|
||
|
IFF Central Board meeting 1/2015 Place: Scandic Hotel Sydhavnen, Copenhagen, Danmark
§ 1. Opening of the meeting Mr. Eriksson opened the first meeting of the year of the IFF CB at 08:30. in addition he concluded as informed yesterday, that the new German representative Mr. Heiko Jassmann has due to family matters been forced to abstain from the CB meeting. § 2. Approval of the agenda Mr. Eriksson concluded that there are some updated appendixes for the meeting
The minutes from the last meeting were scrutinized, approved and put ad acta
Mrs. Bakke presented the financial report and the balance sheet for the financial year 2014, per 31.12.2014. The follow-ups during the autumn has paid off and the result is positive, 4.538 CHF, which was not far from predicted. The biggest difference was caused by the changes in the exchange rates to the Swiss Francs in the end of the year. Mr. King asked about the liquidity situation, which Mr. Kratz answered that we had paid of a lot in the end of 2014. Mr. Eriksson informed that he is pleased with the outcome and administration of the finances. The CB decided: To approve the report.
Mr. Eriksson stressed that this is in line with the good international standards. The CB decided: To revise the budget accordingly.
Mr. Kratz shortly presented the claims situation by the 31.03.2015. In the first quarter of the year not too much has been paid, just 5.000 CHF, as the national associations are paying the fees for the activity 2016. Mr. Eriksson stressed that the IFF ExCo has decided that the IFF Office needs to follow up the claims situation closely also in the future. Mr. King asked about the collectables from 2010 and Mr. Kratz answered that we might need to write off a number of these claims. The CB decided: To approve the report.
Mr. Kratz reported on the claims situation for the teams registered for the U19 WFC 2015 and WFC 2015 with respect to the IFF License System (appendix 5). Poland and Singapore has started to pay off in accordance to their plans. The situation is under control for the U19 WFC and the follow up for the WFC 2015 is started. The CB decided: To approve the report.
a) WFC 2014 Sweden Mr. Wolmhed gave a preliminary final report on the Men‘s 10th WFC 2014 played in Gothenburg, Sweden from the 5th to 14th of December 2014, as the final financial report is not ready yet and the Swedish CB will discuss it on the 19th of May. It was a very good championships, with the opening ceremony in the city centre. The WFC included a Fun Zone activity area, which worked out well. The ceremonies worked well and the cooperation with the city of Gothenburg worked very well. The Athletes Outreach worked well and the Ambassador gathering worked well, with a number of Ambassadors participating in the Event. The Media visibility was very positive and the Event was really good and everyone could see that the WFC was played in Gothenburg (Appendix 6a) The negative fact is that the financial result will be negative, but the final report will only be ready in end of May. Mr. Wolmhed further gave a final Jury report from the WFC 2014, concluding that the event run very smoothly and the LOC had handled all the issues raised in the preparation process. If one would have to seek for a negative fact, it was the flow of information before the event with the LOC. So the Jury were really pleased with the overall situation. Mr. Wolmhed also reported that there was a few issues related to the referee sector and the flow of communication between the Jury/IFF Office and the Referee group Mr. Suman expressed that the WFC is the flagship of our operations and this Event was really positive for the IFF. We need work in order to secure the level of the Events, which have been run after Helsinki 2002, also in the coming Events. Mr. Liljelund reported on the situation concerning the TV visibility from the WFC2014. (Appendix 6b) A total of 18 games were broadcasted to nine countries and collected a total of 6.115.314 spectators. In addition to this the IFF YouTube channels were visited by 868.667 spectators. The cooperation with TV4 worked very well and effected the production in a positive way. The CB decided: To approve the reports. b) U19 WFC 2015 Sweden Mr. Wolmhed reported on the preparations for the U19 WFC 2015 to be played in Helsingborg, Sweden from the 29.04-03.05.2015. (Appendix 7) The Event will be played in two good arenas under the same roof. Most of the sold 2.000 tickets are sold for the final week-end. The LOC has secured TV production from three Swedish matches. The CB decided: To approve the report
