IKF Open Call – Nutritionist

/0 Comments/in , /by

The International Korfball Federation is looking for a Nutritionist for the IKF Medical Committee. The IKF aims to spread korfball around the globe and help its 69 member countries to develop korfball on both an elite- and grassroots level. All committees actively work towards this goal, and some of the Medical Committee is now offering an exciting position for korfball enthusiasts.

Information about the position can be found here.

The application form can be found here.

The deadline to apply is 2 April 2022.

The IKF encourages anyone interested and capable to apply. If you know someone in your network that would fit the description, please don’t hesitate to refer the position to them. For more details of the IKF organisational structure, please see the IKF Organisation Chart.

No Russian athletes in international korfball events

/0 Comments/in , /by

Following the invasion of Ukraine by Russian armed forces, on Friday the IKF condemned the attack and pledged support to the people of Ukraine, and in particular the korfball community in Ukraine.

Today, the Executive Committee of the International Korfball Federation, following the Recommendation issued by the International Olympic Committee, and in line with the decision announced today by the International World Games Association, has decided that the Russian Korfball Federation will not be invited until further notice to any international korfball competition. For any of this year’s events, the Russian Korfball Federation had not yet entered due to severe economic hardship of the Federation. This implies effectively that no Russian athletes shall take part in any international korfball event until further notice. Belarus is currently not a member country in the IKF, so Belarusian athletes are also not able to take part. Furthermore, the Russian Korfball Federation shall not be eligible to bid for the hosting of any IKF event until further notice. Currently, no IKF events have been planned in Russia.

The IKF continues to closely monitor the situation and is in close contact with the Ukrainian Korfball Federation, who has announced its intent to take part in the European Qualifiers for next year’s World Korfball Championship in Taipei. The European Qualifiers are held in October in the Czech Republic and in Turkey. The IKF will do whatever is in its power to enable a Ukrainian team to take part in this Qualifier, and to support the Ukrainian Korfball Federation.

Further, the IKF Executive Committee expresses explicit support to Russian athletes that are affected by the decisions of their government, especially those that have spoken up. Not being allowed to compete is the worst nightmare for any athlete, at any age. The IKF sincerely hopes that the war in Ukraine will evolve such that eventually no korfball athletes will need to be banned from events due to acts of war.

The IKF endorses activities by the national korfball federations of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland to support Ukrainian refugees.

The World Games 2022 – Pools

/0 Comments/in , /by

The pools for korball competition at The World Games 2022 in Birmingham, Alabama have been published. During a live draw, streamed at the IKF YouTube Channel, the eight participating teams were divided into two pools. Belgian international Julie Caluwé and Dutch international Laurens Leeuwenhoek performed the draw, which was presented by IKF CEO Tilbert La Haye. The draw was conducted in pairs, based on the World Ranking. You can watch the draw at the end of this post.

The korfball competition will take place from 13-17 July 2022. Tickets are now avalaible on the The World Games website.

POOL A

  • The Netherlands
  • Chinese Taipei
  • Portugal
  • Czech Republic

POOL B

  • Belgium
  • China
  • Germany
  • Surinam

TWG2022_korfball_tournament_setup_pools

IKF sends message of support to Ukranian Korfball Community

/0 Comments/in , , /by

The global korfball community is shocked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the International Korfball Federation strongly condemns this breaking of the Olympic Truce. IKF President Jan Fransoo sent a message of empathy to Oleg Byllik, President of the Ukranian Korfball Federation, to enquire about the status of the korfball community in Ukraine, which has been growing rapidly over the past few years.

While the korfball community is strongest in the Western Region of Ukraine around the city of Lviv, only recently an extensive expansion project has started with activities in Ukraine’s Central Region which includes the capital of Kyiv. We hope that everyone in Ukraine’s korfball community is safe in these horrific events.

 

The World Games 2022 pool draw live on Youtube (updated)

/0 Comments/in , /by

The pool draw for The World Games 2022 Korfball competition will take place next Saturday, February 26th, at 16:00 CET, live from PKC Sports Hall in the Netherlands. The draw will be streamed live via Youtube.com/ikfchannel on the following link: https://youtu.be/wd7G71Yxocw

The eight countries qualified for TWG 2022 after the IKF World Korfball Championship 2019 in order of the current World Ranking are:

1. The Netherlands
2. Belgium
3. Chinese Taipei
4. China
5. Germany
6. Portugal
7. Czech Republic
8. Suriname

UPDATE 26/2/2022 (16:30h): The groups are known

TWG2022_korfball_tournament_setup_pools

The dates for Korfball in the official sports program schedule are 13 – 17 July 2022.

