Minutes from the IFF Referee Committee Meeting in Solna hold November 9^th and 10th

These meeting minutes include all relevant outcomes of the above meeting. A process description of nomination processes has also been developed and will be spread later.

Participants: Thomas Gilardi (Chairman), Klaus Koskela, Daniel Würmlin, Axel Wester (IFF Office)

Organisation

1. The new internal IFF Referee Committees’ Organization has been discussed and agreed by the Commissions’ members. Klaus Koskela is responsible for all appointments, Daniel Würmlin is responsible mainly for education. Responsibility does not mean that all corresponding tasks have to be done on a stand alone basis, cooperation by all members is vital for success.
2. We strive for partnerships in all IFF member countries. IFF Referee Committee fully understands that the success of referee work throughout the IFF world bases on cooperation with all national federations and referee committees. In a first phase we aim for building up networks with the relevant referee responsibles in all member countries.

Nominations

1. The Referee Committee appoints the referees for the European Cup 2003 in Prague. The following referees are nominated:

Lubomir Simon/Ivo Neuwirth Czech Republic

Marek Fanta/Jan Kankovsky Czech Republic

Juha Sirkka/Tommi Riihimäki Finland

Michael Lachenmaier/Markus Reinhold Germany

Alexander Bienkowski/Robert Bienkowski Poland

Per Hellberg/Glenn Nylén Sweden

Jürg Baumgartner/Marcel Baumgartner Switzerland

2. The nominations for all IFF tournaments and friendly games will in future be taken by the IFF Referee Committee considering all relevant questions as there are: referees’ performance, level of the game, monetary situation of IFF and member nations, efficiency of appointment and referees career planning.
3. Axel Wester and Chairman Thomas Gilardi create a formular for the member nations to inform the IFF of scheduled friendly games. The target is to have better information of scheduled games and a long enough time before the game to seriously plan the appointments of referees and observers.
4. The Committee suggests to change the nomination period for referees and observers from a yearly period to a bi-yearly period. This shall enable the Committee to better plan referees’ careers and help the member nations to plan the nominations on a longer scale. The nominations shall be made in the future in all even years, beginning 2004.
5. The Committee suggests to reduce the number of Observer nominations per member country to three. This decision is planned to aim for consistency in observing, having less observers but being able to appont the nominated international observers to games. At the moment we have a lot of international observers (especially in Finland, Sweden, Switzerland) but do not have the games to suit those observers.
6. The member countries will have to appoint the nominated observer for friendly games in their respective country at least a week before the game to IFF Office Solna (attn. Axel Wester). Copies of the completed Observation reports shall be sent from the Observer to IFF Office Solna (attn. Axel Wester) at latest a week after the game.
7. Each member country will be assigned to nominate a referee responsible to the IFF. This responsible is the link to the referee work in the respective country and shall support IFF referee committee by all means.

Education

1. IFF Referee Committee plans to hold an observer education event during the EC in Prague 2003. Invitations will be made by Axel Wester and go the neighbouring countries Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Germany.
2. The founder nations will be proposed to send an international observer on their own costs to the big tournaments WC and EC. This shall on one side help the respective observers to develop on international level and on the other side support the IFF Referee Committee members to stay free for education work during the above mentioned tournaments. The engagement from the founder nations would be a great help to international floorball and would be seen as an initial investment in education and improvement of the level of referee work and level of the game in the IFF world as a whole.

Various

1. The IFF Referee Committee will propose to the IFF RACC to nominate Axel Wester as a member of the Jury in EC 2003 in Prague.
2. Klaus Koskela is named responsible to prepare and hold all meetings (including the opening meeting) for referees and observers during EC 2003 in Prague. Klaus is supported by Axel Wester. Klaus sends an initial proposal of guidelines for the tournament to all RC members at latest four weeks before the tournament.
3. Klaus Koskela is named responsible for appointing the nominated referees to the matched in EC 2003 in Prague. He sends an initial proposal to all RC members.
4. The Swedish federation has not sent an international observer to observe the friendly games in Sweden between Sweden and Switzerland. According to the IFF rules and regulations this is a breach in cooperation and confidence. Thoma Gilardi is entitled to write to the Swedish Federation and ask for the reasons. Thomas informs all IFF RC members of the incoming answer. The IFF RC points out that the founder nations should cooperate and work as role models for all other countries and that no national centered interests shall stand between the member nations’ given tasks and the international floorball family.
5. Axel Wester has ex officio (Marketing Manager of the IFF) been asked to negotiate with Puma for a new referee material contract. At the moment the equipment of the IFF referees and observers is not consistent and IFF must aim for consistency in equipment. If Axel does not succeed he is supported by Thomas Gilardi in negotiating with Adidas.

For the meeting minutes – Daniel Würmlin, 22.11.2002