IFF
 
     
One World — One Ball

IFF Central Board meeting 2/2015
30.08.2015

Place: Hotel Hanasaari, Helsinki, Finland

Participants:
Tomas Eriksson, President
Monica Bakke, Treasurer
Daniel Bollinger
Stephen King
Magdalena Kotikova, ATC Chair
Carlos Lopez
Johanna Mikkola
Milan Rantakari
Filip Suman, Vice president
Martin Wolmhed

Merita Bruun, Information Manager
Stefan Kratz, Competition Manager
Veli Halonen, Operations Coordinator
John Liljelund, Secretary General


Excused:
Heiko Jassmann


Minutes

§ 1. Opening of the meeting

Mr. Eriksson opened the meeting and greeted everyone welcomed to Hanasaari and thanked for a very nice dinner last night.

§ 2. Approval of the agenda

Mr. Eriksson to conclude if there are any updated appendixes for the meeting.
Appendix 4a – IFF License System situation date 28.08.2015
Appendix 4b – Claim situation WFC 2015 and U19 WFC 2016
Appendix 7 – Final Report WFC 2014
Appendix 8 - WFC 2015 LOC Report
Appendix 9a - WFC 2015 TV situation
Appendix 9b - WFC 2015 Match schedule changes
Appendix 32 - U19 WFC 2015 preliminary report

The CB decided: To approve and adopt the updated appendixes


§ 3. Minutes from the CB meeting:
01/2015 in Copenhagen, Denmark, (12.04.2015), (Appendix 1),

The minutes from the last meeting were scrutinized, approved and put ad acta


§ 4. Economy

a) Financial report by the 31.07.2015

Mrs. Bakke made a short presentation of the financial report and the balance sheet for the financial year 2015, per 31.07.2015 (Appendix 2). The outcome is slightly better than the same period last year. There are no big differences to the budget at the moment, but a few new budget posts have been included. Concerning the balance the situation looks quite good, a lot of costs have already been paid.

Mr. King asked the reason for the lower budget figure for the office costs. Mr. Kratz answered that the reason for this is the employment of the CC brand manager and the IFF trainee, which are effecting the budget in the end of the year.

Mr. Eriksson stressed that working with the cash-flow should be high-lighted and the situation looks much better.

Mr. Suman asked if the financial situation is in balance, which Mr. Kratz answered that the situation looks ok, apart from maybe the WFC 2015 marketing income.

The CB decided: To approve the reports.


b) Information on IFF claims – status 31st of July, 2015

Mr. Kratz presented the claims situation by the 31.07.2015 (Appendix 3). Not much had happened during the summer, but the tendency is that the associations will start paying off
during the autumn.

Further Mr. Kratz reported on the claims situation by the 28.08.2015 for all the IFF Member Associations, in accordance to the IFF License System (Appendix 4a). The activity have been low during summer but all Associations concerned have been reminded of their situation.

In addition Mr. Kratz reported on the claims situation for the teams registered for the WFC 2015 (Appendix 4b). The IFF Office needs to monitor the countries, not participated in the IFF events, with unpaid membership fees piling up.

Mr. Suman asked what the membership fee is for the provisional members, which is 500 CHF for the first four years.

Mr. Eriksson proposed to give the Office the task to clarify the membership fee system, to avoid unnecessary problems.

Further Mr. Kratz reported on the claims situation for the teams having registered for the U19 WFC 2016 (Appendix 4b). Of the teams participating in the upcoming IFF Events, at the moment there are three countries, namely Jamaica, Russia and Singapore. Jamaica has not given too much information, Russia is awaiting a new accreditation from the NOC and
Singapore started to pay but then stopped.

Mr. Suman asked what the previous decision, which Mr. Kratz answered that all debts had to be paid or by October 2015 for the WFC 2015.

Mr. Wolmhed asked what actions had been taken to secure 16 teams in the WFC 2015 in Finland.

The CB decided: To approve the reports and decided that all countries have to hand in a plan and start paying of the debts by October. For the U19 WFC all actions must have been taken until the 1st of March 2016.

Mr. King presented the Discussion paper for the CB to define how the IFF License for Participation at Major Events – version 2.0, based on the discussions held by the IFF ExCo. (Appendix 5) shall be built.
How much do the CB want to use the License requirements as a tool to steer the developing countries and keep them on the IOC Road Map. The idea is that the CB would have this as a key factor to put general discussion about the requirements for the License System 2.0, to be prepared and presented at the IFF Associations Meeting in Tampere, Finland during the WFC 2015.
Mr. Suman felt that the key steps on the path for the development of the smaller countries shall be included in the end product. The license shall be gradually marked and you can participate if you have reached a certain number of points.

