All eyes on Taipei – New Year’s Message from the IKF President

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292 days. That is the number of days that remain in 2023 until we start the World Korfball Championship in Taipei. 292 days where lots of work remains to be done by the Local Organizing Committee.  292 days of preparation for the 24 national teams that have qualified. And just a few months for those 24 National Korfball Federations to get their budgets organized for the trip to Taipei.

While we have had youth world championships and even an edition of The World Games in Chinese Taipei, it is the first time that the Chinese Taipei Korfball Association (CTKA) has taken on the challenge of receiving the world’s best in Taipei. With 24 countries,  the organizational challenge is substantial. All matches will be held in a single Championship venue with 3 courts in one building. We are completing the arrangements with the LOC on ensuring everyone will stay in a single Championship hotel. With the extensive post-covid travel uncertainties still present in Asia, this is not a trivial challenge. However, with the overwhelming commitment of the CTKA, the city of Taipei, the Chinese Taipei Sport Administration,  and the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, I believe we will be able to provide a fantastic athlete experience next October. The IKF and the CTKA have set up a joint Coordination Committee for the event, which I have the honor and pleasure to chair.

Overseeing the process towards this WKC will be my last duty as IKF President.  Since June last year,  Executive Vice-President Gabi Kool has been leading the IKF Executive Committee. I have ceased to attend those meetings and have not been involved with the day-to-day decision making in the IKF. Gabi also leads a strategy task force and a task force on further developing our small-format Olympic game. At the World Congress in October, the proposals will be discussed and the principle decisions for the Olympic format will be made. I am very happy that the KNKV (NED) have announced to propose Gabi Kool as a candidate for the election as President, with support of multiple other National Federations. I will continue to chair the IKF Council until October, and – as announced – I will not be eligible for re-election.

This will allow me more time to commit to the development of The World Games and the International World Games Association, provided that the IWGA Membership again entrust me with that privilege at IWGA elections in May.

For this year, apart from the WKC, we will stage our Continental U21 Championships, and the U19 WKC. The next generation remains crucial for our development and I am happy that post-covid we are finally returning to our original cycle of events. Further, we will evaluate the first edition of the Korfball Champions League: a single competition for the best European clubs, culminating in the Satellite Final in Terrassa (CAT), the Challenger Final next month in Bergisch Gladbach (GER), and the Grand Final in Delft (NED). Results of this evaluation will be implemented for next season’s 2nd edition of the KCL.

I wish all of you that are active in playing, coaching,  officiating, organizing, or supporting korfball development in any other way, a healthy, prosperous, and joyful 2023, and I look forward to seeing many of you in October in Taipei, or at other korfball events around the world.

 

Looking forward to 2021

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Only 12 months ago, we could not have imagined that the Europa Cup and Europa Shield in January would be the only two international korfball events in the whole of 2020. Many korfball organisations were also banned from organising any leagues or championships at national level. For sure, this has been the most difficult year for the development of our sport since many decades, with multiple national organisations fighting for survival. Our sport thrives because it is based around social relationships: competition and training are a means to bring people together.

At the same time, we see many signs of hope that demonstrate the resilience of our global community. Many national organisations have taken initiatives for online courses. Within the IKF, we have struggled a bit to get this started, but some excellent initiatives in particular by Jorge Alves of the Playing Rules and Referees Committee have demonstrated the need. We are happy to have Jorge on board in our Executive Committee now as we need to further expand such online activities, also beyond the current pandemic. Others have developed alternative formats of play and training within the limitations of social distancing.

The true sign of hope, however, is the arrival of the first vaccines. At the end of 2020 many countries have started the inoculation of their population. In the end, the medical and logistics efforts that make vaccines available on a wide scale will enable global sports to recover. It will however require quite a bit patience on the side of many: inoculating billions of people around the globe will take time. Sadly, the pace will be different in different countries, with many of the poorer countries being supplied late in the process.

