Place: Hotel Allegra, Zürich Kloten, Switzerland

Participants:

Tomas Eriksson President
Hans Botman
Per Jansson Treasurer
Risto Kauppinen
Stephen King
Renato Orlando Vice President
Filip Suman

Stefan Kratz Competition Manager
Merita Bruun Information Manager
John Liljelund Secretary General

Minutes

§ 1. Opening of the meeting

Mr. Eriksson opened the meeting at 09.00 and greeted the CB members welcome to the meeting.

§ 2. Approval of the agenda

Mr. Liljelund informed that the Iran Floorball Association has supplied additional documents for their membership application.

The CB decided: To agenda was scrutinized, completed and approved.

§ 3 Minutes from the CB meetings:

02/2009 in Turku, Finland (09.05.2009), (Appendix 1)

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

a) The CB had decided earlier to discuss one topic more in depth at each meeting and for obvious reasons the topic for this meeting involved discussions about how to develop the EuroFloorball Cup, in order to meet the changing and very different needs of the clubs and federations.

Mr. Eriksson gave an explanation of the current situation, where a number of Swedish teams have decided not to participate in the EFC 2009, for various reasons. He felt that the system of the EFC is working well and there is no need to change that.

Mr. Suman gave a short summary of the discussions held by the RACC during their workshop in August. The RACC found that the system for the EFC is the best and most effective. The interest for the competition is growing, apart from the Swedish teams. The level of the qualifications has also increased during the last years. The only big problem we face now is that the Swedish teams have not registered. There are two questions to be answered; do we want to have a club competition and do we want to have the best teams participating. Additionally it would be good to know the real reasons for the non-participation of the Swedish teams.

Mr. Eriksson felt that the Swedish federation has failed to explain the importance of the EFC to the clubs and the reasons for the teams not to participate is only related to finance.

Mr. Botman felt that the thing to do is to ask the clubs what is needed to participate. We need to make the EFC interesting enough. In the short term it is no real value of looking for other forms of organising the EFC.

Mr. Jansson feels that the competition must be attractive for the teams, the TV and the spectators. We need to raise the attractiveness of the tournament.

Mr Orlando felt that money has nothing to do with the issue; the real issue is the attractiveness. The problem is not only now, but has been the same for a number of years. The system is still really good.

Mr. King agreed with the previous speakers that we need to add the value of the tournament, giving return on investment for the participants.

Mr. Kauppinen also thought that the present system is working well, including the qualifications. The TV visibility will create more attractiveness, which then means that there is a need to further control the organising cities.

Mr. Orlando felt that the name is very important, for marketing purposes. The name of the competition should include the word champion.

Mr. Liljelund felt that the attractiveness can be enhanced by securing the internet stream from the event, optionally bringing in TV, introducing price money and building on the return on investment for the clubs, bringing them closer to the competition.

Mr. Eriksson asked if there have been problems with the registration previously.

Mr. Suman expressed that this year there was no problem with having the Czech teams to participate.

Mr King commented that he believes the idea of making the EFC more attractive will be different in each clubs eyes and therefore we need to look at a number of different approaches to make it attractive to all clubs if possible.

Mr. Kauppinen asked if there have been discussions of organising the men‘s and women‘s tournament separately.

Mr. Suman felt that there could be a problem to find organisers if the tournament will be split into a men‘s and women‘s tournament.

Mr. Jansson felt that we need to include the best teams and give them a feeling of partnership in the competition.

Mr. Eriksson concluded the outcome of the discussions. We need to look at the naming of the competition, securing the streaming on the internet, introducing the prize money and discuss with the member federations and the clubs upon the future of the competition.

§ 4. Economy

a) Financial report per 31.08.2009 (Appendix 2)

Mr. Jansson reported on the financial report until 31.08.2009 and felt that this year is following the path of the previous years. Only marketing is failing to perform, even though we are a bit heavy on the cost side for the end of the year. The finance of IFF is also in quite good balance.

The CB decided: To approve the financial report per 31.08.2009.

b) Information on IFF claims – status August 31st , 2009 (Appendix 3)

Mr. Kratz presented the IFF claims per 31.08.2009 and stressed that actions are being taken i context with the upcoming events.

Mr. King felt that we need to look at the debts of 2005 and 2006. Mr. Botman supported the proposal by Mr. King.

The CB decided: To approve the report of the claims by 31.08.2009 and gave Mr. Kratz the task to continue to follow up the debts of the member federations.