Ms. Kotikova and Mr. Lopez felt that we need to go further carefully.

Mr. Eriksson felt that the proposal is a good way to give guidance to develop and go forward. Ms. Mikkola felt that it is important to be structured to steer the development and it is important to support the development without too many requirements.

Mr. Wolmhed thinks that there needs to be demands for development, with some non-negotional features.

Mr. Bollinger feels that it is important to push the development programs and have a structure.

Ms. Bakke thinks that the requirements are not too harsh, most countries should be able to full-fill the criteria‘s. A possibility could be to have members that needs to be licensed to participate in the Events.

Ms. Bruun and Mr. Kratz elaborated on the possibility of having a tool to support the members achieving results, to speed up development.

Mr. Liljelund expressed that we need keep in mind the basic idea that this is a license for participating in Events, so we need to have different levels of requirements to use it as a motivator to participate in events.

The CB decided: to approve the path forward and Mr. King and Mr. Liljelund was given the task to prepare the proposal for the IFF Associations Meeting in December 2015.

c) CB member issues

Mr. Bollinger reported that he due to his new employment at the Sports Ministry, has decided to resign from the IFF CB with full effect from the 30th of September. (Appendix 6a). Mr. Bollinger stressed that it has been a very interesting time in the Swiss Floorball and the IFF and hopes to see the sport at the Olympics one day.

Mr. Eriksson informed that the SUHV has decided to propose to replace Mr. Bollinger, with the SUHV CB member Mr. Jörg Beer, who has a vast experience of Swiss Floorball and also international floorball (Appendix 6b and appendix 6c).

Mr. Eriksson thanked Mr. Bollinger for the good work done and informed that the IFF CB has in accordance with the IFF Statutes § 33.4., the possibility to co-opt a replacement for Mr. Bollinger.

The CB decided: To grant Mr. Daniel Bollinger the resignation from the IFF CB, with full effect from 30th of September 2015 and co-opt Mr. Jörg Beer as the replacement, from the 1st of October 2015.


§ 5. World Championships

a) WFC 2014 Sweden

Mr. Wolmhed gave a short final report on the Men‘s 10th WFC 2014 Final Round played in Gothenburg, Sweden from the 5th to 14th of December 2014. (Appendix 7). The SIBF thinks that they have organised a very good event and they were pleased with the co-operation with the IFF. The main problem was the financial deficit of EUR 600.000 of the Event. A lot of new processes were included in the process with the Fun Zone, Sports museums etc.

The LOC has identified the need to sign the agreement with the IFF much earlier, to secure the financial development, to overlook the requirements of the IFF Corporate Identity, as it was problematic to endorse for the LOC. Other issues are the restriction to use the Floorball Manufacturers as sponsors, due to the IFF Material Sponsors.

Mr. Rantakari asked how the deficit was accumulated, during a four year cycle.

Mr. Suman asked how the IFF will deal with the fact that the WFC 2014 financial was negative. Mr. Suman felt that the SIBF is accusing the IFF for making some of the deficit.

Mr. Eriksson felt that it is important to have a clear picture of the whole event in the report.

Mr. Liljelund proposed to overlook the financial reporting structure in the WFC agreement and the follow-up methods. The IFF shall also answer the SIBF that the IFF will overlook the challenges described in the report.

The CB decided: To approve the reports and answer the SIBF to the questions raised in the WFC report.


b) WFC 2015 Finland

Mr. Rantakari gave a short report of the preparations of the Women‘s WFC 2015 and the steps taken so far in the process (Appendix 8). The WFC 2015 LOC is starting a school campaign to secure local spectators for the Event, as the ticket sales has not taken off yet. There is a school campaign with over 40 schools starting and the LOC has made a 100 day activation in the City. There are also challenges to find sponsors for the Event, mainly due to the difficult financial situation in Finland. Also there is a small issue with the number of the volunteers.

Mr. Suman asked what the financial effect will be for the IFF if the WFC marketing sales will not achieve the budgeted numbers for IFF. Mr. Kratz answered that the effect could be around 35.000 – 40.000 CHF.

The LOC has asked the participating National Teams to participate in a school campaign and visit a school for one hour. Unfortunately a few teams have refrained from participating in the campaign. The LOC has asked what can be done to secure this.

Mr. King felt that it is very important to give the LOC the possibility to carry out such events. The CB discussed the question in-depth and unanimously expressed their wish that the national teams would participate in the campaign.