The IKF is confident that in 2021 international competitions will resume. The continental championships in Europe (Belgium and Poland) will provide a first big opportunity for many countries to meet. We are also hopeful for Oceania to host a meet between Australia and New Zealand some time soon, and are currently seeking hosts for the Panamerican and African Championships to be held in late 2021 or early 2022.

For the earlier events in 2021, notably the U19 World Korfball Championship in the Czech Republic (April), the U21 World Korfball Championship in Chinese Taipei (July), the U21 European Korfball Championship Round 1 in France (July) and the World Beach Korfball Championship in Morocco (July), and the Asian Korfball Championship in Korea (August) we are in close contact with the hosts to define the conditions under which these can take place. These may include testing and/or vaccination requirements, albeit that we do need to recognise that for events that are scheduled earlier in the year we still need to take into account the option of cancellation or postponement. There will only be a gradual way out of the pandemic, and this gradual way will take some years.

I am confident, however, that we are able to have our World Korfball Congress in Belgium in October 2021. It is an excellent occasion to congratulate the Royal Belgian Korfball Federation with their 100th anniversary. We will definitely look at hybrid online/in-person options of presenting the Congress, but our expectation is that this Congress should allow for many of us to meet in-person in Antwerp. In the end, if there is one learning from the pandemic, it is that our community thrives because of personal contacts. A 3D meeting – ideally with touch and feel – build the relationships that are the foundation for our global community, and online meetings in 2D can only partially supplement this.

The IKF Council wishes all of you a good recovery from the pandemic, both individually with your families and for your national korfball organisations, korfball clubs, and korfball schools. We wish you all the best for the year to come, and hope to be in touch with many of you, ideally in-person, but definitely online.

 

Jan Fransoo

President

Stay healthy and safe! – an update from the IKF President

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As the Novel Coronavirus has been spreading across the globe, the associated disease COVID-19 is taking more and more people ill and causing deaths, and the unprecedented global governmental restrictions affect almost everyone on the planet now, the world seems to almost come to a standstill. This also includes the world of sport and – of interest to all of us – the world of korfball. I realize this situation raises lots of anxiety and concern regarding your professional and personal life. In this respect, korfball is only of a minor importance as you all prioritize the critical matters in your life.

For our national organizations that have had to cancel leagues and events, the current situation along with the high uncertainty leads to many complexities to be considered. In addition, large financial losses and risks are present that may affect their financial health in the upcoming years. Many of our national organizations are also dependent on government funding. Unfortunately the impact of the virus on government finances may imply reduced public funding to be available to sport for an extended period of time. At the IKF, we are aware of the many challenges that you are facing, and we have been in touch with quite a few of you to exchange communication. I want to explicitly thank all our national organizations for the responsibility they have taken with regard to their national leagues and the safety of their korfball community, and also for their continued rapid responses to any of our requests for information.

In this update, I would like to explain how we at the IKF have been handling the issues that have been arising with the global spread of this pandemic. Up until this date, we have decided to cancel the IKF U16/U19 Asian Korfball Championship in Thailand and the IKF U19 Open European Korfball Championship in the Netherlands. For both events, we still keep options open to host the event at a later time this year, but the current uncertainty is such that we do not have any actual planned alternative date.

For the events in June, July, and August we have developed a timeline for reviewing and decision making. This timeline has been communicated to all national organizations. In particular for the IKF U21 World Korfball Championship in Taipei in July, we have conducted an inventory among the participating countries, and we appreciate the full disclosure of the status of their travel plans with us. Simultaneously, we have been coordinating with the Local Organizing Committee in Taipei and the public authorities on the island of Taiwan to get an insight into the developing health measures taken on the island, the technical and health limitations of a championship in July, and the investigation of potential alternative dates later this year. Before the end of this month, we will hold a hearing where the team managers of the participating teams have been invited, along with representatives from the LOC, and the IKF medical and athletes committees. The IKF Executive Committee will have a (online) meeting on April 4 to review the entire situation and we are planning in that meeting to make a decision regarding the IKF U21 WKC and also review the timeline for other events. Despite the rapidly changing situation, we will try to make decisions for global and large events ideally about three months before the scheduled event. For smaller regional events, where feasible, we will try to make the decision closer to the event date. In the meantime, we request all teams and hosts to try and limit their financial exposure with any planned events. It is realistic to expect over the next months, and maybe even years, that there is a risk of date changes and cancellations relating to any international korfball event. Deposits will be returned if an event needs to be canceled.

