The Council of the International Korfball Federation met today in Dordrecht (Netherlands). One of the main topics on the table were a number of key decisions regarding the 2019 IKF World Korfball Championship due to be held in Durban (South Africa). Due to the growth of Korfball playing countries in Africa and the Americas and to avoid having to reduce the number of countries qualifying from Asia and Europe, the IKF Council has decided to increase the number of participating countries from 16 to 20. A new competition format has also been proposed within which the total duration of the event will not exceed 10 days, which has also been the duration of the previous two World Championships with 16 teams. Elimination matches will start immediately following the pool matches.
Qualification quota for each of the continental federations have also been decided, with normally 2 places for the Americas, 2 for Africa, 6 jointly for Asia and Oceania (with a minimum of 1 for Oceania) , and 10 for Europe. Detailed quota have been determined for different scenarios, depending on the number of countries entering the Pan-American Championship (2018), the All-African Championship (2018), the European Championship (Netherlands, 2018) and the Asia-Oceania Championship (Chiba, Japan, 2018).
Further, the Council set the rules for korfball4, a new and dynamic format where teams of 4 rather than 8 players compete. Both a one-korf format and a two-korf format for korfball4 have been regulated, enabling member countries to set up leagues and tournaments in either of the two formats. Also the beach korfball rules have been updated in preparation for the likely start of official championships in several continents.
https://korfball.sport/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/web_council.png321682Frans Walvishttps://korfball.sport/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/LogoIKF.pngFrans Walvis2016-10-28 19:59:122016-11-01 06:10:00IKF Council extends World Championship participation to 20 countries, sets rules for Korfball4 and Beach korfball
(by Jan Fransoo – IKF President) This week at the IKF European Korfball Championship in the Netherlands and earlier this year at the IKF U23 World Korfball Championship in the Czech Republic we have been playing in a new match format: 40 minutes matches in two halves of 20 minutes, with each half split into two quarters of 10 minutes with a 45 second break in between. Over the course of the week, I have received many questions from different angles and also an interesting discussion on Facebook has been taking place. It is good to provide some background on what we are doing and why we are doing this. Below, I will try to answer some of the most common questions asked.
What is the formal status?
The formal status of this new playing time of 40 minutes is still an experiment. We have decided to do this at the U23 WKC, the EKC and next year at The World Games. We are continually evaluating this and I expect we will make a formal decision some time next year.
Why did we reduce the match length by 10 minutes?
There is actually a variety of reasons. The first reason is the protection of the athletes. Since in our tournament a lot of matches are played in a short period of time, and only a few rest days can be fit into a week’s tournament, the length of the matches actually has a significant impact on the athletes’ performance and their injuries. Medical advise tells us the number of injuries should go down and played should be less tired at the end of the week when the most important matches are played.
The second set of reasons relate to the spectator experience, both at the venue and remote (online or TV). Shorter matches avoid that sometimes a game tends to drag along, or strength differences between teams are very large. It is better to have a spectator fully engaged for the 40 minutes of a match, rather than have them engaged for 40 minutes out of a 50 minute match. We definitely need to further develop this, as we need to take better advantage of this new playing length by programming the matches shorter after one another, but definitely the shorter playing length does provide us with new opportunities.
IKF President Jan Fransoo
Why are we playing in quarters rather than halves?
The main reason for this is the spectator experience, both at the venue and remotely. We have many great actions in the matches, but our game is so fast that there is barely time for replays and slow motions. Professional TV directors that have conducted live coverage of korfball matches have complained to us about this. Our great webcasting team has been able to show this week what can be done, with replays of great match action during the 45 second break. This can however be very well extended and we are welcome to have ideas on this. Within the venue, I think we definitely can do more to actively engage the audience during breaks, as especially the non-korfball audience expects more in terms of engagement. Some good examples were practised in Cali at The World Games and also some novelties were introduced in Olomouc. A better transfer of these practices to new organizers is needed and standards need to be formulated.
An interesting side effect of shorter period is that the average number of goals per minute tends to go up, so the intensity of the spectator experience is larger.
Will this have any effect for the length of play and number of periods in your national league?
That is up to your national organization. Once we have concluded the experimental phase, the IKF will make a decision for the international competitions. The length of play and number of period is a competency that resides with each national korfball association to decide on. Currently, there are already large differences, mainly determined by the fact whether a national league is running in a tournament format or in weekly or biweekly matches.