Mr. Liljelund reported on the TV situation, so far the WFC LOC and IFF has contracted an own production company, the Latvian Polar HD to produce both the TV signal and the internet-TV signal. Finnish YLE will act as HB and work with all details related to signal transfer and satellite segments. The total number of TV games is still unsure, but the discussions with the Czech, Finnish, Slovak and Swedish TV‘s has been running well. Also contacts have been taken to German, Latvian, Norwegian and Swiss TV. (Appendix 9a)

In order to secure the maximum number of TV matches, as TV production is only made in the main venue Hakametsä, there has been a number of changes of starting times and even some changes of venues to facilitate the interest of the TV channels which have answered in time. (Appendix 9b)

Ms. Bruun informed that the changes in the match schedule will be published in the next week.

The CB decided: To approve the report and strongly urge the participating nations to participate in LOC school campaign.
The RACC was given the task to prepare an addition to the Competition regulations to secure the LOC possibility to execute such campaigns or adjacent events to the WFC.


c) U19 WFC 2015 Sweden

Mr. Wolmhed report on the U19 WFC 2015 final round that was played in Helsingborg, Sweden 29.04-03.05.2015. (Appendix 32) The championships was well organized and the sports result was very interesting overall. The challenges were few, with a slight lack of volunteers in the beginning of the event.
There was a total number of spectators around 12.000 and the teams have given a positive feedback to the organizer. In addition a very good outcome in the field of Social Media. The City received a positive effect in visitors.
However the final result will be negative and bigger than budgeted.

The CB decided: To approve the report.


d) WFC 2016

Mr. Kratz reported on the preparations for the Men‘s 11th WFC 2016 to be played in Riga, Latvia. (Appendix 10) The qualifications are under preparations, after a number of discussions. The WFCQ groups are divided as follows:


EUR1
Slovakia
3-7.2.2016

EUR2
Estonia
3-7.2.2016

EUR3
Poland
3-7.2.2016

EUR4
Slovenia
2-6.2.2016

USA
Denver
12-14.2.2016

AOFC
Tbd

Sweden

Finland

Switzerland

Czech Republic

USA

Japan

Slovakia

Estonia

Germany

Norway

Canada

Australia

Russia

Denmark

Poland

Serbia

Jamaica

Korea

Belgium

Austria

Spain

Italy

Singapore

France

Netherlands

Great Britain

Slovenia

New Zealand

Iceland

Georgia

Liechtenstein

Thailand


Mr. King informed that Thailand has confirmed that they are ready to organize the qualification.

Mr. Suman asked how the preparations of the final round is proceeding. Mr. Liljelund answered that the preparations are proceeding.

Mr. Lopez stressed that it is important that in the qualifications everybody feels that they are part of the WFC Final round. It would be important to stress that this is a part of the WFC.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

e) U19 WFC 2016

Mr. Kratz reported on the preparations taken by the LOC for the Women‘s U19 WFC 2016 to be played in Canada 04-08.05.2016. There are 16 teams participating in the Event.

The LOC has finalized the logo for the Event and is planning to launch the web site in the coming weeks and provide the participants with technical information. The schedule will be published in beginning of September. The cooperation with the U19 WFC 2016 LOC is working well.

Ms. Bruun wanted to point out that the organisers overall seems to have a tough time to understand the big picture and that it is not a local event.

The CB decided: To approve the report


f) Upcoming organisers

Mr. Kratz reported on the national associations, which has informed their interest to organise the Women‘s WFC 2019 and the Men‘s WFC 2020. The following National Associations have shown their interest:
WFC 2019: Switzerland (Appendix 11a)
WFC 2020: Finland and Switzerland (Appendix 11b)

In accordance with the previous IFF CB decisions the CB needs to decide upon the organiser of the Women‘s WFC in December 2015.

The Competition Office will start the bidding process in the Event Management Tool for both the 2019 and 2020 WFC‘s for the December 2015 meeting.

The CB decided: To approve the report and start the bidding process with the interested organisers, in order to decide upon the WFC 2019 and 2010 organisers in its meeting in December 2015.


§ 6. EuroFloorball Cup

a) EuroFloorball Cup 2015

Mr. Kratz reported on the preparations for the EFC 2015 to be played in Cesis, Latvia 06-10.10.2015. (Appendix 12)

Due to the issues of finding organisers for the Event and the late confirmation of organisers for the EuroFloorball Challenge (EFCh) the invitation was sent late which lead to only a few registrations. The total number of registrations for the EuroFloorball Cup (EFC) together with the teams registered for the EFCh is anyhow sufficient to organise a complete EFC.

After a long process we got enough participants to play the EuroFloorball Cup final round.

