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The IKF Executive Committee

IKF Executive Committee in 2013 as elected after the General Meeting 27 October 2013 in Lisbon (POR).
From left to right:
Mr Frank Buvens (BEL), Mrs Danielle RUTS (BEL), Dr Jan FRANSOO (president) (NED), Mr Gert DIJKSTRA (NED), Mr Graham CRAFTER (ENG), Mr Frans WALVIS (NED)

The IKF Council

IKF Council in 2013 as elected after the General Meeting 27 October 2013 in Lisbon (POR).
From left to right:
Mr Tim MILLER (AUS), Mr Milan SCHWARZ (CZE), Mrs Helen SEARLE (AUS), Mr Gert DIJKSTRA (NED), Mr Graham CRAFTER (ENG), MR Inglish HUANG (TPE), Dr Jan FRANSOO (president) (NED), Mr Frans WALVIS (NED), Mr Frank Buvens (BEL), Mrs Danielle RUTS (BEL), Mr Les WILLIAMS (SAF)

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.

FISU and IKF to work together on next University World Cup

The International University Sports Federation FISU and the International Korfball Federation have agreed to work together towards formal inclusion of korfball in the FISU World Championship program from 2018. The final decisions by FISU and IKF will be made after a next edition of the IKF University World Cup will be held under the endorsement of FISU. The endorsement will allow the event to be organized using the FISU logo. Furthermore, the event and the sport of korfball will be widely announced amongst FISU’s 167 national university sports federations.

IKF President Fransoo, who presented korfball today to the members of the FISU Executive Committee meeting in Brussels, marks the FISU decision as the beginning of a closer collaboration between IKF and FISU, to assist FISU in having its first gender-equal sport on the program, and to make national university sports federations around the world aware of the potential of korfball as a university sport.

FISU requested the next UWC be held latest by early 2015, to allow for an evaluation to be conducted by FISU, make a formal decision on korfball’s inclusion in the 2018 FISU World University Championship program, and select a host for the 2018 WUC.

Picture (left to right): Leonz Eder (Chairman, FISU World University Championships Committee), Jan Fransoo (IKF President), Claude-Louis Gallien (FISU President), Eric Saintrond (FISU Secretary General), Paulo Ferreira (Director, FISU World University Championships Department), Rosaura Mendez (Chair, FISU Gender Equality Committee)

Frank Buvens and Graham Crafter re-elected

During the IKF General Meeting Sunday 27 October 2013 in Lisbon the Composition of the Executive Committee was on the agenda. In accordance with the Statutes Mr Graham Crafter (ENG) and Mr Frank Buvens (BEL) have completed their elected term of office and are eligible for re-election. Both were willing to serve again and General Meeting re-elected them unanimous for a period of 4 years.

Mr Graham Crafter serves the IKF as Secretary General. Mr Frank Buvens is the responsible officer for Refereeing and Competitions.

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.

New website for korfball coaches

After last IKF Level IV “High Performance Coach” course was held from 27th August – 1st September 2013, the new website for korfball coaches was launched at www.ikf.org/coachingkorfball .

The website is created to share content about the training and coaching of korfball, so all coaches are invited to log in and share information about their training exercises. At the same time they can find information about coaching materials, courses, etc.

To participate in “Coaching Korfball” website requires logging in including personal information, therefore it will allow IKF to create a database recruiting information from persons involved in coaching at all levels: from P.E. Teachers need to find exercises for their trainings to regular korfball coaches in different parts of the world.

“Coaching Korfball” website contains different sections to feed the background of coaches formation. In the section Training exercises, you may find exercises for trainings at different levels; to IKF Education where there is information about courses and clinics. At the same time there are some other sections as Rules and Promotional , where registered coaches and P.E. Teachers can find materials to show the very basics of korfball.