In the mean time, we need to rely on helping each other in need. First, this obviously relates to your family, friends, and anyone else that is close and dear to you. It also requires, for the general health situation, to observe all recommendations of the World Health Organization with regard to personal hygiene, social distancing, and any other advice being provided by them. As a korfball community, we very much rely and value personal relationships. These contacts in many cases will need to move online now. I ask you to not forget friends in your korfball community that may need help, even if this is only taking some time for a video call for those that may be lonely. Take care of each other, and eventually our korfball community will be become even more tightly connected.

Stay healthy,

 

Jan Fransoo

President

 

 

 

Entering a New Korfball Decade – New Year’s Message from the IKF President

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This January we do not just enter a New Year, we actually enter a new decade. For many companies and other organizations, this turn of a decade has been a good reason to revisit the strategy. Also in the world of sport, many are rethinking their position in this rapidly changing world. As the International Olympic Committee has attained many of its strategic objectives of the Agenda 2020, it now focuses much on immediate challenges. While the IOC has tried to contain the gigantism of the Olympic Games, it now seems that the fight against doping seems to drive many decision makers towards a new uncontrollable mechanism that consumes way too many resources from all of us in the world of sport. I do hope that the IOC is able to somehow bring this matter back to normal proportions as I think it is an unacceptable path if International Federations need to spend more resources on the fight against doping than on the development of sport.

I have also noted with great satisfaction that the International World Games Association is about to agree with its membership on a number of strategic choices for the coming years. The World Games are traditionally the Games with much innovation, both in terms of adapting to the host cities’ abilities, needs, and preferences, but also in terms of embracing new sports and disciplines. Now that TWG sees some innovative disciplines strengthen the Olympic Program in Tokyo and Paris, we need to have more flexibility in the TWG program to remain relevant. I am privileged to have been able to contribute to this discussion and process as a Member of the IWGA Executive Committee.

Within korfball, the IKF discussed our strategic orientation during the World Korfball Congress last August in Durban, South Africa. The Congress was an excellent event, in particular due to the very active participation of many member national federations. I have also been pleased with the outcome, which will be formulated in terms of a concrete plan for the next decade. At the core of this plan is a roadmap towards Olympic program inclusion. Along this path is increased participation in multi-sports games, where especially the various regional games are on our agenda.

At the Congress, a lively debate took place on the format that will be our format of choice for multi-sport games. In our own competitive cycle, korfball8 is the main format of choice and this also dominates in most countries that national leagues. However, smaller formats seem to be growing fast, with beach korfball in particular gaining much ground and exposure. At international level, beach korfball has become more competitive with many different countries winning medals in the IKF Beach Korfball World Cup series. Next year, in 2021, we hope to organize the first-ever official Beach Korfball World Championship at a phenomenal venue soon to be announced.

However, a shared vision on our format of choice for multi-sport games has not yet materialized, and the Executive Committee will soon appoint a special task force to prepare a format-choice decision. The task force will be requested to conduct broad consultations within the global korfball community and in the broader world of sports, media, and marketing, and to present their final report in advance of the 2021 World Korfball Congress where the Council will present a final proposal based on the report of the task force. Specific attention will also be given to the equipment needs for any new format; we have been experiencing limits to our growth due to the poor availability of equipment, in particular in Africa and Latin America.

The Executive Committee has also been very pleased with the commitment demonstrated by many of our national federations to become part of our strategic plan. The Congress has agreed to my proposal to invite 40 national federations to formally join the project. These 40 national organizations will need to give a firm commitment with clear objectives what their contribution can be to our ambition. National organizations that have an interest are obviously welcome to contact me directly, but we will definitely also reach out to those organizations that we think can contribute.