The EFC 2015 looks as follows:


MEN

Group A

Group B

Lekrings (LAT)

Greåker IBK (NOR)

Nizhegorodets (RUS)

TTÜ SK (EST)

IFK Paris (FRA)

Rubene M (LAT)

WOMEN

Group A

Group B

Nauka MP (RUS)

Rubene W (LAT)

MFBC Grimma (GER)

MMKS Podhale Nowy Targ (POL)

Kekava (LAT)

CDE El Valle (ESP)


Mr. Suman asked if there are ideas why there no participants from the countries that usually participate. Mr. Kratz answered that there has been a number of countries thinking Latvia was too far.

Mr. Rantakari asked about the general situation of the Cup‘s and Mr. Kratz explained that the general problem was that we were late with the organisers, which lead to a smaller number of participants. In the future the teams will only play one tournament per year as the EFC winner will go to the next year Champions Cup.

Ms. Bakke answered that there is a generation change ongoing in Norway and the best teams are already in the Champions Cup this year.

Mr. Lopez felt that we need to move in the same direction as the Champions Cup, to reduce the tournament days to three.

The CB decided: To approve the report.


b) Champions Cup 2015

Mr. Suman reported on the preparations for the 5th edition of the Champions Cup that will be played in Mlada Boleslav, the Czech Republic from October 2nd to October 4th, 2015. The LOC has started with the promotional campaign to secure spectators and raise the general awareness towards the Champions Cup. The plan is built on the experience from the CC2011 and the support from the City is very good.

The TV negotiations have been started and TV has been secured for Czech Republic (Czech TV), Sweden (TV4 – all Swedish games) and Finland (all Finnish games). No reaction yet from Swiss or Norwegian TV. The aim is to keep the budget even, which is a problem if you can‘t start the negotiations already two years in advance

Mr. Suman further reported on the meeting held by the IFF Champions Cup Steering Group 02/2015, held in Prague on the 20.05.2015, where the overall targets of the Champions Cup and the role and duties of the CC Brand Manager was discussed. (Appendix 13) The main outcome was how to continue with the project of the Champions Cup 3rd edition.

The CB decided: To approve the report


c) Future of the Champions Cup

Mr. Rantakari gave a short update to the CB on the actions taken to support the LOC of the CC2015 in Mlada Boleslav and the plans to start building the sales system for the CC for the future.
The same question arises for the CC, where the LOC are marketing the event in the local language, when the whole idea is to try to build an overall interest. The next steps will be to define the Brand Book for the Champions Cup and think about how to market the event, taking into consideration all the target groups.
The project leaders of the four nations have been contacted, apart from Finland, which is still missing. It is not only the Champions Cup, but a broader view to activate the nations. Half of the participating clubs didn‘t have anything on their web pages about the Champions Cup.

Mr. Eriksson stressed that it is important to look over the operations and activate the national associations and clubs.

The CB decided: To approve the reports


§ 7. Committees and Ad Hoc group reports

a) ExCo reports

Mr. Eriksson reported on the ExCo meeting held on the 9th of July and the decisions taken there. (Appendix 14)

The ExCo discussed the situation created by the attack of the former SportAccord President Mr. Mariuz Vizer on the IOC and President Bach and the actions IFF is to take in respect to that. Also the meetings during SportAccord Convention were discussed.

Mr. Eriksson stressed the importance to involve more countries in the international development for the long term period. There is a need to work with the countries closely, therefore the ExCo proposes to organise a Core Country Presidents meeting (CC10).

Mr. Suman felt that the need to have close contacts more frequently is important to build the general knowledge on the international level questions, so it would be good to have them on a regular basis.

Ms. Bakke agrees that this is the right approach and believes that there is an interest from these countries to participate.

Mr. Lopez is afraid that this will affect the IFF General Assemblies importance. There is a need to specify that the topics are of a different nature than the IFF General Assemblies.

Ms. Kotikova felt that it is a good idea, but there can be a discussion which countries should be included.

Ms. Bruun felt that this could be where the national association can reach when they have fulfilled a certain criteria‘s in the IFF License System.

Mr. Suman felt that it is important to keep the importance of the IFF General Assembly and Associations Meeting.

Mr King feels it is important that this not be focussed on only European issues, but it should be International focussed.

Mr. Eriksson reported on the discussion held in the IFF ExCo of the possible need to look over some of the clauses in the IFF Statutes for the IFF General Assembly 2016. Especially to increase the involvement of the persons on the IFF level and the number of non-Europeans in the IFF CB. There are a number of possibilities to secure this, but the importance is to have spokespersons for what the IFF are discussing and bringing forward.

Mr. King felt that at some point that the need to enlarge the CB could be interesting, but maybe not now. There are models to restrict the number of representation for only one per country in the CB, maybe with the Athletes Commission President excluded.

