At the beginning of 2014, I would like to wish all korfballers worldwide a very happy, joyful, healthy, and successful new year.

At this new year, I was requested by the Dutch sports opinion and news website SportKnowHowXL to express my wishes and resolutions for 2014, along with about 20 other sports leaders. As I think this may be of interest to the international korfball community, I have translated my text in English and have pasted it below for your enjoyment. As always, I appreciate your responses at jan.fransoo@ikf.org.

Sochi will be at the center of attention in 2014. Rio will be the focus in 2016. Sport at its best in a unique environment: the Olympic Games add something special to the traditional values and magical atmosphere surrounding the Games. This magic in combination with the best performances of the best athletes from around the world give a very special mix which is worthy of our modern Olympic Games. But the question has to be asked; are these 28 disciplines the only sports which we can describe as the best? Is a sport only an elite sport if it is a part of the Olympic Games? And are these disciplines which some consider as elite the same in each and every country?

Wish.

For 2013 I wish that more support for different sports will develop, starting with the Netherlands Olympic Committee. More support for athletes who are specialized in sports which are not necessarily competed in at the Olympic Games.[…]

My New Year’s resolution:

Obviously I will try and give every sport my best tribute. And I will especially focus on korfball; in 2014 we will try and launch a new discipline called Korfball4. Korfball4 consists off a smaller pitch, fewer players, unlimited substitutions and no center line to divide two zones. We move the game from an invisible sports hall to the center square in the city!

It will be a unique concept which offers cities the chance to develop themselves and obtain visibility. Furthermore, korfball4 will connect elite korfball with korfball-for-all. In this year, I will try and accomplish a successful launch of this concept, and hopefully contribute to a further development of korfball.

With the opening ceremony of the World Games last night, the second largest event in the Olympic Movement has reached Latin America. In his opening address, Colombian Vice-President Garzon mentioned that Latin America needs to regain its position on the international sporting stage, having lost a lot over the pas several decades. while this may be true on the field, off the field the citizen of Cali – the Caleños – have embraced and welcomed the 45000 athletes and many of their guests and fans with great enthusiasm. On our way to the stadium last night, literally every single face of the hundreds of thousands of people in the street was lined with a smile. not just a smile of happiness, which the event brings to a city in transformation, but also an enormous smile of pride that Colombia and Cali have made the bold move of bidding for and winning the right to host these World Games.

Of course, preparations have been characterized by many stereotypic Latin characteristics, and even while the Games have now started, many challenges remaikn on the organizational and facilities side, in lign with similar experiences of the IOC in Brazil and the Commonwealth Games in India a few years ago. Organizing an event in Cali has turned out to be a daunting task for many of the International Federations that are the acting partners of the World Games.

For korfball, in any case, the event has been a challenge due to the fact that we do not yet have a local federation of any particular strength. yet the Games seems to have brought the energy to get this going, and make Colombia our third strong foothold in Latin America, with Brazil and Argentina. I do hope that soon at one of the major korfball events we will be able to witness the very same Latin smiles, as our sport has all characteristics to be as successful on this continent as it has been in Asia over the past decade.

Jan Fransoo, IKF President

 

 

 

 

 

by Jan C. Fransoo, IKF President

With the introduction of rugby to the Olympic Games from 2016, new formats for sports appear to develop very fast. Netball have launched their Fast5 version, with shorter matches, fewer players, unlimited substitutions and a number of other rules changes. Cricket have launched Twenty20 cricket, where only 20 overs are played and matches can be completed within a few hours.

Within korfball, several initiatives have been taken to explore alternative formats. One can question why we need alternative formats. I believe there are a variety of reasons for this. First, the number of players needed now to play (2 teams of 8 in the street when starting, but normally at least 12 in a national league match and 16 for an international match series) is simply too large to allow us to grow faster. For our member associations, the large delegations also cause considerable financial pressure on their resources. So for growth, I am convinced we need a more compact game. Second, a compact game allows for shorter matches, allowing us to better package a series of matches into an attractive event. Imagine seeing the eight best teams of the world in a 2 hour evening session at a major event. So for spectator experience, we need the compact game. Finally, the compact game will allow us to have more competitive matches. In the last 20 years, no new team sports have emerged that have been able to create a very competitive game. The gap between the leading country of countries and the rest is simply too big. Requiring more players in a team simply makes it more difficult to be competitive. Thus, for media impact, we need the compact game.

The question now is what our compact game will be. We have beach korfball in 3vs3 of 4vs4 as a format for which recently new rules have been developed that allow it to be played in a small beach arena, with 2 korfs. Experiments have been taking place with a hard court (street or indoor) korfball game based on the same format as beach, but on a slightly larger pitch. We hope to formally launch this new format later this year. Ideas and suggestions are still welcome directly in my inbox.

While the traditional game will continue to exist, I am convinced our compact game will open us to new markets, not only in the many new countries that have joined our wonderful sport in the past decade, but also in the villages in the Netherlands where korfball is strong. With the compact game, we can also clearly develop a new strategy for more rapid international growth.