§ 5. World Championships

a) WFC 2009 Västerås, Sweden

Mr. Jansson gave the CB a short report about the ongoing preparations for the 7th Women‘s WFC to be played in Västerås, in Sweden. There has been 1.500 tickets sold for the event. The recession has hit the marketing part hard on the national level, since it has proven to be very hard to raise funds for the Women‘s championships. The city of Västerås has cut the cost of halls and are supporting the tournament in a number of different ways. The preparations are well underway.

Mr. Liljelund reported that a preparation meeting will be held with the WFC LOC in Västerås on the 7th of October, in order to have everything under control for the event.

The CB decided: To approve the reports.

Mr. Liljelund informed on the TV negotiations with the host broadcaster (TV4) and Eurosport, in which IFF has taken an active role, in order to secure a TV visibility for its members. IFF is for the first time acting as one of the producers of the signal. At the present at least four matches will be televised.

The following companies have shown an interest for the signal:

Eurosport Final four matches on Eurosport 2
YLE/Finland Finnish semi final and medal match (if playing)
CzechTV Czech semi final and medal match (if playing)
Swiss TV Has asked for high-lights from all Swiss games and whole match on Sat 12th of December, if the Swiss are playing.

The aim is to close the TV issue no later than by the end of October and also have a discussion with Latvia, which has shown some interest towards the signal. IFF is also planning to stream the A-division matches over the internet and will discuss this with the LOC in October.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

b) WFC U19 Men 2009 Finland
Mr. Kauppinen gave a final LOC-report concerning the Men‘s U19 WFC held in Turku and Raisio in Finland. The final number of spectators reached up to a new U19 record of almost 15.000, which also gave a new record for a single U19 match with 2.500 spectators in the final. The teams have been very pleased with the organisation and especially in Raisio the effect of the event have been very positive. Local media was well represented, but the national media did not show presence. For the SSBL it was a good investment for the sport in the west parts of Finland, despite that the event was a loss.

Mr. Suman gave the final Jury report concerning the event, stressing that the event was well organised. It was proven that the U19 events shall be organised in smaller venues.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

c) WFC U19 Women 2010 Czech Republic
Mr. Suman gave a report on the preparations for the Women‘s U19 WFC to be played in Olomouc, in Czech Republic from the 4th to the 8th of May 2010. The CFbU is trying to secure TV for the event and are therefore playing the tournament from Tuesday to Saturday. The organisation agreement has been prepared and is almost ready to be signed. The RACC is preparing the match schedule.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

d) WFC 2010
Mr. Liljelund gave a short report about the agreement signed with the Finnish Floorball Federation concerning the WFC 2010. The WFC will be played in the Hartwall Arena and the Vantaa Energy Arena, from the 4th to the 11th of December 2010. Mr. Ismo Haaponiemi is acting as the secretary general for the WFC and supported by Mr. Ari Vehniäinen and Mrs. Mervi Kilpikoski.

Further Mr. Liljelund informed about the discussions ongoing with the Finnish National Broadcasting Company Yleisradio Oy, which will act as the host broadcaster for the event.

Mr. Kratz reported about the actions taken concerning the qualification tournaments for the WFC 2010 in El Escorial (Spain), Singapore and Babimost & Wolsztyn (Poland). The qualifications in Europe will be organised as four day events, with 8 teams in each qualification. There are six teams taking part in the qualification in Singapore. All the above qualifications will be played during the international week-end in February. The qualification in North America is set to be played in Hamilton, Canada from the 5th to 7th of February.

Mr. Kratz also reported upon the discussions held with the Georgian federation, concerning their possibilities of achieving visas for Spain. It seems to be so that for Spain, visas have to be applied from Germany, which is not willing to give group visas for any groups coming from Georgia.

Mr. Botman asked how we could help Georgia.

The CB decided: To approve the report and gave Mr. Kratz the task to continue to help the Georgia federation.

§ 6. EuroFloorball Cup

a) EFC 2009
Mr. Kratz gave a short report on the practical arrangements concerning the EuroFloorball Cup 2009 final round, being played in Frederikshavn, Denmark, from 14.-18. October 2009. The IFF office has co-operated with the organiser DaFu in order to try to control costs as much as possible and IFF is supporting the event with a second set of flooring, which then is on its way to the Women‘s WFC.

