IFA calls on athletes, entourage, and all stakeholders to note the 2023 List of Prohibited Substances and Methods, which was approved by WADA’s Executive Committee (ExCo) during its meeting on 23 September 2022 and enters into force on 1 January 2023.

We also publish:
o the 2023 Summary of Major Modifications and Explanatory Notes as compared to the 2022 List; and
o the 2023 Monitoring Program, which includes substances that are not on the List, but that WADA wishes to monitor in order to detect potential patterns of misuse in sport.

More info: WADA publishes 2023 Prohibited List | World Anti Doping Agency (wada-ama.org)

#PlayTrue

After two exciting years, the INTERACT Project (International and European Sport Organisations Activating Citizens) with IFA is coming to an end, and we are proud to announce to you that all outputs are published and can be found on the INTERACT website. INTERACT has proven to become one of the first projects worldwide made by International Sport Organisations (ISOs), for ISOs, to support them and YOU promote and develop Sport for All.

Discover our practical resources:
• INTERACT Directory of ISOs: https://interact-sport.com/directory/
• INTERACT Pledge to Activate Citizens: https://interact-sport.com/pledge/
• INTERACT Report – The Role of International and European Sport Organisations in the Field of Sport for All: Challenges & Opportunities, Needs & Expectations: https://interact-sport.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/io3-report-pdf.pdf
• INTERACT Good Practices Collection: https://interact-sport.com/good-practice/
• INTERACT Capacity-Building Framework: https://interact-sport.com/capacity-building-framework/
• INTERACT Toolkit: https://interact-sport.com/toolkit/
• INTERACT Festival: https://interact-sport.com/interact-festival/
• INTERACT Multimedia, Videos & Interviews: https://interact-sport.com/community/multimedia/

We sincerely hope that you will find these resources useful and would like to give you a say. A survey was created to analyse and further improve the INTERACT outputs. Depending on how many INTERACT tools you are interested in and using, completing the survey will take you between 5 and 15 minutes. We would like to encourage everyone to take part in the survey and to help the INTERACT project. The survey can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.de/r/D6FXHQF

Furthermore, we are excited to announce that due to new Erasmus+ funding the INTERACT project will continue as INTERACT+ for the next three years. This shows the importance that is attributed to the project and highlights the INTERACT team’s work. On behalf of the INTERACT and INTERACT+ project teams, we are delighted to share this news with you and are looking forward to the next three years – once again showing our commitment to support ISOs develop Sport for All!

We wish you happy holidays and a great new year!

The Board of Directors will meet today for its 17th virtual meeting. Main topics:
– change of Fistball rules
– awarding IFA 2024 events
– invitation to IFA 2023 Congress
– IFA Budget 2023
-call for proposals for the IFA Awards 2022 and World Fistball Day 2023

International Volunteer Day (IVD) mandated by the UN General Assembly, is held each year on 5 December. Thank you all volunteers within Fistball or other fields!

The UN campaign, “Together, act now” aims at promoting, mobilizing and advocating for volunteerism. “Volunteers make an invaluable contribution to society,” says IFA President Jörn Verleger. “Without volunteers, a major sporting event would be unthinkable.”

Volunteers e.g. at the 2023 World Fistball Championships will support the organising team in on-site operations in a wide variety of areas: Accreditation, team support, transport, media, competition, catering, and much more.

It is also a unique chance to look behind the scenes of a major sporting event and to gain not only new impressions but also new friends all over the world.

Be a part of the Fistball Event 2023 and sign up as a volunteer at https://www.fistballmwc.com/2023/volunteers

#TogetherActNow

The joint meeting was opened by IOC Board member a GAISF/SportAccord President Ivo Ferriani outlined the importance of AIMS within the Olympic family, the synergy towards the development of the individual sports towards IOC recognition but also AIMS as an IF umbrella organisation.

Mr. Kit McConnell, IOC sports director welcomed the AIMS family into the Olympic House. He made a presentation to the AIMS members on the pathway for the AIMS members towards IOC recognition

Photos by Monika Majer/RvS.Media for IF Forum 2022

The International Fistball Association and all INTERACT (International and European Sport Organisations Activating Citizens) project partners are pleased to invite you all to join our free closing online conference on 2 December 2022, 12:00-14:00 (UTC+1/CET). Register now! https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/interact-closing-conference-tickets-464992443917

The final conference will highlight the background, the results, and the impact of the INTERACT project. It will furthermore introduce new resources, from toolkits to frameworks, to address the current situation and design a way for activating citizens for international and European Sport Organisations (IESOs). A round table will allow for knowledge and experience sharing regarding IESOs’ Investments in Sport for All and Physical Activity and define a way on how they can better contribute to the objectives of key European and International policy papers.

For more information and to register your free participation: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/interact-closing-conference-tickets-464992443917

The INTERACT project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. More information on the project can be found on the official website: https://interact-sport.com/

Conference program:

IFA received the latest updates on the upcoming CSIT World Sport Games 2023, which will be held from September 5-10 in Cervia, Italy. The event will feature for the second time a Fistball competition for clubs. Details to be published soon.

CSIT President Bruno Molea awarded a plaque to IFA President Jörn Verleger and Secretary General Christoph Oberlehner for attending the meeting in Rome.

The conference was welcomed by Giovanni MALAGO, IOC member from Italy.

After the last World Tour tournament at SOGIPA in 2022 and the continental championships, the participants for the World Tour Finals 2023 have finally been determined. The host of the World Tour Finals 2023 will be announced shortly. The World Tour was dominated by the Brazilian teams this year. With Sociedade Ginástica Novo Hamburgo and SOGIPA, both winners are from Brazil.