What if you have questions or suggestions?
In principle, your national korfball association is our point of contact, so they would need to be the first to get in touch with. However, the IKF is always open to receive ideas or suggestions, so that the IKF playing rules committee and the IKF competitions committee can take these ideas along. You can contact us by email at office@ikf.org. Furthermore, if you are a player in a national team, also be aware that the IKF Athletes Committee is there to voice the opinion of the athletes. You can contact them with any of your concerns or ideas. The members are Suzanne Struik (NED – chair), Ricky Wu (TPE), Isabel Almeida (POR) and Nikki Schilders (BEL).
I hope this helps you to better understand our deliberations on this topic.
After the 5th day of competition in IKF EKC 2016 in Dordrecht, the semi finalists are known. Catalonia beated Germany in a very exciting game. The best scoring of the Catalans in the 3rd quarter allowed them to get enough advantage and decide the game in their favour by 21-16.
Previously, today’s 1st game between England and Portugal was clearly dominated by the Portuguese. England tried to go back, but the challenge was huge and Portugal kept scoring until the end of the game (12-17).
Belgium is the other known semi finalist. They will play against Catalonia on Friday at 18:00 PM (GMT + 2). Their last game vs Czech Republic (34-14) was very close at the beginning, but during the 2nd quarter the Diamonds showed all their potential and definitely decided the match.
The last game of this IKF EKC 2016 Day 5 ended with an spectacular 48-12 in favour of The Netherlands over Russia. From the very beginning it was clear that this game was a great chance to show to Dordrecht’s Sportboulevard audience how powerful and talented the Dutch team is. Great plays, fast balls, tricky goals and constant alley-oops as a demonstration of great showtime.
These are today’s Day 5 results, the updated ranking pools and the match schedule of games to play on Friday, October 28 (Day 6), after Thursday 27 as a day of rest.
For more information, all the statistics, updated top scorers and ranking pools, visit the following link: www.worldkorfbal.org
You can review and follow all the tournament live 24/7 on IKF social media profiles timelines and hashtags (#EKC2016) on facebook.com/korfball.org and twitter.com/korfball. Here you will find all photos, videos, behind the scenes and after match interviews.
The live webcasting and live streaming of all games through IKF Youtube channel will be going on with more and new suprises. Enjoy it from any country in the world! And discover IKF’s new Instragram account: instagram.com/korfball_org
https://korfball.sport/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/ekc2016_day5.png321682Dani Ezpeletahttps://korfball.sport/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/LogoIKF.pngDani Ezpeleta2016-10-27 00:42:522017-01-30 16:06:41IKF EKC 2016 Day 5: Semi finalists known (results, interviews, games & images) Wed, Oct 26
Fourth day in Dordrecht’s IKF European Korfball Championship 2016. After today’s games, all is ready for tomorrow’s decisive games between Catalonia and Germany in Pool A (16:00), and Portugal vs England (14:00) in Pool B, looking for a place in the semi finals.
The Netherlands and Belgium won their third games today and remain leaders of their pools with 3 wins and n0 losses. Portugal beated Czech Republic easier than expected (20-10), and Russia lost all their chances against Germany in a 3rd quarter with 0 goals scored, ending the game 25-11 in favour of the Germans.
For more information, all the statistics, updated top scorers and ranking pools, visit the following link: www.worldkorfbal.org
You can review all the tournament live 24/7 on IKF social media profiles timelines and hashtags (#EKC2016) on facebook.com/korfball.org and twitter.com/korfball. Here you will find all photos, videos, behind the scenes and after match interviews.
The live webcasting and live streaming of all games through IKF Youtube channel will be going on with more and new suprises. Enjoy it from any country in the world! And discover IKF’s new Instragram account: instagram.com/korfball_org
Here you have today’s results, ranking pools so far and all Day 4 games played and live streamed on www.worldkorfball.org.
Third EKC day in Dordrecht’s Sportsboulevard, with all teams one hundred percent concentrated and focused, while competing to achieve the best results in their duels.
Portugal and Germany gave no options to Poland and Turkey. But England and Czech Republic had to fight until the last minute to decide the winner. England started very strong and secure, but the czechs go back into the game and finished very close and with some chances to turn around the scoreboard in the last minutes.