Mr. Rantakari reported on the preparations of the Women‘s WFC 2015. The Ballot for the WFC2015 was organized in Helsinki on the 02.03 and the based on this the LOC has published the Match Schedule and will start the ticket sales on the 20th of April, with tournament and club tickets. The match tickets are released in mid-May. (Appendix 8 and Appendix 9) The preparations are running well and the volunteer recruitment is starting in May, with the first meeting during the autumn. The Hakametsä arena will be tested in the EFT in November. To secure a good venue, the Hakametsä ice will be melted to secure a smooth surface. The local clubs will organize a school tournament in 40 schools in the autumn in Tampere. The challenges are related to the marketing sales. Mr. Liljelund informed that the negotiations with the Finnish National Broadcaster concerning the production of TV matches is ongoing and the IFF/LOC is looking for an own production company, as all the YLE production units are in use. YLE will still act as the Host broadcaster and IFF will be sent out the TV Offer to the TV channels and member associations just in advance of the U19 WFC. If there are TV demands from the teams in the C and D group, the matches will be moved to Hakametsä. Mr. Suman felt that it is a positive problem that we have interest towards the TV from both Arenas, which we will have to be ready for in the future. The CB decided: To approve the report
Ms. Mikkola reported on the preparations of the U19 WFC 2016, to be organized in Belleville, Canada. The negotiations concerning the organizer agreement have been finished and the contract is signed. As it is the first event in North America, there will be a lot of learning in the process. Mr. Eriksson stressed that it is very important that the Floorball Canada needs to run all the topics related to visibility and marketing with the IFF before they can be published. Mr. Kratz reported on the number of participating teams in the U19 WFC 2016, which will statue a new record with 15 teams participating in the Event. (Appendix 10) The A-division will be played with 8 teams and the B-division with 7 teams. The CB decided: To approve the report.
a) EuroFloorball Cup 2015 Mr. Kratz reported that there has been major difficulties to find organisers for the EFC final round 2015. There has been discussions with the Latvian Floorball Union regarding the EFC 2015 final round and that LFU will revert in the coming weeks with their decision whether to organise or not. Currently there are no other interested organisers. The IFF Office is continuing the work to find an organiser by end of April. Further Mr. Kratz reported, based on the difficult situation to find organisers for the EFC, that the competition office has in accordance with earlier CB decisions, prepared a proposal on the development of the EFC qualifications. The qualification tournaments would be renamed to EuroFloorball Challenge and a number of needed tournaments will be played in divisions according to the EFC ranking (the number of divisions depending on number of teams participating) and the winners of each division qualifies to the higher division for next years tournament. (Appendix 11) This means that the teams would play one IFF tournament per year instead of two tournaments, as the case has been when playing the EFC qualification and advancing to the EFC final round played 6 weeks later. The IFF Competition office has asked the RACC for comments to the proposal, the few reactions received have been slightly negative to just playing one tournament per year, as it seems to be important to reach all the way in the same year. The Competition office proposes that the process of the development of the EFCQ needs to be finalized so a possible changed system can be used already the upcoming season. In order to achieve this the CB shall ask the concerned member associations of their stand point to the proposed system with-in April. This would give the CB the possibility to decide the matter per capsulam in the beginning of May. Mr. Liljelund informed that in addition the IFF Office has started looking on the financial aspects, to bring down the costs of participating in the EFC. Mr. Suman felt that the idea looks quite good, but had some questions related to the system of qualification of the teams, which was discussed by the CB.
