Contents: 1 UPCOMING EVENTS 1.1 Women s 3rd U19 WFC in Poland 1.2 Future of the U19 WFC s 1.2.1 Changing the age of the oldest players 1.2.2 U19 continues with A- and B division 1.3 Men s 7th WFC in Czech Republic 1.4 The Men s C- Division 1.5 World University Floorball Championships 2 UPDATED REGULATIONS 3 DEVELOP- MENT WORK 3.1 Development Program Seminars 3.2 Development material 3.2.1 Support to new Floorball Countries 4 ATHLETES COMMISSION 5 OFFICE 6 FLOORBALL VILLAGE at ispo Winter Office contacts: Phone: +358 (0)9 45421425 Fax: +358 (0)9 45421450 E-mail:office@floorball.org Alakiventie 2 Information Letter 1/ 1 UPCOMING EVENTS 1.1 Women s 3rd U19 WFC in Poland The world championships will be played in Wolsztyn, Babimost and Zbaszyn the 7th - 11th of May with two four team groups in the A-division and a B-division of four teams. The three towns are located in the western part of Poland, about 200 km from Berlin. There is an international airport in Babimost. The following teams will play in the Women's U19 WFC: A-Division A-Division B-Division Group A (Babimost) Group B (Wolsztyn) Group C (Zbaszyn) Sweden Finland Russia Czech Republic Switzerland Slovakia Poland Norway Georgia Germany ITALY Italy NORWAY Latvia Norway CZECH Ukraine REPUBLIC SC Classic (FIN) Latvia Russia Georgia and Ukraine are participating in the Women's Tigers Langnau U19 WFC (SUI) for the first Denmark Estonia time. Torpedo Havirov (CZE) Austria Great Britain The Slovakia winner of the B-division Netherlands will be promoted to the A-division in 2010 and the Slovenia 8th team in the A-division Germany will be relegated to the B-division. The match Hungary Belgium schedule will be published on the webpage www.floorball.org Spain Poland 1.2 Future of the U19 WFC s 1.2.1 Changing the age of the oldest players Based on the change of the international calendar and moving U19 WFC from November to May the U19 age group has been changed, so that the players can be 6 months older. In connection with this the lower age (15 years) is a fixed date instead of a moving date (according to the start of each tournament) as is the case of today. The U19 age period shall cover 4 years. For the Men s U19 WFC 2009 this means that players eligible to play in the tournament shall be born between 01.01.1990 and 31.12.1993. The changes are valid from the U19 WFC 2009. 1.2.2 U19 continues with A- and B division The new system for adults will be evaluated before the U19 moves into the same system. Meanwhile the U19 continues to be played with an A- and B - division and qualifications to the B- division. The A- and a B-division will consist of 8 teams each. Qualifications to the B- division shall be played if there are more than 16 registered for the event.
PAGE 2 1.3 Men s 7th WFC in Czech Republic The Championships will be played the 6th-14th of December in the Czech Republic. All A-division and B-division group matches will be played in Ostrava and the final days in Prague. The Czech TV will produce eight matches from the WFC. All the semi-finals and medal matches as well as the Czech team's four group matches will be televised. The has sent out an offer to a number of TV stations and Member associations in order to have the WFC broadcasted in as many countries as possible including Eurosport. The top 7 teams from the A-division and the winner of the B-division are directly qualified for the WFC 2010. The ticket sales will start in the second half of February. More information is to be found from the championship website: www.wfc.cz. 1.4 The Men s C-Division The WFC C-division is played in Bratislava, Slovakia 21st-27th of April. The following teams have registered for the event: Group A Liechtenstein Australia Canada France Argentina Group B Georgia Spain Serbia Slovakia Korea Argentina, Georgia, Liechtenstein and Serbia will participate in the Men's WFC for the first time. The match schedule will be published on the webpage www.floorball.org 1.5 World University Floorball Championships The 3rd World University Floorball Championship will be played the 6th-9th of November, in Kuortane and Seinäjoki, Finland. For the first time both women s and men s tournaments will be played. The General entry form must be sent to the organiser 6 months prior to the event. Read more from the official WUC webpage:www.wucfloorball.com 2 UPDATED RULES & REGULATIONS The process of changing the Rules of the Game has started and a working group will be formed, headed by Martin Wolmhed, Rules and Competition Committee. Members of the group will be one rules expert each from Czech Republic, Finland, Switzerland and Sweden. The Competition Manager Stefan Kratz is co-opted to the group as its secretary. The steering Committee consists of Filip Suman, Chairman of the Rules and Competition Committee (RACC) and Thomas Gilardi, Chairman of the Referee Committee (RC). All member Associations and all persons in any body are invited to send in proposals on changes of the valid Rules of the Game (Edition 2006). The following Regulations have been updated and can be found from the webpage: Financial Regulations (valid from 1st of January ) Competition Regulations National teams (valid from 31st of January ) Competition Regulations Club teams (valid from 31st of January ) International Transfer Regulations (valid from 31st of January ) Organizers Regulations (valid from 31st of January )