Mr. Kratz additionally reported on the withdraw of the Georgian women‘s team S.C. Colegi Batumi from the EuroFloorball Cup East qualification tournament due to visa problems for the team management. Only the players were admitted visas to Latvia. The information was received two days prior to the start of the tournament and both the IFF and the Georgian and Latvian federation did their utmost to try to receive the visas, but nothing was to be done. (Appendix 4)

Despite the unfortunate withdraw of the three Swedish clubs; there is still a record number of participants in the Women‘s EFC and a high number of teams in the Men‘s category. The qualifications were played in four separate tournaments; East: Koceni/Latvia, West: Leoben & Kapfenberg/Austria, Men 2nd best: Biglen/Switzerland and Women 2nd best: Winterthur/Switzerland (Appendix 5). The qualified teams from the qualifications are:

East: Men: Jögeva SK Tähe (EST) Women: Rubene (LAT)
West: Men: UHC Weissenfels (GER) Women: Mållös Hurricanes (NOR)
2nd best: Men: Tapanilan Erä (FIN) Women: Red Ants Rychenberg (SUI)

Mr. Orlando felt that we need to do something for the clubs. We have a seeding system, which are good up till 80 per cent, but due to unforeseen circumstances, there should never be two teams from the same country in the group. The seeding of the matches has to be looked over in order to deal with the clubs equally.

Mr. Eriksson concluded based on the earlier discussion under point 3., that the CB needs to decide upon the following issues; to start the discussions on the future of the EFC during the presidential and secretary generals meeting with the federations and clubs, the re-naming of the competition, the streaming of the event on Internet and the implementation of prize money.

The CB decided: To approve the proposal to stream the EFC final round in Denmark and to start the discussions about the future of the EFC at the presidential and secretary generals meeting in Västerås in December and then to continue with the clubs during January. Additionally it was decided to start the process of changing the name of the competition and to give the task to the RACC to prepare the issues for the CB meeting in February 2010. The CB decided not to install any prize money for the competition in 2009.

§ 7. Committees and Function reports

a) ExCo reports
Mr. Eriksson reported on the ExCo meeting held in Solna, Sweden, on the 17th of July 2009. (Appendix 6), stressing the process of the IOC recognition, the ARISF development programme and the upcoming presidential and secretary generals meeting.

Mr. Eriksson gave a short report on the negotiations held concerning the placement of the IFF Headquarters with both the Finnish Federation and the Maison du Sport in Lausanne. Mr. Eriksson held a meeting with the Maison du Sport in Lausanne, the city of Lausanne and the Canton of Vaud, in order to investigate the option for the location of the IFF Office after the end of 2010. Mr. Eriksson has also held discussions with the Finnish Federation concerning the continuation of keeping the IFF Office in Helsinki, Finland. IFF will receive a finalised offer from Maisson du Sport by the end of October, which could give a new office starting from March 2011. There are at least two aspects which will affect a possible move; the total cost of the office and the situation of the employees. Mr. Eriksson will come with a proposal for the CB meeting in December 2009. The present agreement with the Finnish Federation is valid until the spring of 2011.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

b) Contacts to International Sports Organisations
Mr. Eriksson informed on the meeting held with the IOC President Dr. Rogge, in Lausanne on the 20th of August, where Dr. Rogge expressed that IFF is on the right path with the development of Floorball. Dr. Rogge was well prepared knowing a lot about Floorball and very interested in the development of Floorball.

Mr. Orlando informed that IFF asked for the possibility to enter the Olympic Games, to which Dr. Rogge asked whether IFF is prepared to cut the number of players in a team and he then explained the structure for accepting new sports into the Olympic Games.

Mr. Eriksson further informed about the IOC Congress, to be held in Copenhagen on the 3rd to 5th of October 2009. In the beginning IFF was only given one place for the President, after which IFF asked for two additional places and one place was given to the secretary general by the IOC Sport Department. Mr. Orlando has contributed to the materials for the Olympic Congress, asked by GAISF, by writing an article for the Olympic Congress, which acts as a ground document for the deliberations.

Mr. Liljelund report on the correspondence kept with the IWGA, concerning the time table and requirements for IFF to be able to apply for membership in the IWGA. The response from IWGA is that they are still in the process of redefining the criteria‘s for membership and will therefore not be able to give an answer to us at this stage. IFF has asked for a time table, which we hope to be able to receive still during 2009.

The CB decided: To approve the reports.

c) RACC
Mr. Suman gave a report from the RACC workshop held in Prague August 14-16, together for all RACC and Jury management members. (Appendix 7) The meeting was very fruitful and had two main roles, the first to prepare for the upcoming events (18 IFF events in 16 months) until the end of 2010. Here the aim was to educate all Jury members, to have the same level of experience and knowledge. The second role was to discuss the present IFF Events (WFC, U19 WFC and EFC) and the future of these. The meeting will help to keep up the level of Jury work, in the upcoming tournaments.

Mr. Orlando felt that it is important that discussions takes place, but it is important first to implement the changes, before starting to look upon new changes. He proposed to wait until we have played at least one or two WFC played according to the new system, before starting the process.