Mr. Suman reported on the preparation of the 5h edition of the Champions Cup to be played in Mlada Boleslav from the 2nd to 4th of October 2015 in the local Ice hockey Arena, where the first Champions Cup was played. The dead-line for registration for the Champions Cup will end on the 15th of May. The invitation will be sent out during the first part of April. The LOC is built on the same group of people than in 2011, which is strengthen by the fact that both the City is very positive and the local Men‘s Club Mlada Boleslav is playing in the Super Final. The new web page is up and running and the promotion has been done in the final in Finland and it is planned to be on-line for the Super Final day on April 18th. The ticket sales will start just before the Czech Super Final. Mr. Kratz proposed to set the registration fee for the Champions Cup as CHF 3.000, which is a reduction of CHF 1.000 due to the shorter tournament. Mr. Suman reported on the meetings held with the IFF Champions Cup Steering Group in connection to the WFC 2014 and in end of January to finalize the preparations of the Champions Cup 2015 – 2017 process. The CCSG approved the job description of the IFF CC Brand manager and the application process, which has been handled by the Office. (Appendix 12a and 12b) Mr. Suman further informed the CB about the application process for the IFF CC Brand Manager. The notice for the employment was published on the web pages of all stakeholders in beginning of February. A total of nine persons applied, out of which five were interviewed by the IFF Office in March and then three selected for a final round of interviews in Copenhagen prior to the IFF CB meeting. Mr. Eriksson and Mr. Suman participated in the final interview. The decision of employment will be taken based on this second round of interviews.
a) ExCo reports Mr. Eriksson reported on the ExCo meeting held in Kastrup, Denmark on the 10th of March to prepare for the IFF CB and to plan the next actions in the IOC Short List Project and the steps forward on the International Sports scene. (Appendix 14) Mr. King reported on the present activities of the AOFC and the upcoming tasks for this year. In addition there is the time line for AOFC presented as well. (Appendix 15a and 15b) Singapore has applied for the organisation of the WFCQ 2016. The Thailand national Team is Korea for training for two months and the Singapore National Team is in Finland training. The University Sports in Australia has organised a University tournament for new and alternate sports in May which includes Floorball. Mrs. Mikkola reported on the present activities in the Americas and possible discussions held in Canada during the Americas WFCQ. (Appendix 16a, 16b and 16c) The main focus is to have a quarterly call in the region to coordinate the flow of information. In Brazil, there has been a significant increase of members during the last year. Jamaica has run a demonstration tour in schools. There is a lot of tournaments upcoming in the USA and the US Women‘s qualified for the WFC in Tampere. In Canada, the Canada Cup tournament will be transferred to Floorball Canada already for this year‘s tournament. Mr. Suman felt that it would be very positive if the Brazilian federation could form some contacts to the Brazilian NOC in advance of the Rio Olympics. Mr. Eriksson agrees with this. Mr. Kratz asked that the Americas meeting would need to discuss the organiser of the WFCQ‘s and the fact that the World Games will be organised in Birmingham, Atlanta and the need to be in contact with the organiser and that IFF is willing to support the activities.