Without currently going in detail through all of our plans, I would like to make one matter clear, and that is that for the near future we do not expect any changes in our competition calendar. We very much realize that the extensive growth in youth events with annual events for U19 and U21 now having become official, and potentially moving towards officializing the U17 events, we expect quite a bit from you as member national federations. However, I am firmly committed that youth competition is absolutely necessary to secure our future. Hence, within the current calendar we will seek to maximize growth in youth participation in these events. For increased participation in multi-sports games we will need to have outstanding athletes also after 2025, and the youth events are crucial for this.

We do realize that in most countries , and also within the IKF, we are fully reliable on thousands of volunteers running korfball developments and competitions. I would like to extend my warm personal wishes to all of you, not just in your korfball activities, but first and foremost in your private and family life. I do wish all of you a wonderful 2020, as the start of the next decade, with joy, happiness and in good health!

 

Jan C. Fransoo

President

An important year ahead – New Year’s Message from the IKF President

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As 2019 commences, it provides us with a good moment to reflect on where we are and what needs to be accomplished to further develop.

We have just completed an extraordinary year with undoubtedly the most extensive international competition calendar we have ever seen. The continental championship cycle saw a record number of national teams competing for this year’s IKF World Korfball Championship. The intensified youth cycle culminated in the first IKF U21 World Korfball Championship, replacing a long-standing series of prior U23 events. In the U19 and U17 categories we have been moving to a more extensive and formal championship cycle reflected in the first official IKF U19 World Korfball Championship to be held this year. On top of it all, the IKF Beach Korfball World Cups have been growing in an effort to establish beach korfball firmly as our second main discipline.

With the youth and beach cycles now firmly grounded, it is a natural next step to fully align our development efforts with our international event cycle. I am fully convinced that grass roots and youth development, along with coaching and refereeing education needs to be related to participation in national and international events. These need not be a traditional weekly league. What is critical however is the opportunity to play; merely practicing to practice is not motivating. Purpose needs to be part of any program. I am personally also very happy that some of the countries that have not qualified for the WKC have been requesting us for additional international events and are now also applying for formalized friendly international matches.

In terms of further development of our national federations, we need to collaborate more to strengthen management and administrative capabilities. As IKF, we have left much of this to the national federations to initiate within their countries, but I believe it is critical for our Olympic ambition to help more of our national federations reach a higher level of national recognition. Better administration, management, and youth development are at the core of this. I plan to raise this as an important issue at our upcoming World Korfball Congress in Durban in August.

The second main strategic choice we need to discuss is the position of beach korfball as a major discipline. How do we envision its growth? What can we learn from other sports that have moved new disciplines to the foreground in an effort to increase its global presence? How does beach korfball fit into our long-term ambitions?

I am sure that amongst our national federations there are further items deemed of importance to our future development. The IKF Council would like to hear from you as we prepare for our next Strategic Cycle. In this cycle, more than ever, we want to consider your input and ideas. Make sure to reach out to me or to our CEO in the next weeks to let your voice be heard.

For now, at the beginning of this important year, I would like to wish all of you and your loved ones a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2019.

Jan Fransoo

IKF President

IKF’s presence at SportAccord

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by Jan Fransoo, IKF President

The IKF, along with about 100 other international sports federations and about 2000 delegates just finished a week of intense meetings and networking at the SportAccord Sports and Business Summit. I had the privilege of representing the IKF, together with our newly elected Secretary General Joana Faria and CEO Tilbert La Haye.

At the SportAccord Summit, we attended a number of formal meetings. The most relevant for us this year was the Annual General Meeting of the International World Games Association IWGA. The IWGA governs The World Games, the top-level multi-sport games at which korfball has been included since 1985.  The IWGA held elections for their Executive Committee. President Perurena (Canoe / Spain) was reelected along with a number of other officers. I was newly elected into the IWGA Executive Committee, and I intend to contribute to the development of The World Games, sharing the perspective of korfball. The IWGA Executive Committee also announced that korfball will once again be included within the program of The World Games. We obviously very happy and proud of this, and thank the IWGA for their confidence in the IKF. Our proposal to include beach korfball as an invitation sport has not yet been accepted, but we are in discussion with the Birmingham Organizing Committee to find common ground how a beach korfball showcase could benefit the BOC.

