International Korfball Federation largely cancels 2020 International Calendar (Updated)

Update 22 April 2020

In alignment with the KNKV, the IKF had decided to cancel the IKF Beach Korfball World Cup (Europe 2020), which was planned for 7-8 August 2020 in The Hague, The Netherlands.

The Dutch government has announced that the ban on (sport)events in The Netherlands has been extended to 1 September 2020, which automatically means that no event can take place in August. The IKF will not look for another date in 2020 for this event.

Although this announcement probably doesn’t come as a surprise to you following the earlier cancelation of IKF events, it is still a sad moment. However, the IKF would like to thank the Royal Dutch Korfball Federation (KNKV) for their preparational work

Update 4 April 2020

In an extraordinary meeting of the IKF Executive Committee, joined by the Vice-Presidents for Asia and Oceania, the International Korfball Federation has decided to largely cancel or postpone its 2020 international competitions. The global spread of the Covid19 epidemic effectively precludes many international competitions to be held, and creates so much financial and organizational uncertainty to hosts and competitors that many decisions to cancel events can no longer be postponed.

The U21 World Korfball Championship (Taipei, TPE), Asian Korfball Championship (Seoul, KOR), European Korfball Championship/A (Antwerp, BEL), and European Korfball Championship/B (Wroclaw, POL) have all been postponed to 2021.

In coordination with the IKF, the Royal Dutch Korfball Association has decided to cancel the U17 Korfball World Cup (Eindhoven, Netherlands), and U15 European Korfball Championship (Drachten, Netherlands). Both events had been patronaged by the IKF.

Decisions with regard to the Beach Korfball World Cup (The Hague, Netherlands) and Asian U16/U19 Korfball Championship (Udon Thani, Thailand) have been deferred to a later date. The qualifying round for next year’s Europa Cup has also been canceled, and the IKF will review the situation for next year’s Europa Cup and Europa Shield in light of the developments of the various national leagues in Europe. Most European countries have suspended their leagues until further notice.

Jan Fransoo, President: “The IKF is very sad having to take this decision, which was inevitable. Foremost, the health and well-being of all athletes, officials and fans is our first priority. In addition, hosts are currently facing high financial risks and we need to enable them to develop contingency plans early on. We are in close contact with our major event organizers and will be in touch with all event hosts over the next few weeks to further discuss the consequences for the 2020 and later events”

This decision, along with the earlier decision of the International World Games Association to postpone The World Games to 2022, will have major consequences for the entire competition calendar of the IKF for 2021, 2022, and potentially 2023. The Executive Committee in its meeting today reviewed all options and will consult with host cities and other stakeholders over the next few weeks. It is expected that the revised competition calendar for the upcoming years will be announced before the end of April. Decisions with regard to next year’s Europa Cup and Europa Shield will be made latest by July 1, 2020. The final decision with regard to the Beach Korfball World Cup will be made not later than June 1, 2020.