Mr. Eriksson informed that the IFF Ethics Commission held its first meeting during the WFC2014 in Gothenburg and has based on the discussions there worked to update the documents for the IFF Code of Ethics, the IFF Good Governance Policy and the IFF Conflict of Interest Policy (Appendix 17a, 17b and 17c). The work is ongoing, but the Ethics Commission has presented the following versions to be accepted by the CB Mr. Eriksson thanked the Ethics Commission for the good work related to the update of the IFF Code of Ethics and related documents. The CB decided: To approve the report and the proposed documents
Mr. Eriksson first reported on the preparations of the Annual General Meetings of International Sport Organisations during the SportAccord Convention in Sochi, Russia. The IFF is participating in the Annual General meetings of SportAccord, IWGA, ARISF and IMGA and have a number of set meetings with the IOC Sport Department and Wroclaw World Games LOC and the SportAccord Urban Games organiser. Mr. Eriksson continued to report on the discussions held with the International Field Hockey Federation (FIH), in order to evaluate possibilities to find common fields for cooperation in the future. A meeting will be held during the SportAccord, to discuss the next steps in order to prepare a joint proposal for both federations by the end of 2015. Mr. Eriksson also informed that the IFF ExCo has prepared an IFF Status Report that has been sent to the IOC Sport Department and Mr. Christian Wassmer, to prepare for the yearly bi-lateral meeting and put forward our positions within the IOC. (Appendix 18) IFF is seeking for openings to be able to include the sport in the Sport Lab‘s of the Olympic Games or on the Youth Olympic Games. IFF is to seek a meeting with IOC Sport Director Kit McConnell after the SportAccord, to discuss our Olympic Vision. The IOC Sports Department has also provided the information that all ARISF members can apply for the ARISF yearly grant for development and anti-doping education for 2015 now. (Appendix 19) IFF will prepare an application during April IFF will also hand in the report for the ARISF development grant for 2014 during April, in order to be able to receive the support for 2015, which we have applied for already for the four year period 2013 – 2016 in 2014. Mr. Eriksson further opened up the discussion of the implications of the FIFA decision to move the FIFA World Cup to December for 2022 in Qatar, as this heavily effects the value of our main event, the WFC. Mr. Eriksson reported on the upcoming SEA Games 2015 in Singapore and the situation with the participating teams. It has been an issue for the Indonesian and Philippines teams to get their NOC‘s to agree to send the teams to Singapore. IFF has been in very active communication with the SEA Games Organiser, SFA, Singapore NOC, the NOC of Indonesia and the Philippines, to secure the participation of these teams. Mr. Eriksson proposed that IFF would call for a meeting with the participating teams in the SEA Games, on the preparations for the future SEA Games. Mr Kratz informed that he is the IF Technical Director of the Event and the playing schedule is on hold, until the participating teams have been confirmed. The CB decided: To approve the reports.
Mr. Wolmhed reported on the present RACC activities and the plans for the upcoming events. Mr. Wolmhed further informed about the proposal prepared by the competition office on how to handle the process with the printed match record when using the on-line match record in IFF events. The idea is to be able to have the match record as a digital one. (Appendix 20a) Further Mr. Wolmhed proposed a system for handling disciplinary matters occurring on the field and not being reported by the referees after the game, but which requires a disciplinary action. This was actualised during the WFC in Gothenburg and the change needs alterations to be made in the Competition Regulations. (Appendix 20b) The general idea is to install a Disciplinary Function during the IFF events that shall handle disciplinary matters reported by someone else participating in a specific match than the appointed referees of the match. The proposal also includes the use of video recordings when handling these matters. Ms. Mikkola asked how to handle the issue if the team is playing before the set time line for publishing the decision. Mr. Wolmhed answered that it has to look upon case by case. The CB decided: To approve the report and to approve the proposals on handling of the printed match record and disciplinary matters in IFF events and that the Competition Regulations shall be updated accordingly.
Mr. Halonen reported on the RC meeting held on 28th to 29th of March in Prague, Czech Republic to discuss the last season and the upcoming season and the work needed to be done in the referee sector. (Appendix 21) The meeting was very positive and dealt with the issues from the WFC 2014, concentrating on how to learn from these happenings. The RC discussed widely about the incidents inside the referee team in the WFC 2014 in Gothenburg and some of the changes that needs to be made for the role of the head of the referees in the major tournaments. The RC finds it very important that the nominated person needs to be in tight co-operation with the jury chairman and with the IFF office and also participate to all the meetings between the IFF and LOC in order to be able to deliver all necessary information for the referees and for the observers. The RC discussed how the Referee Observer group will be put together and how they will handled the work in the Events. The RC also updated the media and social media guidelines for the referees and decided that those guidelines will be educated to the IFF referees before each and every IFF event and that education also includes the guidelines for the code of conduct. The educations before and during the tournaments shall also include more discussions and education topics of the interpretation of the rules and referee work in general so the RC can spread the common view of rules and the game in order to eventually achieve mutual understanding inside the IFF member associations‘ referee organizations and aim to have an “IFF way” to officiate the games. The AOFC President had sent a proposal to the RC to create an AOFC development group for the referees in the region. Those referees would referee club tournaments in AOFC area and the IFF would in co-operation with the AOFC create a system for these educations. This way it‘s possible in the future to promote more referees first to the IFF referee development group and eventually offer them the possibility to become ordinary IFF referees. RC would like to proceed with this proposed project in order to expand the possibilities for AOFC region referees to be part of the IFF family, which has been somewhat challenging during the past years and therefore proposes to the IFF CB that the RC could start the planning in co-operation with the AOFC organization Mr. Eriksson reported on the discussions he has had with the RC Chair Mr. Klaus Koskela, in relation to the questions related to the WFC and the activities of the Referee group. The CB decided: To approve the report and give the RC the task to prepare a proposal for the AOFC referees.