More info & tickets: www.twg2022.com – Official website of The World Games 2022

Event info: korfball.sport/event/the-world-games-2022

Open Call – IKF RFP live stream & social media platform

/0 Comments/in , /by

The International Korfball Federation is setting out an Open Call for Requests For Proposal (RFP) to select a strategic partner for our ambition to create and operate our own global live streaming/social media platform. The IKF solicits feedback and proposals from interested parties. For detailed information about the RFP click here.

The IKF is actively driving global awareness of korfball as a spectator, mixed gender, media oriented and innovative team sport. The IKF currently broadcasts its live streams of various competitions and korfball material via the IKF YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/user/ikfchannel. Over the past years these videos have attracted already more than 50 million views, with some of the videos reaching close to half a million viewers. IKF has the ambition to become a leader among international sports federation when it comes to digital marketing initiatives in order to help grow our sport, international reach and popularity among players, fans and sponsors and in support of national federations and event organising committees.

IKF Open Call – Olympic Format Taskforce

/0 Comments/in , /by

The International Korfball Federation is looking for new members for the new IKF Olympic Format Taskforce.

The Olympic Format taskforce is aimed at helping IKF to determine which of the new Korfball formats, with a smaller number of players compared to traditional Korfball8, has the largest chance of broad appeal among athletes, fans, National and Regional Federations, and sponsors with the ultimate goal of appealing to the IOC for possible inclusion in the Olympic program. The objectives of this taskforce are to analyse the various small Korfball formats like Beach4, Urban4, Indoor4 (mono post /2 post) in a methodical way via pre-agreed criteria) to reach a well-balanced decision on which format to recommend to IKF in becoming IKF’s poster child for its Olympic ambitions.

The IKF encourages anyone interested and capable to apply. If you or anyone you know would fit the description, please don’t hesitate to apply and refer the position to them. For more details of the IKF organisational structure, please see the IKF Organisation Chart. All positions are volunteer (unpaid) positions. Initial appointments are for a two-year period, with the possibility to have this extended.

The positions are:

Olympic Format Taskforce Member – Commercial, Sponsor & Media Appeal and Fan Engagement

More information here

Application form here

Application deadline: 8 March 2022

 

Olympic Format Taskforce Member – Project Manager

More information here

Application form here

Application deadline: 8 March 2022

 

Olympic Format Taskforce Member – Competition Format, Rules, Athletes and Scaling

More information here

Application form here

Application deadline: 8 March 2022

 

IKF World Ranking updated

/0 Comments/in , /by

The new IKF World Ranking has been updated, you can find it here: www.korfball.sport/ranking

 

The ranking knows little changes in comparison with the World Ranking of last year. Due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the ranking criteria for the cycle 2020/2023 have been adjusted by the IKF Council. This following the altered competition calendar and inequity of number of continental IKF events in the regular 4-year cycle. In the last two years it has only been possible to organise events in Europe.

 

The adjustments in the ranking criteria ensure that all European events will have an impact in the world ranking but at the same time European countries will not have an advantage compared with countries from other continents.

 

To ensure the above the two European Korfball Championships in 2021 (including the EKC Round 1 in Ukraine 2019) and the European World Korfball Championship Qualifiers in 2022 will be combined as one to obtain points for the world ranking. The overall classification will be the result from the average of the classifications in both European events and will be included in the world ranking points of 2022.

 

The five European countries participating in The World Games already qualified for the World Championship with their result at the IKF European Korfball Championship in Antwerp. Therefore, they will not participate in the EU WKC Qualifiers in 2022 and consequently earn their ranking points directly from the EKC A 2021 classification.