We further attended the General Meetings of the Association of IOC Recognized Sports Federations ARISF and the Global Association of International Sports Federations GAISF, and had a bilateral meeting and attended a workshop with the IOC. It is good to note that overall grassroots sports participation has become more prominent on the Olympic and general sport agenda, and as part of this we were able to showcase korfball at the Sports Festival that was linked to this year’s Summit. We very much appreciate the efforts of the Thailand Korfball Association, the Chinese Taipei Korfball Association, the National Taiwan Normal University, and the Chinese Taipei Sports and Education Ministry to make this happen.

However, we are also confronted with more and more challenges affecting sport in general, and having an impact on our work and budgets. First, as you know from the sports and general media, there are many challenges in the fight against doping. As a consequence of this, WADA is working with the IKF to help us remain compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code. Consequently, the IKF will need to further invest in the fight against doping, and we will require also more efforts, in particular from our A and B countries, to regulate, educate, and invest more in the fight against doping in their national leagues. Second, the new GDPR data privacy legislation will unfortunately lead to more bureaucracy that each of our member countries taking part in international competitions will experience. We are trying to implement this in the simplest possible way, but undoubtedly this will also affect us. At the Summit, we met with WADA and were informed by GDPR specialists to help us tackle both of these challenges in the most effective way.

With all these increasing costs and commitments, it is crucial that we collectively find a way further increase the budgets of the IKF. There is a need to grow our professional staff due to the increase of our competition calendar and the increased external requirements. There is a need to further invest in development and marketing. We are seeking to obtain this additional funding from commercial parties, but we can only do this in close collaboration with our leading countries. If you are ready to think along, do not hesitate to get in touch.

We have a great sport and with our gender-equal principles we are more timely than ever. This is an opportunity we need to seize now.

 

Jan Fransoo

President, International Korfball Federation

Best wishes for a very busy korfball year ahead!

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As 2018 has just commenced, we are all realising that we are facing an exciting year ahead, with many competitions around the globe.

On all continents, continental championships will be held. Americas is first, with the IKF Pan-American Korfball Championship to be held in Cali, Colombia. Six teams teams will compete for the title, with for the first time ever two spots available for the IKF World Korfball Championship in 2019. Merely a month later, Harare (Zimbabwe) will be the host of the All African Korfball Championship. Also there, for the first time ever, and due to the IKF World Korfball Championship 2019 being held on the African continent for the first time (Durban, South Africa), two spots will be available. So, apart from host South Africa, a second African country will be able to qualify for the World Championship. Later in the year, the Asians and Oceanians will have their quadrennial joint championship in Tokyo-Saitama (Japan) and the Europeans will see their long qualification series (which already started last year) completed in the Netherlands, where sixteen European teams will compete for their continental title.

For many countries, taking part in the continental championship is their main target, and a great way to focus development efforts. Especially for those countries ranked between 30 and 50 on our world ranking, taking part in the continental championship is the pinnacle of their performance. I am happy to see so many countries taking part in this quadrennial cycle, where we are likely to break again the record of the number of participating countries. This is important for us as worldwide korfball community to demonstrate our growth by hard numbers. It is however also important to help grow the performance culture in all of our member organisations. While grassroots participation is always and should remain the primary objective of any national organisation, it is critical for each national organisation to also develop a strong performance pillar, which includes a national league and championship at different age groups levels, and includes international participation.

To further stimulate this international participation, this year we see the first-ever official IKF U19 Championship. While World Cups have been held for two decades in this age group, I am very excited to now see an official biannual U19 World Championship emerge. Before too long, we hope to be able to also convert the U17 World Cups every two years to a World Championship.