Mr. Liljelund reported on behalf of Ms. Bruun on the present activities related to the IFF Anti-Doping work and medical committee. The WADA IF Symposium was held in March in Lausanne, Switzerland, discussing the WADA Code compliance, the useful tools in the Anti-Doping work and in which directions more specified and directed testing shall be made. (Appendix 22) The IFF is presently collecting the Anti-Doping 2014 test statistics and the results are to be published quite soon. Ms. Bruun is to participate in the yearly meeting of the WADA Education committee just after Eastern. The CB decided: To approve the report.
Mrs. Kotikova shortly reported on the Athletes Commission meeting to be held during the U19 WFC in Helsingborg, Sweden. The ATC members are currently providing input for the IFF Athlete Career Programme material – giving personal experience points about various topics. This material is planned to be published after the ATC meeting has made a final review. ATC will hold its annual meeting on 2nd May in conjunction with the Men‘s U19 WFC in Helsingborg and 5 of the 8 members will attend. As well as the meeting, the members will be participating in prize-giving ceremonies and other promotional events with the organisers. Mr. Rantakari asked if the athletes are active and Ms. Kotikova answered that this ATC is very active and discussions have been good.
Mr. Suman reported on the preparations taken in order to bring a final proposal forward for a Combined Sales proposal for the Core Countries in Floorball. IFF has been collecting the visibility information from the concerned countries and are to prepare a proposal before the summer. (Appendix 23) This analysis will act a basis for any future analysis for the development of International Visibility of Floorball. The Marketing Ad Hoc group will build a proposal on a Sales Package for the combined sales before summer, if possible if the Core Country Marketing Network Group can have a meeting. In addition the IFF will through the production company for the TV for the U19 WFC 2016, to produce a part of the “This is Floorball” section feature and a high-light from the U19 WFC for the SportAccord TV program for the Euronews channel UnitedSports.
Mr. Liljelund informed that the IFF Office has prepared a proposal for the IFF Equality Policy Statement and the Equality Action plan (Appendix 30a and 30b) The Office proposes that the CB shall approve the document in principle. The CB decided: To approve the report and the principle content of the proposals for an IFF Equality Policy Statement and the Equality Action Plan, giving the office the task to finalise the Policy.
Mr. King reported on the continued plans for the lobbying work and the printed IFF Lobby Folder. Mr. King proposes that the CB approves the outline for the Floorball Ambassador, he has been working on. (Appendix 27) The CB discussed how to bring the material to the membership, which will have to be made during the Associations Meeting during the WFC 2015. Mr. King will come to the next meeting with ideas on how member associations could interact with the NOC‘s and National School Organisations with the proposed School Curriculum being built by the Office.
