IKF President Jan Fransoo and CEO Tilbert La Haye represented the IKF at this year’s SportAccord Convention. The Convention was held in the Danish city of Aarhus.

SportAccord Convention is the largest international sports conference in the world, that bring together representatives from more than 100 international sports federations, the International Olympic Committee, multisport games organizers, host cities, and sport business.

As part of the attendance, Fransoo and La Haye formally represented the IKF formally at the General Assemblies of ARISF (IOC Recognized Federations), IWGA (World Games) and SportAccord (all international sport federations). Further, they attended a workshop with the IOC where developments with regard to the Olympic Program and the Youth Olympic Games were discussed, and a workshop with WADA that focused on education, compliance, and sanctioning.

First and foremost, the Convention is characterized by many bilateral meetings. The IKF representatives met, amongst many others, with the organizing committees of The World Games 2017 and 2021, with the media officer of the IWGA. Further, Fransoo and La Haye met with the President and Secretary General of the International University Sports Federation FISU to discuss recent developments regarding the FISU Korfball World University Championships in 2018 and 2020. Some significant format changes were discussed that should soon be confirmed in a revised agreement between IKF and FISU.

The IKF feels unfortunate to announce that Albert Vidanya, Director of Development and Education, will leave our Federation at the end of May 2017.  We feel sad because of the importance of our development and education program for developing countries and the great work Albert has done for the IKF over an extended period of time.

After giving a big boost to korfball in Catalonia in his role as technical director, Albert entered the IKF in 2010 by becoming an Exco member responsible for development and education. Later, in 2013, this position transformed into his position as DEC Director, which he passionately put into practice.

Together with the Development and Education Committee DEC, Albert managed to establish close contact with the developing national korfball organizations and to give an impulse to their development. Besides his main task, coordinating the DEC applications and giving feedback on development plans, Albert initiated multiple new initiatives. The most important one probably is the organisation of the IKF level 2 and 3 coach courses. Together with the (financial and technical) support of the KNKV he arranged that coaches from all over the world could attend these courses and make a next step in their development. Valuable knowledge that trainers could take back to their countries and implement on a national level. During his term as leader of development in the IKF, the following countries have joined our Federation as new members: Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, and Ukraine. The IKF has now also received a membership application from Kenya which will be reviewed soon as the final application file assisted by Albert.

As a true networker Albert involved multiple development officers in the Development and Education Committee to support his work and to be able to help developing countries as much as possible. Therefore he leaves a strong infrastructure for korfball development behind. Although with lower intensity, we are very happy that Albert keeps connected with korfball while staying part of the IKF Coaching and Education Committee.

The IKF wants to thank Albert Vidanya a lot for his effort over the years and wishes him the best for the future.