PAGE 3 3 DEVELOPMENT WORK 3.1 Development Program Seminars The continued to organise Floorball Development Seminars in 2007. The first seminar was organised in Toronto, Canada and there were also seminars organised in Spain, Australia and Singapore. In addition a coaching course was held in Beijing, China for the district PE teachers organised by the Education and Research Institute in the Beijing Area. In, the first Seminar will be organised in Zelezniky, Slovenia, from the 28th of February until the 2nd of March, which will cover the Eastern European Countries. Another Seminar will be organised in Laustrup, Germany, the 12th-15th of June were the invited countries will be at least Ireland, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Iceland, Poland and Germany. In addition the is planning to organise one Seminar in either Latvia or Russia as well as in the USA. More details will be added to the webpage www.floorball.org under Development Program. 3.2 Development material The coaching manual Teaching Individual techniques and tactics in Floorball has now also been translated into Chinese by Ms. Emily Koh Pei Fern from Singapore. The Chinese version will be available on the web-page soon. The second and third part of the three English coaching manuals, Team tactics and Special Situations, which has been edited by Ms. Anniina Paavilainen will be published still during spring. The material will found on the webpage under materials. The Floorball Youth Start Up Kit has now been translated to Polish language and is available in nine different languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese (Mandarin) and Russia. The Start Up Kits can be downloaded from the webpage under Materials. The drills from Unihockey technics DVD can now be found on the Internet on the Great Britain Floorball Federation's website www.gbff.org.uk/ coaching/. The Unihockey technics DVD has been made by Mr. Mark Wolf and the Swiss Floorball Association in cooperation with the and it includes basic Floorball training and playing techniques which are demonstrated by Swiss national team players. The DVD is a four language version in German, French, Italian and English and the different language versions can also be found on the Internet.
PAGE 4 3.2.1 Support to new Floorball Countries The will continue to support new Floorball countries in by providing material support in forms of promotional and educational material as well as floorball equipment packages The long time partner, Exel, has enabled the support of new Floorball countries with Floorball equipment. In 2007 Floorball support packages were sent to: Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Capo Verde, Croatia, India, Macedonia, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and Ukraine. The educational and material support provided by the has assisted new Floorball countries in developing their Floorball activity and now Argentina, Portugal, Serbia and Thailand have joined the family, which today consists of 45 member associations. 4 ATHLETES COMMISSION The has established its first ever Athletes Commission. The members of the new Commission were confirmed during the first Central Board meeting. Central Board Member Mr. Risto Kauppinen will lead the Commission, which has been set up to utilise the players' experience and knowledge in developing floorball and the 's regulations. Based on nominations sent in by the 's Member Associations, the Athletes Commission will comprise Paula Jouhten (Finland), Linda B. Andersen (Norway), Widyawillis Bte Selamat (Singapore), Melanie Cathie (Australia), Niklas Jihde (Sweden), Matthias Hofbauer (Switzerland), Michael Schachner (Austria) and David Brown (USA). In the future, Members of the Commission will be elected during the Adult's World Floorball Championships (WFC), starting with the Women's WFC in 2009. 5 OFFICE Ms. Katriina Sahala has been chosen as the new Office Coordinator to the Head office in Helsinki, Finland. She will start working for the in the beginning of May. At the moment Ms. Sahala is working as a competition secretary in the Finnish Floorball League and is responsible for the women s league. In the office Ms. Sahala will work closely with the member associations and will be responsible for the administration of the office and the Referee Committee. In addition, Ms. Anniina Paavilainen, will continue as Office Assistant until the end of May. Also Ms. Emily Koh Pei Fern from Singapore, will strengthen the Office as a Project worker until April.
PAGE 5 6 FLOORBALL VILLAGE in ispo Winter After the success in ispo Sport & Style in summer 2007 the Floorball Village will be presented for the second time by the International Floorball Federation, the German Floorball Association and Unihockey-portal.de in cooperation with the worlds leading Floorball equipment manufacturers at the ispo winter. The Floorball Village is an interactive village, where the visitors will get the true vision of what one of the fastest and most exciting team sports looks like today. In addition the visitors will have the possibility to test their own Floorball skills, how hard and precise they can shoot and if they can beat a Floorball goalie. The Zorro show, with the most spectacular Floorball tricks, will be presented four times a day: at 10, 12, 14 and 16 in the Floorball Village. The Floorball brands: Blast, Canadien & Precision, Exel, Karhu, One Way, Rosco & Cobra, Sb Yhtiöt, Uher, Unihoc and Zone will present their latest Floorball equipment, which can also be tested by the visitors themselves. The objective of The Floorball Village, is to give the Austrian, German and Central- European market a true vision of what Floorball is today and re-launch it to the retailers in this area. Find out more from the official website: www.ispo-winter.com