Mr. Halonen presented a short report of the status with the Each One Teach One bi-lateral projects and how the work has started. (Appendix 28) Mr. Eriksson proposed a formation of an IFF Entourage Commission, based on the earlier decisions made by the CB in relation to the Guidelines for the Conduct of the Athletes Entourage, which has been approved as a prefix to our Competition Regulations. The proposal is to build an Athletes‘ Entourage Commission consisting of seven members out of which three are nominated by the IFF Athletes Commission, three from the IFF member Associations representing coaches, clubs and medical staff and the chair from the IFF Central Board, representing the National Associations. The duration of term will be for 2015 – 2016 and based on the change of the interval of IFF General Assemblies it will be four years after the IFF General Assembly in December 2016. The role of the AEC is to overlook and steer the activities of the IFF in a direction where the best interest of the Athletes‘ are secured. The CB decided: To approve the report and decide upon the proposals made during the working session. In addition to form the IFF Athlete‘s Entourage Commission and decide upon the way the members will elected. The ExCo is to make the proposal for the composition to the CB, based on the input from the Athletes Commission and the member associations.
The CB decided: To approve the report
Mr. Liljelund reported that IFF has conducted two seminars since the last CB meeting, one Coaching seminar during the SEA Championships in December in Singapore (Appendix 25) and a Floorball Development seminar in the streams of Coaching and Refereeing in Teheran, Iran in February (Appendix 26) The IFF has planned to organise the following seminars and workshops during the year: The IFF Office has worked on an IFF School Curriculum for Floorball, based on a set of basic trainings for Floorball for the students in the age group 10-18. The practical drills have been animated with the XFBall tool, in order to give teachers with limited Floorball skills the possibility to run the classes. The School Curriculum will be published before the summer. Mr. Wolmhed asked if there are enough support for running the seminars, which was answered by the office. The CB decided: To approve the report
There is an ongoing discussion to start the APAC tournament again, to support the development in the region. The CB decided: To approve the report
Mr. Liljelund informed in the absence of Ms. Bruun that the IFF has worked with the incorporated IFF Event web pages as a part of the IFF web page during the spring and both the WFC 2015 website www.wfc2015.fi and the Mlada Boleslav Champions Cup www.floorballchampionscup.eu has been published already. There are still some work to be done I relation to embedding the statistics to the web pages. There are a number of Mobile app improvements made for the U19 WFC; with the change that the current matches tab would show only matches on a given certain date (today), including the arena information to the match details (Arena name will be passing through along with the city), including another twitter hashtag (#u19WFC), so that both #floorball & #u19wfc tweets will show on the app. In addition to this a Digital media report has been prepared in cooperation with Meltwater, looking upon the penetration of the WFC in the digital media in connection to the Event.
Mr. Liljelund reported that the yearly meeting has been held with the IFF Test Institute SP in February, to discuss the present issues of Floorball Materials and the statistics for the sales of IFF approved equipment in 2014. (Appendix 29) The IFF Development Board, the cooperation body between the IFF and the leading Floorball Material manufacturers, will hold its yearly meeting to start the preparations for the changes of the Material Regulation 2016, to evaluate the 2014 development projects and to grant the 2015 support.
Mr. Liljelund informed in the absence of Ms. Bruun that the preparations have run well for the Special Olympics seminar in Ireland 16.-17.5., which is open for the Irish and UK Floorball Associations. The CB decided: To approve the report § 9. Member Federations Mr. Liljelund informed that the National Floorball Federation of Russia, have re-applied for official accreditation of the Ministry of Sport in Russia and the decision will be made during April. IFF has also been contacted by a new group in Pakistan, which has started the organisation of Floorball in Pakistan again. The IFF Office will bring a proposal to the next CB meeting.
There are no members under suspension The CB decided: To approve the report.
The IFF CB working session discussed the question regarding new members, the CB is to make the needed decisions in accordance to this. The CB decided: To approve the report and give the Office the task to prepare the plan of actions for the next meeting.
The CB decided: To approve the report. Mr. Eriksson thanked the CB members for a good meeting and closed the meeting at 11:35.
|
||
  
|
||