Mr. Mikkola thinks that it would be interesting to include persons in the area which is growing strongly. However you need to keep in mind that the persons needs to have them still working for the national associations.

Mr. Wolmhed thinks that we are forming a group for political issues, so there is not a need to enlarge the group.

Mr. Suman feels that the goal is good to involve as many persons and associations as possible, but not to enlarge the CB now and involve them in other way. It is important to keep the CB on the high level and we should continue to work as close as a group.

Mr. King concluded that we need to start to discussion for the future and prepare a discussion paper for the inclusion of more member in the IFF work for the first CB meeting in 2016.

Mr. King gave an oral report on the present activities of the AOFC and the upcoming tasks for next year. (Appendix 15) There is a number of teams participating in the IFF events, but we need to create an event to start playing international matches. Also the work to start conversing countries to new IFF members. The AOFC is organising an introductory Floorball sessions on Fiji for coaches at schools, where Mr. King and the New Zealand secretary general Mr. Christian Bertschinger will run the sessions.

Mr. King also gave a small report on how the discussions are going to restructure the AOFC. The plan is to propose to work with regional development committees in West-Asia, South-East Asia, East –Asia and Oceania, to speed up the development.

Mr. King further addressed the questions the Japanese Floorball Federation has directed to the IFF CB, through the AOFC. (Appendix 15a) The process for applying for the Additional Events in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, has given a lot of media attention to the JFF. They have asked if we can help them to become a sport on the Sport Initiation Process.

Mrs. Mikkola gave an oral report on the present activities in the Americas and also report on the recent activities in Brazil (Appendix 16). There has been a lot of activities planned in Brazil in relation to the Rio Olympics. The BFA wanted to organise a campaign “Bring a Floorball Stick” to gain materials to the country, but first the BFA needs to be officially registered. The BFA is trying to tap into the Nordic embassies and companies.

In Jamaica not much has happened lately apart from the good development on the Special Olympics group, which has 93 players. There is a big Special Olympics event in Jamaica in the fall.
In USA there has been a lot of training activities for the national teams and the North Texas Floorball Association has organised a Floorball camp for five days with Czech coaches. The Gretzky Hockey School has continued to work with Floorball in the USA.
In Canada a new Board has been elected, including a number of new persons. The on-line Referee program has been completed by 18 referees. The case with BCFF has been re-opened. There was two Canadian referees, from the development group, refereed at the Czech Open.

Mr. Suman asked of other development in South America. Mr. Lopez informed that there are some clubs in Peru, which have worked with the Floorball4all. There are movement in Colombia.

The CB decided: To approve the reports and gave Mr. Tomas Eriksson and Mr. Steve King to prepare the discussion paper on member involvement in the IFF, for the 1st CB meeting 2016. Mr. King will respond to the Japanese federation concerning the Tokyo Olympic Games actions.


b) Contacts to International Sports Organisations

Mr. Eriksson shortly reported on the activities taken in relation to the recent crisis in and around SportAccord after the attack of Mr. Vizer on IOC President Bach. IFF has been actively taking part in the process and IFF has written a letter to IOC to support the IOC Agenda 2020. As a result of this IFF has been able to secure a meeting with IOC President Thomas Bach on 30th of September and a separate meeting with the IOC Sport Department and its Sport Director Mr. Kit McConnell.

Mr. Eriksson further reported on the SportAccord Convention and General Assembly held in Sochi, Russia in April. (Appendix 17a). After a number of SportAccord members and the IOC have withdrawn their support from the SportAccord and Mr. Vizer has resigned, the total structure of SportAccord has been changed and an Extra Ordinary Annual General Assembly is called together in November (Appendix 17b) Mr. Eriksson stressed that IFF had a golden opportunity in the ARISF elections.
The discussions with FIH are on-hold for the cooperation, partly due to the IFF application Additional Event in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Mr. Eriksson reported on the Floorball tournament played during the SEA Games in Singapore in June 2015. (Appendix 18) The tournament was played with four men‘s teams (Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) and three Women‘s teams (Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand) when the Philippines withdrew just a week prior to the Event.

The tournament was a huge success with a massive number of spectators and even over-full venues with a lot of top SEA Games NOC. It was a very well organised Floorball tournament and gives good basis for the next steps to talk with the Malaysian association.

Mr. Liljelund reported that the qualification system for the World Games 2017 in Wroclaw has been approved by the IWGA. The system has been approved by the IFF CB in 2014, with the top three teams from the Men‘s WFC 2016 together with the best ranked neighboring team (Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine), the best ranked non-European team (must be ranked ate least 12th in the WFC) and Poland are participating in the
tournament. The Polish Federation is planning to organize a pre-event with the Polish Cup in Wroclaw.