Mr. Kratz presented the letters of interest that IFF has received based on our invitation to apply for IFF Events for the period of 2011 – 2013. The deadline for applying to organise WFC 2013 and U19 2013 was the 31st of August and for WFC Qualifications 2011 & 2012 it is the 1st of October. The decision for WFC 2013 shall, according to the time-line, be taken in the December meeting and the U19 WFC 2013 in the spring meeting 2010.

The following applications had arrived:
DUB/Germany has applied for the Men‘s U19 WFC 2013 (Appendix 8)
CFbU/Czech Republic has applied for the Women‘s WFC 2013 (Appendix 9)

Mr. Liljelund reported on the number of multiple requests put forward by players in order to prolong the Temporary play window. From the IFF Office point of view the Temporary play window could start already in beginning of May, in connection to the end of the national series and end by the end of August. The temporary play is still not to be valid for playing in national championships, but just for testing players outside the ordinary season. Mr. Liljelund proposes that the RACC is given the task to come with a proposal concerning the extension of the Temporary play until the CB meeting in December.

The CB decided: To approve the report and the proposal

c) RC
Mr. Botman gave an oral report on the activities of the RC and the plans for the coming season, after the RC meeting held in February. The RC has been able to speed up the nomination of the referees. There are still a lot of problems with the friendly internationals and the late incoming information about the tournaments. An even bigger problem is the large number of changes among the international referees. The RC is to take up these issues during the next meeting in connection to the WFC in Västerås, where the decisions from February will be evaluated. IFF today has international referees nominated from 19 countries.

Mr. Eriksson felt that the RC has started their work very well and hoped that the RC will continue on the good path.

Mr. Liljelund informed about the work done with the IFF Referee Education material (power point-material), processed jointly between the RC and the IFF Office.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

d) Development function
Mr. Orlando reported on the Floorball Development Seminars held in Wellington (New Zealand) 11.-13.09. and in Lucknow 18.-20.09. and the development workshop for local AOFC trainers organised in Singapore on the 15.09. (Appendix 10 a, 10 b and 11) The philosophy is still to “Train the trainer” in the seminars, but in some cases the development function has had to lower the level of the seminar. The seminar in India was also very good and India needs nearly the same kind support as China. Floorball is played in a large number of places in India, but they need to develop the organisation of the Indian Federation. There is a great potential in India for Floorball. For the first time the development function used a lecturer from Asia, when Mr. Muhammed Sharil Bin Ismail acted as the lecturer in the Referee block.

The Floorball development workshop in Singapore turned out to be problematic with a too large number of participants from Singapore. The aims of the workshop were met, but more could have been achieved with a smaller number of Singaporean participants. The development function will build a regional lecturer panel for AOFC.

Mr. King felt that it was important that IFF gave support to the re-forming of the New Zealand federation and it looks positive for the future. Mr. King also felt that Singapore was a disappointment, since we did not get down to the depth of the issues in the workshop. AOFC has had contacts with Mongolia, Philippines and Taiwan.

Mr. Liljelund reported that the IFF has in August applied for the ARISF Development support, for the years 2009 – 2012. This support is given by the IOC to ARISF, which then distributes it equally to all its members applying for the grants. The ARISF secretary general has informed that the support will be decided upon by beginning of October. (Appendix 12)

The CB decided: To approve the reports.

e) Marketing function
Mr. Kauppinen gave an oral report concerning the present marketing situation, with the marketing agreement with Infront until the end of 2010. We are stressing that Infront needs to have results. We need to start to look upon the ways to move forward with the sales system of the IFF rights after the end of the agreement with Infront. We are to start the discussions with our present sponsors in beginning of the 2010.

Mr. Kauppinen presented the preparations made for the IFF marketing strategy, in which the targets, aims, objectives and the direction we need to move forward with concerning the branding of Floorball are included. The marketing function will prepare the new marketing strategy for the CB in April 2010.

Mr. Jansson informed about the IFF Apparel sponsorship agreement closed with Puma Nordic for the seasons of 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, including an option to continue also for the period of 2011 – 2013. The amount of material IFF receives from Puma has been increased, in order to match our growing need of international referees.

Mr. Liljelund informed about the discussions held with Infront concerning the sales rights of the WFC 2010 in Finland, where the sales rights are given together to Infront for sales, so that no conflict of interest occurs.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

f) Medical committee
Ms. Bruun gave a report on the IFF Out-of-competition Test program that was started in beginning of April 2009. Eight out of 14 testing pool 1players have been tested. In general the response from the athletes has been positive despite the three missed tests so far inside the allocated window.