Gabi Kool joins IKF Executive Committee, soon to take over leadership

/0 Comments/in , /by

The Council of the International Korfball Federation has appointed Mr Gabi Kool as a Member of the IKF Executive Committee with immediate effect. As per January 22 2022, Mr Kool has been appointed as Executive Vice President of the IKF. In this new role, he will be responsible for the committees of Digital & Marketing, Olympic Format and be leading the IKF strategy with immediate effect. Mr Kool will take over the position of chair of the IKF Executive Committee as of June 1 2022. President Jan Fransoo will remain President of the Council of the IKF until the completion of his current term in 2023, which he has announced will be his last. As of June 1 2022, he will step down from the Executive Committee.

Mr Kool, a native of the Netherlands and residing in Switzerland, has been an elite korfball athlete in the 1990s, before starting a highly successful professional career as entrepreneur and business leader in the loyalty marketing industry and he is currently leading the commercial organization of one of the world’s leading marketing services firms headquartered in Switzerland. He has lived in multiple locations across Europe and Asia, and has been named the loyalty marketing personality of the year. He brings extensive commercial, digital marketing and fan engagement experience to the IKF, that will help the world’s leading mixed-gender team sport to further develop its global and commercial potential.

Gabi Kool: ”It is my great pleasure to join the Executive Committee and support the IKF’s global ambition to grow our sport across the world and connect the korfball community of athletes, fans, national federations, sponsors and organizing committees via the latest digital strategies and solutions. Building on our heritage and great work done under Jan’s leadership over the past decades, developing new and exciting formats with appeal to also the younger generation and the Olympic movement, I am looking forward to contribute to such goals and help lead the IKF in this journey.

Jan Fransoo: “The IKF is extremely fortunate to have been able to secure the leadership, experience of Gabi to lead the global korfball community towards its next phase of development. Combined with his passion for our sport, and his ability to connect personally to our member federation, large and small alike, he is the best possible leader to help realize our ambitions.”

The Royal Netherlands Korfball Association, with the support of multiple other member associations, has announced its intention to formally nominate Mr Kool as candidate for the IKF Presidency as per the next General Meeting of the IKF, which is due to be held in October 2023 in Taipei during the IKF World Korfball Championship.

Gabi_Kool_IKF_Executive_Vice_President_Korfball_GDV_9375

Photo: Gertrude de Vries | korfbalfoto.nl

IKF launches Korfball Champions League in Europe

/0 Comments/in , , /by

The Executive Committee of the IKF has decided to launch a new competition format for the club competitions in Europe. The format entails a series of events eventually culminating in a Final 4 event for the four strongest European clubs, and Challenger and Satellite Finals for lower-ranked clubs.

In the initial setup, two clubs can take part from the strongest 7 national leagues in Europe (Belgium, Catalonia, Czech Republic, England, Germany, Netherlands, and Portugal), and 1 club from the other national leagues in Europe. Eventual quota for participation are determined based on a coefficient system that the IKF will present later this Spring.

The new competition will be branded as the IKF Europe Korfball Champions League (KCL). It is the joint successor of the IKF Europa Cup and the IKF Europa Shield. The IKF Europa Cup has existed for almost 60 years and was open to the champions of all European leagues. The IKF Europa Shield, that has existed for about 20 years was open to the vice-champions of a selected set of European leagues.

The new format will allow for more matches between clubs of similar strength, doing justice to the growing club competitions in Europe. The KCL will consist of three successive qualification rounds, with stronger clubs entering in later phases of the competition, and three Final4 competitions: The Korfball Champions League Finals, The KCL Challenger Finals, and the KCL Satellite Finals.

chart_ikf_europe_kcl_korfball

The Exco believes this will offer more playing opportunities for club teams across Europe at similar levels of strength. Another feature of the concept is that all rounds of the competition will be played in a weekend format. Events with 8 teams will play shorter matches similar to the current Europa Shield format, while the events with four teams will play two full length matches per team (semifinal and final) in a weekend.

The various IKF Committees and Working Groups are currently working out details for the setup, and the event will launch in the Fall of 2022, with the first KCL Round 1 competitions being played. The first KCL finals will be played in the Spring of 2023.

Images: Marco Spelten | korfbalfoto.nl

ikf_ecup_2018_korfball

ikf_ecup_2019_korfball . ikf_eshield_2020_korfball ikf_ecup_2020_korfball ikf_ecup_2014_korfball_3 ikf_eshield_2020_korfball_2 ikf_ecup_2014_korfball_4 ikf_ecup_trophy_korfball ikf_ecup_2017_korfball_2b