Mr. Suman felt that we need to support how all countries can contribute to the possible pre-events.

Mr. Eriksson further reported about his meetings held in connection to the Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles, in end of July 2015. (Appendix 19) The Special Olympics feels that Floorball is a good example on how to work International Federations. From the political point of view we have drawn the right decision to work together with the Special Olympics.

Mr. Eriksson IOC has approved the IFF plans for Development and Anti-Doping Education and granted IFF the IOC-ARISF support of 25.000 USD for 2015. (Appendix 20)

Mr. Liljelund also reported that the Finnish Sports Confederation is still preparing to apply for the organisaton of the European Master Games 2019 and IFF has promised together with the SSBL participate in the organization of the Floorball tournament.

The CB decided: To approve the reports

c) RACC

Mr. Wolmhed reported on the proposals the RACC has made concerning the updates in the Competition regulations National teams and Friendly International matches as well as in the Organisers Regulations. (Appendix 21a, 21b and 21c)
The changes are mainly made to adjust to the wishes of the National Associations and how to free the players for International Events and Multi Sport Events. In addition there has been some changes to define the responsibilities of the participant‘s rights and duties in relation to transportations during Events.

An update of the Competition Regulations EuroFloorball Cup will be presented in the next CB meeting.

The CB decided: To approve the reports and approve the updates


d) RC

Mr. Bollinger gave an oral report of the work of RC for the upcoming season 2015-2016. The next meeting will be in a few weeks, to finalize the lists of International Referees and the nomination producer. There is work started to update the referee guidelines. The work has started for the coming season with the Development group referees in the Czech open.

The RC has in their per capsulam meeting (Appendix 22) decided to propose to the CB the more detailed AOFC referee development group program, which is made by the AOFC.
CB approved the basic idea of the group in its last meeting and now AOFC has created a program how to proceed with the group from 2015 to 2017. The idea is to carry out educate the educators type of program in the AOFC region is order to increase the number of referees and also to increase the number of qualified referee educators in the region, which in the long run will guarantee the adequate number of referees in Floorball events in AOFC region. (Appendix 22a)

The AOFC Referee Development program aim is to bring referee observers at the club tournaments in Asia-Oceania. This to educate observers and give feedback to the present referees.

The RC also decided to nominate Mr. Jesper Juul Gobel as an international referee observer. Mr. Juul Gobel was an international referee for several seasons and has participated to Women‘s WFC as a referee in 2011 and 2013.

The CB decided: To approve the report and nominate Mr. Jesper Juul Gobel as an International Referee Observer for the period 2015-2016.


e) Medical committee

Ms. Bruun gave an oral report on the situation concerning the implementation of the new WADA Code with in the IFF testing system. The implementation of the new WADA Code will continue until next year.

The new testing pool system with club team & national team whereabouts seems to work alright, due to the support of the national associations. Also the 1st blood tests ordered by IFF have been conducted successfully.

The 2nd mandatory Outreach for Athletes will take place during the WFC 2015.

Ms. Bruun is to participate at the WADA Education Conference in October 2-4 and the IFF Medical Committee will have a meeting in Helsinki on November 17th.

In addition Ms. Bruun gave a short report about the difficult Adverse Analytical Finding in the spring, which has now been solved by WADA.

The CB decided: To approve the report.


f) Athletes Commission

Mrs. Kotikova is to shortly report on the yearly meeting of the IFF Athletes Commission held in Helsingborg in connection to the U19 WFC 2015. (Appendix 23)

The meeting discussed the way the ATC could work and help to develop the interests of the Athletes inside IFF.
The ATC discussed the new system for the qualifications, the way to help the developing countries as ambassadors. The ATC feels that the Athletes Outreach is very positive, but also include the education of betting in the Athletes Outreach.

The ATC discussed the need for a Captains meeting to provide information directly to the team. Also the Game Rules were discussed in details.

Mr. Suman ask if there was some special topics discussed concerning the Game Rules that needs to be followed up. Mr. Wolmhed answered the question and mentioned the 5 minutes penalty. But the process must be coordinated for the future.

The CB decided: To approve the report.


g) Marketing Ad Hoc group

Mr. Suman shortly reported on the next steps to be taken in relation to the TV Magazine, now when the SportAccord project with Euronews has been cut due to the changes with-in SportAccord. The Core Country Marketing Network Group will have to discuss this again.
In addition Mr. Suman presented the next steps in relation to the Combined Sales Project, which Mr. Rantakari will start working with more during 2016. The discussion will continue in the Core Country marketing network meeting, after which the National Associations will need to approve it before the IFF Associations Meeting in Tampere in December.

