Frank Buvens and Graham Crafter re-elected

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During the IKF General Meeting Sunday 27 October 2013 in Lisbon the Composition of the Executive Committee was on the agenda. In accordance with the Statutes Mr Graham Crafter (ENG) and Mr Frank Buvens (BEL) have completed their elected term of office and are eligible for re-election. Both were willing to serve again and General Meeting re-elected them unanimous for a period of 4 years.

Mr Graham Crafter serves the IKF as Secretary General. Mr Frank Buvens is the responsible officer for Refereeing and Competitions.

Korfball Congress gives boost to youth competitions and development of korfball4

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More international youth competitions and the introduction of other disciplines; those were the main focus in the discussion on the second day of the IKF World Korfball Congress.

The IKF Competitions Committee proposed a new age structure and extension for international youth competition. While currently the IKF organizes World Championships for U23, and Continental Championships U21, it was decided to align those. Given the rapid developments of players, the U23 and senior championships show so much overlap in team composition, that there Congress showed wide support for replacing the U23 World Championship by and U21 World Championship. In 2016, the last IKF U23 World Championship will be held. Further, in younger age groups there are currently no championships, although the IKF patronizes a long traditions of World Cups for U19 and U16. While the patronizing will remain, the IKF will start with an official U19 World Championship, and with Continental Championships for the U17 and U15 age groups. The formats and starting years will be set by each of the continents. It was agreed that the U15 Championships should have more of a festival nature. Further, the European continent, having the the strongest competitions, intends to open up its U17 and U15 events to team from other continents by invitation.

The second major topic for which the IKF Council received wide support was to develop a new korfball discipline, provisionally denoted as korfball4. This compact format, primarily targeted at outdoor hardcourt competitions, but being defined so flexibly that it can be played both indoor and outdoor, should open up new markets for attracting people to korfball. Extensive ideas for positioning, branding, and rules were brought forward by the delegates that embraced the new initiative. The IKF Council will now form a task force that is expected to develop the concept before the middle of next year, with the first events held in 2015.

At the day’s conclusion, the IKF shared its recent initiatives in the areas of communication and social media. For the latter, a new social media strategy will deliver extended multimedia content as from early 2015.

Dr Jan Fransoo, IKF President, – @korfballpres – spoke in his final words to the Congress of a very successful congress and he thanked all delegates for their valuable contributions: “Your support gives the IKF Council even more inspiration on the way we go”.

IKF European Korfball Championship 2014 logo

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As part of the opening session of the IKF World Korfball Congress in Lisbon the IKF President, Dr Jan Fransoo, and Portuguese Korfball President, Mr Mario Almeida under the eyes of Portuguese Secretary of State for Sports, Mr Guerreiro signed the contract and released the for the IKF European Korfball Championship 2014 in 2014 in Maia in the Porto region.

1st day World Korfball Congress

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The first day of the IKF World Korfball Congress In Lisbon, Portugal was opened with speeches from the president of our host the FPC, Mr Mario Almeida, Mr Guerreiro, Secretary of State for Sports and Dr Jan Fransoo, IKF President in front of around 60 special guests, IKF delegates and committee members.

The sessions were on;

  1. The IKF Year of the Youth 2013
  2. Refereeing
  3. Development and Education
  4. Equal gender policy.

There was great interest in the subjects and many interesting new suggestions from the audience were added to the ideas and plans presented.

IKF World Korfball Congress and General Meeting

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Friday 25, Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 October 2013 around 50 delegates and IKF Council members are in Lisbon, Portugal for the bi-annual IKF World Korfball Congress and General Meeting. The Portuguese Korfball Federation (FPC) hosts this event.

Friday and Saturday are scheduled for the IKF Congress with sessions on competitions, new korfball formats, refereeing, changes in age groups, the international korfball calendar, communications, media, social media, equal gender, the Year of the Youth. Further the IKF President, Dr Jan Fransoo, and the FPC President, Mr. Mario Almeida, will sign the contract for the next IKF European Korfball Championship in 2014 in Portugal. A Portuguese Secretary of State will give a speech to all delegates on Friday afternoon to honor the IKF Congress.

Sunday morning 27 October is reserved for the IKF General Meeting. All 59 IKF member countries are invited. Based on the countries present in Lisbon from all over the world over 85% of all voting rights will be present in the General Meeting. The General Meeting is the last part of the official program.

The value of a korfball congress

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Every two years the korfball countries assemble for the IKF World Korfball Congress and the IKF General Meeting. All 59 IKF member countries are invited to participate.

On 25, 26 and 27 October 2013 around 50 people will be in Lisbon, Portugal for the 2013 edition.

In advance we want to thank the Portuguese Korfball Federation for their bid to host this event and for the work done in the period so far to make it a success.

The previous Congress and General Meeting was in Shaoxing, China in November 2011 and the next one will be in Antwerp, Belgium  at the end of October/beginning of November 2015. In 2011 and 2015 these meetings are scheduled in the same period as the IKF World Korfball Championship. In 2013 the delegates meet without a korfball event, as they did in 2009.