With all this ahead, I realise that many of our volunteers are devoting a lot of effort and creativity to making this happen, both financially and organisationally. It is to them that I wish to dedicate my New Year’s Message this year: lots of success with all or your endeavours, which I hope you will complete in good health and with great joy.

 

Dr Jan C. Fransoo

President

International Korfball Federation

President’s blog: Happy World Games Year!

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(by Jan Fransoo – IKF President) In July of this year we will celebrate the 10th edition of The World Games. The World Games is the pinnacle of  korfball competitions: the best eight countries in the world compete for the medals in an IOC-recognized multi-sports competition.

With the inclusion of The World Games in Thomas Bach’s Agenda 2020, the importance and exposure of this event has reached a next level. Together with the International World Games Association, the IOC will be more closely involved in the program and organization of this multi-sports competition. With prior World Games sports such as rugby and badminton now on the program of the Olympic Games, and prior Olympic sports such as softball on the program of The World Games, I expect these games to develop into the premier stepping stone closely paired with the Olympic Games. Under the leadership of IOC Member Jose Perurena, the close ties between the IOC and the IWGA that were developed by Ron Froehlich have been strengthened further.

What does this imply for korfball? As a key sport in eight out of nine prior editions of The World Games, and this time being in the first half of the program, the korfball event will offer huge opportunities for exposure of our sport. Media coverage will be more then ever before, as will attention by Members and staff of the IOC. I am sure the athletes will show the best of their performance. The IKF Competitions Committee is working hard to ensure the best possible entertained competition, further improving the excellent spectator experience we have witnessed in Cali in 2013.

In the future, the IKF is targeting to add a second korfball discipline to the program of The World Games. After the inaugural 2017 Open European Beach Korfball Championship and likely Asian Beach Korfball Championship, we plan to work toward a series of beach korfball events that will position us for a beach korfball tournament as part of the 2021 World Games. In this way, two korfball competitions could be part of the 2021 World Games in the USA. Delivering an excellent event in 2017 in Wroclaw is however crucial for creating that opportunity.

Looking forward to these Games in Poland, let me also take this opportunity to send all of you, whether player, official, or fan, the best wishes for another exciting year of korfball. Don’t miss attending the World Games and see you in Wroclaw!

Dr Jan Fransoo

IKF President

President’s blog: Youth Competitions

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(by Jan Fransoo – IKF President) “The Youth is our Future” is not only of general importance, but in particular to the future of korfball.

My predecessors have been always focused on youth as a source of growth. The first international competition for national teams was the European Youth Championship, then for U23 athletes. Many may not know that the first IKF World Korfball Championship in 1978 was also a youth championship and only open to U23 athletes.

In Europe, a longer tradition of youth competitions has existed, in particularly fueled by the KNKV hosting invitational World Cups U23 (held for many years in Apeldoorn), U19 (in the Northern Netherlands) and U16/U17 (In Schijndel). Countries sending teams to these events have typically alsoi been successful with their (open) national teams.

A few years ago, the IKF Congress decided to make a bold step and aim for more youth competitions at an international level. It was decided that at each of the continents U15 and U17 championships would be held for national teams, and that at world level the IKF would hold championships at U19 and U21. Recently, the IKF Council has slightly revised the rhythms and frequency of these events, and also made clear that it is up to the Continental Confederations to decide whether continental youth events would be held, and in which format. Asia, for instance, has moved ahead with Korfball4 championships for U17 and U19.

It is now important that all countries set themselves targets to take part in these international youth championships. Participation can only happen if a national organization also sets up youth club or school leagues within the country. Unfortunately, especially many of the countries that have joined the IKF in the past ten years do not have such competitions, despite being active with youth promotion in schools or otherwise.

I believe it is crucial for a country to develop its youth korfball competition system. Especially with the introduction of korfball4 as an official competition format, it has now become much easier to start a youth league or championship tournament: fewer players and less space is needed. Even in case there is locally a shortage of equipment this has become much easier: korfball4 can also be played with only a single korf.