The last match between Catalonia and Russia showed us how motivated and powerful is this catalan squad. With an overwhelming 1st quarter (13-4), they kept scoring until the end of the game, achieving the top result so far in this IKF EKC 2016, with 35 goals scored (35-11).
For more information, all the statistics, updated top scorers and ranking pools, visit the following link: www.worldkorfbal.org
Local schools and clubs visited the sports hall in the morning, and enjoyed the training session and later talking with the players of the national dutch squad. They also enjoyed today’s first game between Poland and Portugal, having fun and cheering both teams with a great joyfulness. An incredible morning for both players and children!
You can review and follow all the tournament live 24/7 on IKF social media profiles timelines and hashtags (#EKC2016) on facebook.com/korfball.org and twitter.com/korfball. Here you will find all photos, videos, behind the scenes and after match interviews.
The live webcasting and live streaming of all games through IKF Youtube channel will be going on with more and new suprises. Enjoy it from any country in the world! And discover IKF’s new Instragram account: instagram.com/korfball_org
Here you have today’s results, ranking pools so far and all Day 3 games played and live streamed on www.worldkorfball.org.
Second day of competition in Dordrecht in this new edition of the IKF European Korfball Championship 2016. Germany and Portugal played their first match in this tournament against two of the strongest teams: The Netherlands and Belgium. These two teams have 2 wins over the other participants, while Poland and Turkey weren’t able to reach a victory after two games in this IKF EKC 2016.
For more information, all the statistics, top scorers and ranking pools visit the following link: www.worldkorfbal.org
On the other hand, this was another great day for korfball fans in Dordrecht Sportsboulevard, with lots of activities during the whole morning before the official games started: friendly games, special trainings and clinics. And later in the evening, the fan zone was as crowded as usual to play and try beach korfball and also see and meet the national Dutch korfball stars.
You can review and follow all the tournament live 24/7 on IKF social media profiles timelines and hashtags (#EKC2016) on facebook.com/korfball.org and twitter.com/korfball. Here you will find all photos, videos, behind the scenes and after match interviews.
The live webcasting and live streaming of all games through IKF Youtube channel will be going on with more and new suprises. Enjoy it from any country in the world! And discover IKF’s new Instragram account: instagram.com/korfball_org
Here you have today’s results and all Day 2 games played and live streamed on www.worldkorfball.org.
The IKF European Korfball Championship 2016 has started in Dordrecht (The Netherlands). The first day of competition is always a tough test for all teams, and it’s exciting to see how much all teams have improved their games. A great week is coming!
Today’s spectators enjoyed a lot during all matches and also taking part in all the activities and events organized during this IKF EKC 2016. You can follow all the tournament live 24/7 on IKF social media profiles on facebook.com/korfball.org and twitter.com/korfball.
Here you have today’s results and all Day 1 games played and live streamed on www.worldkorfball.org.
You can review and follow all the tournament live 24/7 on IKF social media profiles timelines and hashtags (#EKC2016) on facebook.com/korfball.org and twitter.com/korfball. Here you will find all photos, videos, behind the scenes and after match interviews.
The live webcasting and live streaming of all games through IKF Youtube channel will be going on with more and new suprises. Enjoy it from any country in the world! And discover IKF’s new Instragram account: instagram.com/korfball_org
All IKF EKC matches are available through live streaming via worldkorfball.org (Click for worldkorfball.org), the ikfchannel on YouTube.
You can review and follow all the tournament live 24/7 on IKF social media profiles timelines and hashtags (#EKC2016) on facebook.com/korfball.org and twitter.com/korfball. Here you will find all photos, videos, behind the scenes and after match interviews.
The IKF Europa Cup 1st Round 2017 Day 2 has finished in Cardiff, Wales. And the 4 teams directly placed for IKF ECup 2017 final round in January are:
KV Adler Rauxel (GER)
Szentendrei Korfbal Klub (HUN)
UKK WUM Warszawa (POL)
Kocaeli University Sport Club (TUR)
Congratulations to all teams classified and also to the other participants in this great korfball weekend in Cardiff. Special thanks and acknowledgement to Welsh Korfball Association in its first-ever official international competition organizing. Great job!
These were today’s final results (Day 2 – Sunday, 25/Sept/2016):