In 2011 the IKF restructured its organisation. The on-going growth of the number of member countries was the base for this restructuring. The IKF founded five Continental Confederations; IKF Africa, IKF Asia, IKF Americas, IKF Europe and IKF Oceania. The goals are to give better and more intense support to the respective countries in the continent present and to support an increase the number of member countries in the continent in a controlled way. Points of great attention for the Continental Confederations are support to: increasing the level of play, participation in continental korfball events for all age groups, strengthen the national organisations to secure their existence in a national presence, increase the number of players, share information between countries in the same phase of development, make them all aware that korfball is an external oriented sport for spectators, media as TV and Internet and social media. Furthermore the 2011 General Meeting gave a  ‘green light’ for the IKF strategic plan 2012 – 2015, and now we are half way that 4-year period.

What is the value of these meetings?

The IKF Council and the IKF Committees are committed to work on the tasks extracted from the IKF Strategic Plan 2012 – 2015. They are ambitious but realistic unless proven later to be unrealistic!

The Congress in 2013 concentrates on 2-way exchanges of opinion. The IKF Council wants to listen to the ideas and suggestions of the member countries’ delegates. We have further developed plans and want to ‘measure’ if our work is in line with the developments in the countries. These things have to match. We are bound to work together towards the big goal; the Olympic dream.

Besides the official congress meetings there is great added value to the informal sessions between delegates on all sorts of korfball related items; how can we learn from each other, how can we exchange ideas, how can we improve korfball in our local environment? And make new friends!

All together we have many more answers than each individual would have.

The big challenge should be that each of the attendees will leave Portugal and go home with two new ideas and suggestions.

Frans Walvis

IKF Senior Vice-President

Results final day IKF European Bowl

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Turkey, Wales and Ireland finished in this order on the first three places in the IKF European Bowl and qualified for the next IKF European Korfball Championship in Portugal in October 2014.

The results of the second and final day were:

Romania – Greece 10 – 13
Wales – Ireland 8 – 7 after Golden Goal
Turkey – France 12 – 6
Greece – Romania 8 – 11
Ireland * – France 15 – 14 after Golden Goal
Wales * – Turkey * 4 – 7

* qualified for the IKF European Korfball Championship 2014.

The ranking of the IKF European Bowl Eastern Region is:
1 Turkey
2 Wales
3 Ireland
4 France
5 Greece
6 Romania

Frans Walvis, IKF Senior Vice-President, was very positive on the organisation by KNKV – PKC/Hagero in the beautiful Papendrecht sportsarena. All teams were very positives as well. The jury members and the referees were granted a big hand for their good work.

Frans Walvis supported by ms.  Mady Tims and Laurens Leeuwenhoek, 2 Dutch internationals and PKC/ Hagero players awarded the prizes.

Results day 1 IKF European Bowl

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The first 6 matches are played. The results are:

Wales – France 11 – 10
Ireland – Greece 15 – 5
Romania – Wales 9 – 14
Turkey – Ireland 14 – 9
France – Romania 12 – 7
Greece – Turkey 3 – 10

Saturday 19 October the matches start 0900 AM Amsterdam time.

You are able to follow the IKF European Bowl Central region via worldkorfball.org

 

IKF European Bowl starts today

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In the city of Papendrecht, The Netherlands in the venue of PKC / Hagero starts today the IKF European Bowl Eastern Region. Six national korfball teams will compete in this qualification event. The numbers 1, 2 and 3 after the competition qualify for the IKF European Korfball Championship in Portugal in October 2014.

Friday 18 October the first match starts 1400 PM.

Saturday 19 October the matches are played from 0900 AM till 1715 PM.

The numbers 1, 2 and 3 in the IKF European Bowl event qualify for the IKF European Korfball Championship 2014 in Portugal.

The six participants are: France, Ireland, Wales, Rumania, Greece and Turkey.
The match schedule can be found under ‘Events’.

Chinese Taipei retain their title in the 3rd IKF Asian Korfball Championship

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The 3rd IKF Asian Korfball Championship came to an end today with some very entertaining matches, particularly in the afternoon session. Chinese Taipei, having beaten Japan 21 – 9 in the semi-final, beat China, who reached the final with a 23 – 6 win over Macau China, by 18 goals to 13. In the bronze medal match Macau China beat Japan 10 -8 to clinch their first medal since 2004. Malaysia beat Korea , who qualified to play for 5th place following a 9 – 3 win over Indonesia, by 12 goals to 9.

The final ranking is:

1 Chinese Taipei  2 China  3 Macau China  4 Japan  5 Malaysia  6 Korea  7 Indonesia

AKC D4-1421  AKC D4-1586

AKC D4-1582  AKC D4-1468

AKC D4-1506  AKC D4-1559

AKC D4-1623  AKC D4-1635

AKC D4-1642 AKC D4-1644

AKC D4-1647 AKC D4-1652