Sociedade Ginastica Novo Hamburgo in the men’s category and SOGIPA in the women’s category are the champions in this year’s IFA World Tour. SG Novo Hamburgo gained 3.900 points and played 9 tournaments in total, but only the 5 tournaments with the highest number of points count for the World Tour Ranking.
SOGIPA collected 3.500 points and played 6 tournaments in total. SOGIPA managed the feat of winning all the tournaments in which they participated including the World Tour Finals and Pan-American Cup 2022 – a perfect season for the team from Porto Alegre.

Qualified for the World Tour Finals 2023 are the following teams:
Men’s category:
• Champions Cup winner 2022: Union Tigers Vöcklabruck (AUT)
• Pan-America winner: SG Novo Hamburgo (BRA)
• North-American Championship winner: SSC – Swim and Sport Club (USA)
• Defending champion from 2022: TSV Pfungstadt (GER)

Additionally, to these teams, the best 2 teams of the World Tour Ranking 2022 will qualify for the World Tour Finals 2023. As Novo Hamburgo is already qualified as Pan-American Champion, the 3rd ranked team qualified as well.
As the first four of 8 starting places have been awarded to Vöcklabruck, Pfungstadt, SSC and Novo Hamburgo, the best 3 teams in the men’s World Tour Ranking can look forward to participating in the World Tour Finals next year:
– SOGIPA Porto Alegre (BRA) (2nd place in the World Tour Ranking)
– DSG UKJ Froschberg (AUT) (3rd place in the World Tour Ranking)
– UFG Grieskirchen/Pötting (AUT) (4th place in the World Tour Ranking)

The host club is automatically qualified in the men’s or women’s competition of the World Tour Finals 2023 (criteria: highest national league). As the host is not clear yet, currently only 7 teams are fixed. That means either the organizer or Clube Duque de Caxias (BRA, 6th place in the World Tour Ranking) will take the eighth starting place.

Women’s category:
• Champions Cup winner 2022: TV Jahn Schneverdingen (GER)
• Pan-America winner as well as defending champion of 2022: SOGIPA (BRA)

Additionally, the best female teams of the World Tour Ranking 2022 are qualified:
– TSV Dennach (GER) (2nd place in the World Tour Ranking)
– ASKÖ Seekirchen (AUT) (3rd place in the World Tour Ranking)
– Vfl Kellinghusen (GER) (4th place in the World Tour Ranking)
– SGNH Novo Hamburgo (BRA) (5th place in the World Tour Ranking)
– Duque de Caxias (BRA) (6th place in the World Tour Ranking)

Because the host club is not fixed yet, Union Nussbach (AUT, 7th place in the World Tour Ranking) is currently in a waiting position if they are qualified as the eighth participating team or not.

In its yesterday’s board of Directors meeting the International Fistball Association (IFA) established a working group to prepared a decision if the organization should rename and/or rebrand the sport worldwide to Faustball? After The World Games in Birmingham/Alabama IFA received remarks and questions why different names are used for the sport like punhobol, fistball, Pallapugno and Faustball. Seven members including President Jörn Verleger, Secretary General Christoph Oberlehner, PAFA President Gastao Englert, Valentin Weber, Chairman of the IFA Communication Commission, English native speaker IFA Vice President Vikki Buston and board member Blase Dowall as well as further marketing experts are members of the group to develop a proposal for the next board meeting on 11th of December.

New Chairman of IFA Sports Commission

As new Chairman of the IFA Sports Commission the board welcomed Gastao Englert From Brazil, who will also work as tournament director for the upcoming IFA 2023 Men´s World Championship in Mannheim (Germany). The 56 years old physical educator, who was recently also elected as President of the Pan-American Fistball Association (PAFA), brings more than 21 years of experience of sports management and presented some potential changes of the Fistball rules like the reduction of the potential 10 minutes break after set #4 which might be valid on 1 April 2023 if accepted by the board in its next meeting.

Furthermore, the board decided the eligibility for national teams and heard reports about the recent Fistball events as The World Games 2022, the IFA 2022 Fistball World Tour Final, the Pan-American Championships 2022 and the 2022 Pacific Fistball Championships.

Team NZL has come away from the Pacific Championships as Champions! Huge congratulations to the Men’s Masters, Men’s and Women’s teams!

This weekend, all eyes of the Fistball world focused on Australia. International Fistball was returning to Australian shores for the first time since 2018!

After a 4 year hiatus from hosting international Fistball because of border closures and travel restrictions due to Covid-19, our friends in Australia are excited to finally be able to announce the first Pacific Fistball Championships, a tournament in which the New Zealand Fistball Association, Japan and the host Fistball Federation of Australia participate.

Event website: https://www.fistball.com.au/2022-pacific-fistball-championships-hub/?fbclid=IwAR0wCQX3tfYIDNAHxwXzm_e9OnX8vYq9L9VhJUniQ-InOJkHkFuja01UhIQ

“The greatest sport you’ve never heard of.” – An incredible journey

It signals an incredible journey for an Australian team that funnily enough started as a group of mates who came up with the idea while enjoying an ice cold beverage at the pub.

Rolf ‘Godfister’ Petersen and Richard ‘Buckfist’ Williams decided to do some enthusiastic research into the sport, and then in 2013 decided to officially start the Fistball Federation of Australia (FiFA).

In 2014 they became a member of the International Fistball Association (IFA) – and now they’re looking to become heavyweights on the scene as they write on their website.