I do hope that aiming for entering into an international competition can be an extra incentive to organize youth leagues. As an example, the Chinese Taipei Korfball Association has for many years now given the right to represent the national federation to the school teams that wins the U17 competition. In another move, the coach of the champion of the U19 competition, gets appointed national coach and the ability to select the national U19 team. Many of these incentives can help to motivate schools and clubs to set up youth teams. Only your creativity is the limit.

Jan Fransoo

IKF President

President’s blog: 40 minute matches

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(by Jan Fransoo – IKF President) This week at the IKF European Korfball Championship in the Netherlands and earlier this year at the IKF U23 World Korfball Championship in the Czech Republic we have been playing in a new match format: 40 minutes matches in two halves of 20 minutes, with each half split into two quarters of 10 minutes with a 45 second break in between. Over the course of the week, I have received many questions from different angles and also an interesting discussion on Facebook has been taking place. It is good to provide some background on what we are doing and why we are doing this. Below, I will try to answer some of the most common questions asked.

What is the formal status?

The formal status of this new playing time of 40 minutes is still an experiment. We have decided to do this at the U23 WKC, the EKC and next year at The World Games. We are continually evaluating this and I expect we will make a formal decision some time next year.

Why did we reduce the match length by 10 minutes?

There is actually a variety of reasons. The first reason is the protection of the athletes. Since in our tournament a lot of matches are played in a short period of time, and only a few rest days can be fit into a week’s tournament, the length of the matches actually has a significant impact on the athletes’ performance and their injuries. Medical advise tells us the number of injuries should go down and played should be less tired at the end of the week when the most important matches are played.

The second set of reasons relate to the spectator experience, both at the venue and remote (online or TV). Shorter matches avoid that sometimes a game tends to drag along, or strength differences between teams are very large. It is better to have a spectator fully engaged for the 40 minutes of a match, rather than have them engaged for 40 minutes out of a 50 minute match. We definitely need to further develop this, as we need to take better advantage of this new playing length by programming the matches shorter after one another, but definitely the shorter playing length does provide us with new opportunities.

IKF President Jan Fransoo

IKF President Jan Fransoo

Why are we playing in quarters rather than halves?

The main reason for this is the spectator experience, both at the venue and remotely. We have many great actions in the matches, but our game is so fast that there is barely time for replays and slow motions. Professional TV directors that have conducted live coverage of korfball matches have complained to us about this. Our great webcasting team has been able to show this week what can be done, with replays of great match action during the 45 second break. This can however be very well extended and we are welcome to have ideas on this. Within the venue, I think we definitely can do more to actively engage the audience during breaks, as especially the non-korfball audience expects more in terms of engagement. Some good examples were practised in Cali at The World Games and also some novelties were introduced in Olomouc. A better transfer of these practices to new organizers is needed and standards need to be formulated.

An interesting side effect of shorter period is that the average number of goals per minute tends to go up, so the intensity of the spectator experience is larger.

Will this have any effect for the length of play and number of periods in your national league?

That is up to your national organization. Once we have concluded the experimental phase, the IKF will make a decision for the international competitions. The length of play and number of period is a competency that resides with each national korfball association to decide on. Currently, there are already large differences, mainly determined by the fact whether a national league is running in a tournament format or in weekly or biweekly matches.

What if you have questions or suggestions?

In principle, your national korfball association is our point of contact, so they would need to be the first to get in touch with. However, the IKF is always open to receive ideas or suggestions, so that the IKF playing rules committee and the IKF competitions committee can take these ideas along. You can contact us by email at office@ikf.org. Furthermore, if you are a player in a national team, also be aware that the IKF Athletes Committee is there to voice the opinion of the athletes. You can contact them with any of your concerns or ideas. The members are Suzanne Struik (NED – chair), Ricky Wu (TPE), Isabel Almeida (POR) and Nikki Schilders (BEL).

I hope this helps you to better understand our deliberations on this topic.

Jan Fransoo

IKF President