. A total of 19 IFF member associations registered to the Women’s U19 2020. The WU19 WFC 2020 qualifications will be played in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy, September 11th – 15th, with five teams: Russia, Hungary, Austria, Netherlands and Italy. More information from the IFF WU19 2020 WFCQ event page here.

Visit the Women’s U19 WFC 2020 website here.

Other Events

SEA Games 2019

The 30th Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) will take place in Philippines during November – December 2019 and floorball is one of the 56 sports on the programme.

Visit official SEA Games 2019 website here.

World University Floorball Championships 2020

The World University Floorball Championships will be played in Koper, Slovenia, June 24th – 28th 2020. FISU has also informed that from 2022 onwards, the competitions in floorball, American football, handball and cheerleading will be held as University World Cups – a competition between university teams rather than national team squads – instead of a Championship.

The World Games 2021

The World Games 2021 are held in Birmingham, USA, 15-25 July 2021 with floorball included on the programme. The World Games 2021 organiser committee has approached the participating IF’s and informed of the possible forms of demonstration for the sports in Birmingham during the TWG 2021. There will be three different fields of activity the sport might be able to run the following:

Dedicated space in the Sports Garden within The World Games Plaza at Railroad Park, one of the main hubs of activity throughout each day of The World Games. Participants are expected to program their space to operate all day, every day;

in the Sports Garden within The World Games Plaza at Railroad Park, one of the main hubs of activity throughout each day of The World Games. Participants are expected to program their space to operate all day, every day; Shared space/Short sessions on stage of The World Games Plaza. Participants will be scheduled to appear on the main stage at The World Games Plaza one or more times during operation of The World Games Plaza;

on stage of The World Games Plaza. Participants will be scheduled to appear on the main stage at The World Games Plaza one or more times during operation of The World Games Plaza; Field of play – During competition breaks at various competition venues

Visit The World Games 2021 website here.

Special Olympics World Games 2021

The Special Olympics World Winter Games 2021 will be held in Östersund in Sweden, and floorball is on the programme as an official sport. There will be around 50-60 floorball teams participating from all continents.

Visit Special Olympics 2021 page here.

Asia Indoor and Martial Arts Games in 2021

Thailand (Bangkok) has been awarded the Asia Indoor and Martial Arts Games in 2021 and floorball is on the programme.

No rules related to grips in the Material Regulations 2020

The IFF Material Board has held a second meeting in August, after two of the members had raised complaints concerning the decision made about the new clause concerning the marking of grips for floorball sticks and the requirement to have the same branded grips as the stick.

The Material Board, which re-named it self as the Material Advisory board to avoid misunderstandings concerning their role, analysed the situation and came to the unanimous conclusion that the grip proposal should be removed. Based on this feedback from the Material Advisory board and the floorball community the IFF CB decided to remove the clause concerning the Marking of the Grip and all the related rules from the Material Regulations 2020. There will therefore be no rules related to grips in the Material Regulations 2020.

IFF Strategy 2021 – 2032

The IFF has earlier started the process of renewing the IFF Strategy for 2021-2032. The aim with the strategy process is to create a more operational strategy for the whole floorball community. The focus will be on setting the future direction for the IFF and to specify the main objectives that are needed in order to grow and develop the sport on the local, national and international level.

The working process for the new IFF Strategy will start in autumn 2019 and the IFF CB appointed the Strategy Task Force consisting of IFF CB members, Member Association representatives, other stakeholders and the IFF office. The Strategy Task Force consists of: Ms. Kaarina Salomaa from Finland, Mr. Steve King from Australia, Mr. Filip Suman from Czech Republic, Mr. Junoh Lee from Korea and representatives from Switzerland and Sweden. From the IFF office Mrs. Merita Bruun and Mr. John Liljelund will be members of the Task Force.

The IFF ExCo will act as a Steering Group for the process keeping it on track. The Task Force will make two preliminary submissions to the Floorball Community, with the first version in April and the second in August in 2020. The IFF strategy will also be on the agenda of the IFF Associations Meeting in December. The IFF CB will then prepare the final version of the IFF Strategy for the IFF General Assembly by the end of September 2020.

IFF Financials & new IFF fees

The IFF has in the last three years been affected by a few financial set-backs when it comes to the financial impact of the Event organisers of the WFC 2016 in Latvia, WFC 2017 in Slovakia and latest now in the U19 WFC 2019 in Halifax, Canada. The IFF has so far been carrying the financial risk on its own, if the LOC is not in position to live up to their requirements. The recent events have showed that IFF is not in position to handle these types of financial crises on its own. The IFF Central Board therefore decided to raise the participation fees and transfer fees. The IFF CB also decided to change the payment schedule of the organiser’s fees, marketing rights fees and the shared referee costs.

IFF has not increased the participation fees for the WFC since 2003, when the B-division participation fee was raised to the present CHF 4.000. The U19 WFC participation fee was also raised to the present last in 2003.

The IFF CB therefore decided about the following:

To change the payment schedule for the Event Organisers organising feed, starting from the Events in 2020, so that 50 % of the organisers fee is paid 12 months before the start of the Event and the remaining 50 % is paid 3 months before the Event. The payment of the Marketing Rights fees is divided into two parts, with the first 6 months prior to the event and the later 2 months prior to the event. The organiser will pay an additional signing fee upon receiving the Event (WFC 5.000 CHF, U19 WFC 2.000 CHF, Regional championships 2.000 CHF and other IFF events 1.000 CHF) Any new Final round organiser will need to provide a bank guarantee of at least 50 per cent of the organisers and commercial fees to the IFF. IFF will increase the participation fees for the WFC’s, U19 WFC’s, Champions Cup, EuroFloorball Cups and other events from the next invitations in 2019, for the next upcoming Events. WFC: WFC participation fee Qualification for WFC 2021: 2000 -> 3000 CHF WFC participation fee direct qualified: 5000 –> 7000 CHF WFC Qualified to Final round: 2000 -> 2500 CHF

U19 WFC: U19 WFC participation fee Qualification for U19 WFC 2021: 2000 -> 3000 CHF U19 WFC participation fee direct qualified: 3000 -> 5000 CHF

Champions Cup: CC participation fee from CC 2021: 3000 -> 4000 CHF

EuroFloorball Cup: EFC participation fee from 2020: 2000 – No change EuroFloorball Challenge: EF Challenge fee from 2020: 1000 – No change

IFF will invoice the referee costs from the teams in the WFC qualifications, U19 WFC’s and other events in advance one month prior to the Event. This will take effect from the start of 2020. WFCQ: Increase from 1.000 to 1.500 CHF

U19 WFCQ: Increase from 1.000 to 1.500 CHF

U19 WFC final round: from 1.200 to 1.500 CHF IFF will increase the transfer fees with 10 percent from the 1st of May 2020

IFF License System update

The CB also discussed about the IFF License System and decided to update the Tier Group list in accordance with the expected Tier Group of every member Association. In addition, the CB concluded the parts that still to be updated in order to fulfil all requirements. IFF will use the WFC 2021 registration as a test, before the Tier system takes full effect in 2023.

The topic will be presented at the IFF Associations Meeting 2019, in conjunction with the SportAccord Good Governance survey to explain the need to create and implement new policies and documents both nationally and internationally.