Europa Cup 2015 to Turnhout (BEL); Europa Shield 2015 to Bergisch Gladbach (GER)

The IKF Competitions Committee has reached final agreement with the Royal Belgium Korfball Association KBKB on the venue for the 2015 IKF Europa Cup Finals. These will be held 14-17 January 2015 in Turnhout-Tielen in Belgium. The organization by the KBKB was in jeopardy for a long period after the withdrawal of Boeckenberg in March. The IKF was unpleasantly surprised by the resulting situation and worked with the KBKB to find a solution, which was only finalized today. Vobako korfball club will take the challenge of organizing this at such short notice.

In the same meeting, the earlier agreement on hosting the 2015 IKF Europa Shield Finals in Germany was confirmed, where the German Korfball Association DTB allocated the hosting to the clubs of Pegasus and TuS Schildgen in Bergisch-Gladbach (near Cologne).

The IKF was unpleasantly surprised by the situation, faced by increasing lateness in bid for the European Club Competitions. While for 2015, the situation has now been resolved, the IKF has announced in a letter to the European countries that a more permanent solution needs to be found where hosts are known further in advance. For this purpose, the IKF has proposed to the European countries a reduction of the number of teams in the final round to reduce the burden on the host, and at the same time a rotation schedule for the various European countries for hosting first and final rounds of the Europa Cup and Europa Shield. Unless the European countries will come with alternative proposals, the IKF intends to convert their proposal into a Council decision in October.