Ms. Bruun further informed about the sanction fee of CHF 100 the Medical Committee is proposing to be included into the IFF Events Anti Doping guidelines for the late incoming TUE/DOU applications, starting from the Women‘s WFC in Västerås, In December 2009. (Appendix 16)

The CB decided: To approve the report and decided to approve the proposal of the Medical Committee.

g) Material function
Mr. Liljelund made a short report, on the preparations of the ispo Floorball Village 2010, to be held from 7th to 10th February 2010, with a total of 12 manufacturers. This project will be conducted in cooperation with the Development Board and a number of Floorball equipment manufacturers, in order to grow the market of Floorball in Central-Europe. The DUB is participating in the project by organising the volunteers to run the testing of Floorball in the village. (Appendix 13)

Mr. Liljelund reported that the IFF Development Board will have its yearly meeting to discuss the proposed changes in the Material Regulation during October-November. The new version of the Material Regulation is to be approved by the CB in the spring of 2010. It will be valid starting from the 1st of July 2010.

The CB decided: To approve the reports.

h) Athletes Commission
Mr. Jansson gave an oral report, on the work of the Athletes Commission. The plan is to have a meeting during the WFC in Västerås.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

i) Information function
Mr. King reported on the work being done in order to re-publish the IFF Floorball Information booklet (International Floorball), the document is a PR folder, aimed to be used in order to promote Floorball worldwide. It should be published, by the end of October.

Ms. Bruun informed about the preparation to launch a feedback questionnaire to the IFF members concerning the IFF Information services and the needs of the IFF members. The result of this survey will be presented at the IFF Presidents and Secretary Generals meeting in December.

Ms. Bruun informed that the Learn – Start – Play material will be published on the IFF web-page in the coming week.

Mr. Kauppinen felt that the Learn-Start-Play is a very good material.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

j) Equality function

Mr. Jansson gave a short report on the work done by the Equality function.

In addition Mr. Jansson gave a report on the IOC questionnaire, Women and Leadership, dealing with the position and number of women in different sport organisations, which IFF has responded to and returned to the IOC. (Appendix 14) IFF has a lot of work to do in the field of equality and the situation in the organisation doesn‘t reflect the situation within the field of players.

Ms. Sahala is preparing an application for some funds for the equality projects inside the IFF from the EU.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

§ 8. IFF Office

Nothing to report

§ 9. Member Federations

a) Members under suspension

Nothing to report.

b) New Member Applications
Mr. Liljelund report that, the Floorball Federation of Belarus (FFB) has sent in their application for membership of the IFF. The documents of the Belarus application, clearly states that the federation can‘t yet achieve the official recognition of the Belarus NOC, before having existed for at least three years. According to our statutes, the CB can approve the applicant as a provisional member, giving the federation time to fulfil all criteria‘s for ordinary membership. (Appendix 15 a, 15 b, 15 c, 15 d/1 and 15 d/2)

The CB decided: To approve the report and to approve the Floorball Federation of Belarus (FFB) as IFF provisional member nr. 49.

Mr. Liljelund report upon the contacts made with the Iran Floorball Association and the support letter sent to IFF by the Iran NOC. (Appendix 17) It is likely that we will receive a final application from Iran for the December CB meeting. Additionally there might also be an application from Indonesia. The development has also moved forward in Lithuania.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

§ 10. Any other business

Mr. Eriksson proposed, in accordance with the decision of the ExCo that the Presidential and Secretary Generals meeting will be held on Friday the 11th of December 2009 in Västerås, between 09.30 – 12.30.

The ExCo was of the opinion that the way the meeting is being held probably needs to be refreshed when it comes to the agenda from past years and the way the meeting works. This in order to be able to achieve a real interaction between the participants and the IFF CB.

The topics that could be interesting are:
- What does the member federations need from IFF in working groups
- A Key Note speaker (Youth Olympics or ARISF)
- The way to organise future WFC‘s/co-operation between IFF and organisers.
- The EuroFloorball Cup and its future, with the parties concern
- A number of information points:
o IFF License System 2012 –
o Anti-Doping
o IFF materials

The CB decided: To approve the report and decided about the topics for the Presidential and secretary generals meeting.

§ 11. Next CB meeting

The next CB meetings will be held in December in connection to the WFC in Västerås in Sweden on the 10th of December.

The CB decided: To have the next CB meeting on the 10th of December 2009.

§ 12. Closing of the meeting

Mr. Eriksson closed the meeting at 13.50 thanking the CB members for a good meeting.