Update IKF European Korfball Tour 2021
The preparations for the experimental IKF European Korfball Tour (EKT) 2021, planned to take place in January and February, are moving forward. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic uncertainties will remain for the next months, but at this moment the IKF has good hope that the event can take place as scheduled. A next official evaluation of the situation is scheduled for the middle of October.
EKT-Challengers:
At this moment the host of one of the two EKT-Challengers is confirmed. An agreement has been made with the Polish Korfball Association (PKA) to organise one of the EKT-Challengers, to be held from 7-9 January 2021 in Kiełczowie (Wroclaw area).
A second host for the EKT-Challenger has not yet been found. Currently, there is one final option the IKF is investigating. Ultimately in the second week of October, it will become clear if there will be a second host for the EKT-Challengers or not.
In the case that no second host is found, the IKF European Korfball Tour will continue with the organisation of one EKT-Challenger only. In this scenario the match schedule of the tournament will be adjusted in line with the final number of participants. The two best teams of the EKT-Challenger in Poland will then qualify for the EKT-Finals in The Netherlands.
EKT-Finals:
The six teams that are directly qualified for the EKT-Finals from 11-13 February 2021 all have confirmed their participation. The other two teams that will complete the tournament will qualify through the EKT-Challenger(s).
As announced earlier the EKT-Finals has no group stage and proceeds directly to the elimination stage with the quarter finals on Thursday, the semi-finals on Friday and the finals on Saturday. The teams that are eliminated in the quarter finals will play for the positions 5-8 in a parallel elimination format.
The match-up of the quarter final matches are decided upon by an open draw. Hence, any type of seeding would require to explicitly rank countries and teams without any precedent.
Since the host country of the tournament has indicated that the outcome of the draw of the EKT-Finals could affect the way of hosting the tournament, with one or two playing locations in The Netherlands, the draw has already been executed. This gives the host country the time to properly prepare the tournament. As can be seen, the two Challenger positions have been part of the draw. After finalising the EKT-Challenger(s) it will be decided where both teams end up in the match schedule, by conducting a second draw.
Underneath you find the draw of the European Korfball Tour Finals. More detailed information will follow in a later stage.
Day 1 |
Thursday 11-02-2021 |
A |
KC Floriant (BEL) |
PKC/Vertom (NED) |
B |
NC Benfica (POR) |
Challenger |
C |
KV Adler Rauxel e.V. (GER) |
Boeckenberg KC (BEL) |
D |
Challenger |
TOP Sassenheim (NED) |
|
|
|
Day 2 |
Friday 12-02-2021 |
E |
loser A |
loser B |
F |
winner A |
winner B |
G |
loser C |
loser D |
H |
winner C |
winner D |
|
|
|
Day 3 |
Saturday 13-02-2021 |
|
loser E |
loser G |
|
winner E |
winner G |
|
loser F |
loser H |
|
winner F |
winner H |
A new update about the European Korfball Tour is planned for the end of October or beginning of November, after the official evaluation moment that has been scheduled.