The CB decided: To approve the report

h) Development & Equality Ad Hoc group

Mr. Liljelund reported that the following seminars have been held after the last CB meeting:
Dublin, Ireland 16.-17.4.:
Basic seminar, Special Olympics and IRL and UK – apprx. 30 participants
Ulaan Bator, Mongolia 26.-27.5.:
Coaches (Ice hockey clubs, teachers and Floorball) – 27 participants
Wuhan, China 11.-13.7.:
Coahes and Referees – teachers, floorball clubs, regional sports and national sports –
around 70 participants.

The following seminars are planned for the rest of the year:
Madrid, Spain 2.-4.10. – Coaching – Cooperation with University Sport
Savanneketh, Laos 16.-18.10. – Basic Seminar
Slovenia 16.-18.10 – Advanced Coaching and Refereeing
Copenhagen, Denmark 7.11. – Good Governance seminar DEN, GER, NOR and POL
Douala, Cameroon 20.-22.11. – Basic seminar

Discussions with Australia, India and USA are ongoing, but these will most probably be held in 2016.

The CB decided: To approve the report

i) International Lobbying Ad Hoc group

Mr. King reported on the continued plans for the lobbying work and the updated contact list of the IOC members. (Appendix 24) In addition Mr. King will present the update for the International Lobby work. (Appendix 31).

The basic proposal for the Floorball Ambassadors will be prepared for the Associations meeting, and the IFF office needs to circulate that after the Associations meeting. The main message must be to get involved with the NOC. In addition we shall use the IFF School Curriculum to approach the nations and need to start to talk the NOC‘s which they have members on the IOC Executive Board.

Mr. Eriksson feels that this is important for the networking process.

The CB decided: To approve the report


§ 8. IFF Office

Mr. Liljelund concluded that the IFF Office has employed Ms. Minna Nurminen as a trainee for the summer, working with The Event Management Tool, the IFF School Curriculum and Information questions among others. IFF will prolong the employment of Ms. Nurminen as a part of her obligatory internship at the IIHF Sport School at Vierumäki for September 2015 to May 2016.

In addition Mr. Liljelund reported that Mr. Rantakari has started as the Champions Cup Brand Manager in beginning of August, working with the planning of the brand and sales of the Champions cup and supporting the Mlada Boleslav CC 2015 LOC.

Mr. Eriksson presented a proposal to the CB meeting for the nomination of the IFF Athlethe Entourage Commission for the period 2015 - 2016. The IFF Athletes Entourage Commission would consist of seven members, with three from the IFF ATC, three from the national member associations (coaches, clubs and medical staff) and the chair from the IFF CB.

The CB decided: To approve the report and constitute the IFF Athletes Entourage Commission by a per capsulam meeting by the end of September.

a) Development operations

Mr. Eriksson reported on the discussion held in the IFF ExCo concerning the need to find a solution for financing an IFF Development Coordinator, in order to be able to develop and speed up the IFF development work, in the time where a number of other tasks are consuming all the time of the secretary general.
The CB discussed the potential need for such a new employee and the ways to finance this in the present situation.

Mr. King thinks that the first two years are the critical from a funding point of view, with getting new countries and more players.

Mr. Wolmhed asked if there had been any discussion of how to solve it.

The CB decided: To approve the reports and the ExCo to approach the said associations.


b) Information operations

Ms. Bruun reported that the development of the generic WFC website project has continued, with the embedding of the game statistics for WFC 2015 website is ready, but the automatic calculation of the final standings is still missing and therefore it has not been published yet. In addition the change of the Champions Cup playing system requires that we also need new stats features for the CC, as the playing system has changed (the competition office working with the IFF Statistics program creator Mr. Mika Korhonen).

IFF has a new Newsletter service provider (postiviidakko). The main advantage is that videos can be embedded directly into the newsletters. IFF changed the provider in cooperation with the SSBL, in order to have the latest technology included for the newsletter, like the videos

IFF is making improvements for the IFF Mobile app, which today have around 27.000 downloads, for the CC. These are concerning the new playing system required updates. The CC 2015 mobile app, will also include Instagram in the news section with #floorball + other tournament related hashtag (#iffcc2015).

There will also be the possibility to retweet, favorite tweets & instagram photos on the app directly. The aim is to increase the visibility for it in the organizing country.

The IFF has through Meltwater ordered a WFC 2014 Digital Media report (Appendix 25), which shows that the WFC 2014 had a very good coverage in the digital media. The hype around our Events are increased and compared to the Women‘s handball were better in the peak, but lost overall in visibility in social media.

For the WFC 2015 web site there has in cooperation with the WFC 2015 LOC been made a number of number of activation campaigns for the WFC in the Social Media channels by the IFF, which will be reported during the meeting.

