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Ukraine the 60th Korfball country

At the 2013 IKF AGM in Lisbon last month – 27 October 2013 – the recently constituted Lviv Regional Korfball Federation was recognised as a new member, making Ukraine officially the 60th korfball country.

Korfball activity in Ukraine started in the city of Lviv last year under the supervision of former Catalan Korfball Federation board member Mr Carles Albà. With assistance from the IKF, through instructors Mr Casper Boom former international of the Netherlands and Russian national coach Mr Sergei Nizovsky, an introductory course for new korfball coaches attracted physical education teachers from a number of different schools.

Following the coaching course Lviv Linguistic Lyceum has become the main centre of korfball activity in Ukraine, with PE teacher Mr Dmitry Golubenko taking the lead. On 20 April he organised Ukraine’s first korfball tournament, attended by more than 60 players.

Lviv Regional Korfball Federation was formed directly after this tournament, taking on the mission to develop Ukrainian korfball.

Korfball Congress gives boost to youth competitions and development of korfball4

More international youth competitions and the introduction of other disciplines; those were the main focus in the discussion on the second day of the IKF World Korfball Congress.

The IKF Competitions Committee proposed a new age structure and extension for international youth competition. While currently the IKF organizes World Championships for U23, and Continental Championships U21, it was decided to align those. Given the rapid developments of players, the U23 and senior championships show so much overlap in team composition, that there Congress showed wide support for replacing the U23 World Championship by and U21 World Championship. In 2016, the last IKF U23 World Championship will be held. Further, in younger age groups there are currently no championships, although the IKF patronizes a long traditions of World Cups for U19 and U16. While the patronizing will remain, the IKF will start with an official U19 World Championship, and with Continental Championships for the U17 and U15 age groups. The formats and starting years will be set by each of the continents. It was agreed that the U15 Championships should have more of a festival nature. Further, the European continent, having the the strongest competitions, intends to open up its U17 and U15 events to team from other continents by invitation.

The second major topic for which the IKF Council received wide support was to develop a new korfball discipline, provisionally denoted as korfball4. This compact format, primarily targeted at outdoor hardcourt competitions, but being defined so flexibly that it can be played both indoor and outdoor, should open up new markets for attracting people to korfball. Extensive ideas for positioning, branding, and rules were brought forward by the delegates that embraced the new initiative. The IKF Council will now form a task force that is expected to develop the concept before the middle of next year, with the first events held in 2015.

At the day’s conclusion, the IKF shared its recent initiatives in the areas of communication and social media. For the latter, a new social media strategy will deliver extended multimedia content as from early 2015.

Dr Jan Fransoo, IKF President, – @korfballpres – spoke in his final words to the Congress of a very successful congress and he thanked all delegates for their valuable contributions: “Your support gives the IKF Council even more inspiration on the way we go”.

1st day World Korfball Congress

The first day of the IKF World Korfball Congress In Lisbon, Portugal was opened with speeches from the president of our host the FPC, Mr Mario Almeida, Mr Guerreiro, Secretary of State for Sports and Dr Jan Fransoo, IKF President in front of around 60 special guests, IKF delegates and committee members.

The sessions were on;

  1. The IKF Year of the Youth 2013
  2. Refereeing
  3. Development and Education
  4. Equal gender policy.

There was great interest in the subjects and many interesting new suggestions from the audience were added to the ideas and plans presented.

IKF World Korfball Congress and General Meeting

Friday 25, Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 October 2013 around 50 delegates and IKF Council members are in Lisbon, Portugal for the bi-annual IKF World Korfball Congress and General Meeting. The Portuguese Korfball Federation (FPC) hosts this event.

Friday and Saturday are scheduled for the IKF Congress with sessions on competitions, new korfball formats, refereeing, changes in age groups, the international korfball calendar, communications, media, social media, equal gender, the Year of the Youth. Further the IKF President, Dr Jan Fransoo, and the FPC President, Mr. Mario Almeida, will sign the contract for the next IKF European Korfball Championship in 2014 in Portugal. A Portuguese Secretary of State will give a speech to all delegates on Friday afternoon to honor the IKF Congress.

Sunday morning 27 October is reserved for the IKF General Meeting. All 59 IKF member countries are invited. Based on the countries present in Lisbon from all over the world over 85% of all voting rights will be present in the General Meeting. The General Meeting is the last part of the official program.

Three qualifiers for the 2014 IKF European Korfball Championship

The IKF European Bowl Central region event in Prievidza, Slovakia did finish Sunday June 9th, 2013. The numbers 1, 2 and 3 in the event ranking did earn a ticket for the IKF European Korfball Championship 2014 in Lisbon, Portugal.

Based on the match results the teams from Slovakia, Serbia and Scotland qualify.

IKF awards Korfball World Congress 2013 to Lisbon (Portugal)

The Executive Committee of the International Korfball Federation (IKF) has awarded
the hosting of its Bi-annual Korfball World Congress and General Meeting to the
Federacao Portuguesa de Corfebol (FPC). The Congress will be held from 25-27
October 2013 at the SANA Metropolitan Hotel is Lisbon.

The event will consists of two days of Congress meetings that will not only allow all IKF Committees and Continental Confederations to have their annual business meetings, but also a general program on korfball’s status and development, for which general
registration will be possible. The Congress highlight will be a festive dinner for the worldwide korfball community on Saturday evening 26 October. The IKF Bi-annual General Meeting will be held on 27 October. The previous IKF Korfball World Congress and General Meeting were held in 2011 in Shaoxing, China.

IKF President Fransoo is very satified with the Portuguese bid: “This bid
will allow us to take our Congress to a next higher level. We hope to attract
not only the representatives from executive committees of national federations,
and committees from the IKF and our continental confederations. We invite
anybody interested in the worldwide korfball development to register and take
part in the discussions on our future.”

FPC President Mario Almeida: “Portugal is honored by this selection, being sure
that it has all the conditions so that this event will be a milestone in the
development of worldwide korfball. These three days, that will bring
together  representatives of national korfball federations and specialists
of the four corners of the globe, will strengthen the most important
institutional and international relationships, and set important strategic
orientations for the sport. On the eve of the IKF European Korfball
Championship 2014 in Portugal, this event will be a demonstration of the
prestige and potential of our great sport.”

IKF European Korfball Championship 2014

The next IKF European Korfball Championship (IKF EKC) is awarded to Portugal from October 24th till November 2nd 2014 in Lisbon and Odivelas. We wish the Excecutive Committee of the Federacao Portuguesa de Corfebol (FPC) a lot of success to organise an excellent event and many very successful site events to promote korfball in Portugal.

Sixteen national teams will participate. The Netherlands is the reigning champion since 2010.