The CB decided: To approve the reports

c) Material operations

Mr. Liljelund reported that the proposal for the Material Regulation Edition 2016 has been discussed by the IFF Development Board and in order to give the Floorball Manufacturers sufficient time to react to the changes that will come in force 1st of July 2016, the changes have been discussed in the IFF ExCo in July. The IFF CB still needs to officially approve the new version of the IFF Material Regulation edition 2016. (Appendix 26)

The CB decided: To approve the report and the Material Regulation Edition 2016.

The IFF Material function has for three years run a test for the possibility that players longer than 190 cm can by a special permission depending on their length use a stick of a total length of 116 – 118 cm. As it has proven that these tall players have had less medical problems, the IFF material function has launched a two year program where the players can use oversized sticks for the seasons 2015-2016 and 2016-2017. If this proves to work well the Material function will propose a change of this in the Game Rules. (Appendix 27)

In addition the Material function has started a follow-up to correct the problematic situation related to goalkeeper face masks, where a number of players use face mask grills that are not according to the IFF Game Rules/Material Regulation. The aim is to inform the national associations and the clubs, so that the goalkeepers proactively takes care of this issue and no other measures are needed. All newly produced face mask grills need to have an IFF plate on them after the 1st of July 2014, but a lot of goalkeepers still use old grills, which are without the IFF plate. The IFF will develop an education action plan to the goalkeepers, in order for them to be aware of the regulations.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

d) ParaFloorball information

Ms. Bruun informed that IFF has been invited to give a floorball presentations at the Special Olympics European Sports Conference, October 8-9 in Austria. Ms. Bruun has been taking part in the Special Olympics study for cooperation with IF‘s.
In addition Ms. Bruun presented the IFF ParaFloorball status report (Appendix 28) about the activities with the different ParaFloorball organisations. The Electric Wheelchair Hockey has changed to Powerchair Hockey and the organisation has not decided if they will work with FIH or IFF or both. The Manual Wheelchair Floorball is still getting organised.

Mr. Bakke expressed that IFF needs to be in contact with the sport played in Scandinavia and Germany, which can use only t-stick players, as the Powerchair hockey players can use both t-sticks and Floorball sticks.

The CB decided: To approve the reports


e) Equality

Mr. Liljelund reported that the preparations in relation to the WFC 2015 and the Go Girls are continuing and the IFF Office will present the proposal for the IFF Equality Guidelines for the CB meeting in December.

The CB decided: To approve the report

f) IFF Association Meeting 2015

Mr. Eriksson gave an to update the CB on the discussion the IFF ExCo has had concerning the time and place for the IFF Association Meeting during the WFC 2015 in Tampere.

The ExCo finds that there is a need for the meeting. The possible time slots are on Friday 11th from 11:00 – 17:00 and Saturday 12th 09:00 – 12:00. The ExCo discussed the possible topics to discuss during the Associations Meeting in Tampere:
- New Licence System 2.0
- Multi-Sport Games Status and Next Steps
- EOTO updates and good examples (presented by the countries)
- CC Brand Marketing
- Floorball Ambassador
- IFF School Curriculum
- IFF Lobby work

The Meeting would use a combination of Group works and discussion sessions.
.
The CB decided: To approve the report and decide to invite for the IFF Association meeting 2015


§ 9. Member Federations

a) Membership questions

Mr. Eriksson reported that Floorball Philippines has handed in an application that the IFF would approve the change of the Philippines IFF member association from Floorball Philippines to the newly formed Philippines Floorball Association, based on the positive development in the country. The application has been sent in with the new bye-laws and the PFA articles of incorporation have been included. (Appendix 29a, 29b and 29c)

The CB decided: To approve the report and accept the change of the Philippine member as the Philippines Floorball Association.

b) Members under suspension

There are no members under suspension

The CB decided: To approve the report.

c) New Member Applications

Mr. Eriksson reported that the Malta Floorball Association (MFbA) has handed in their membership application for their membership (Appendix 30a, 30b and 30c). The application contains all the needed information and based on this the IFF ExCo proposes to approve Malta as the new IFF member association.

The CB decided: To approve the reports and to approve the Malta Floorball Association (MFbA) as the new IFF Member Association nr. 58


§ 10. Next CB meeting

The next CB meeting will be held in Tampere, Finland on Thursday the 10th of December 2015, with arrival on Wednesday the 9th of December.

The CB decided: To approve the report.


§ 11. Closing of the meeting

Mr. Eriksson thanked the CB for a good meeting and closed the meeting at 15:15


John Liljelund Tomas Eriksson
Secretary General President

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