It’s exactly three years to go to The World Games 2025 to be held in Chengdu, People’s Republic of China! The Opening Ceremony of the Games in Chengdu will take place on 7th August 2025, and the 12th edition of The World Games will be held in the period 7–17 August 2025. The World Games always takes place one year after the Summer Olympic Games – this time the Olympic Games to be held in Paris in 2024.

For the third time in the history of The World Games since its first edition in 1981, the multi-sport event is a guest in Asia. The host for 2025, Chengdu, is a city of 21 million people in the south-west of China. Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan province and also well known as the ‘home’ of the panda.

Chengdu city already has the necessary infrastructure to host an event the size of The World Games. Following the principles of the IWGA, the construction of new sports facilities is not necessary. Chengdu organised the World Police and Fire Games in 2019, and looks forward to hosting the FISU Summer University Games in 2023.

The process of deciding on the sports programme for The World Games 2025 will start immediately, now that The World Games 2022are over. Qualifications – for which the member federations will be responsible – will begin in 2023. As with The World Games 2022, the Madrid-based company ISB will be responsible for the production of the TV signal and the international marketing of the TV rights. The official timekeeper will be Swiss Timing, as it has been for the Games since 2009.

The World Games 2025 will be the first edition held under the guidelines set by the strategy paper of the International World Games Association ‘Growth Beyond Excellence’. The maximum permitted number of participants (this includes athletes and technical officials) for the sports programme of The World Games 2025 onwards will be increased from 4,200 to 5,000. In principle, this number will include 4,000 participants proposed by the 39 IWGA Member Federations with events on the programme. The remaining 1,000 participants will be made up of participants from other disciplines in agreement with the host cities, participants from disciplines determined in consultation with the International Olympic Committee, and participants from para-disciplines. These disciplines will be determined after consultation with the International Paralympic Committee.

Sönke Spille (26) took over the management of the Fistball Men’s World Championships 2023 in Mannheim on 1 August. The experienced fistball announcer left his position at the Delmenhorst/Oldenburg-Land sports region at the end of July and moved to Mannheim at the request of the World Fistball Association IFA to prepare and organise the World Championships. Previously, Spille had already worked for TSG Hatten-Sandkrug and the Nordwest Zeitung (NWZ) and brings with him the necessary experience through his various functions in Fistball.

“We are delighted to have a proven and committed event professional on board with Sönke, who will be able to focus on the World Championship full time,” said IFA General Secretary Christoph Oberlehner. “It is a great honour for me to take on the task of organising the World Championship. With my experience, I want to contribute to putting on the best fistball World Championship in history and to inspire existing as well as many new spectators for our sport,” says Sönke Spille full of motivation.

Tickets for the Fistball event of the year 2023 are now available at www.fistballmwc.com/ticketing. Season tickets are already available from 99 euros for 8 days of the event and thus less than 13 euros per day or 1.90 euros per match. Tickets for the final round in the SAP Arena start from 49 euros for two days.

Although the draw and the final match schedule will not take place until spring 2023, it is already clear today that there will be no parallel matches. Even in the preliminary round phase, each of the eight daily matches will be presented like a highlight in the Rhein-Neckar-Stadion and produced for television.

About 400 days before the Fistball World Championship Final, the presale for the IFA Fistball Men’s World Championship 2023 started today. The Fistball highlight will take place from 22 to 29 July 2023 in Mannheim, Germany. More than 20.000 fans are expected to experience the two final match days live in the SAP Arena.

For the complete World Championship program with a total of 52 games, season tickets for all eight match days as well as preliminary round and final weekend tickets will go on sale in the first presales phase. Also going on sale now are high-quality VIP offers in the so-called Fistball Club, which will be sold exclusively through the SAP Arena.

“We want to give as many people as possible the chance to experience top Fistball live,” says Jörg Trinemeier, head of the World Championship organizing committee. “Fistball is even more dynamic live than on TV,” said International Fistball Association President Jörn Verleger, who is also president of the German Fistball League.

Tickets are available through the event website www.fistballmwc.com/ticketing. Season tickets are available starting at 99 euros for 8 days of the event, which is less than 13 euros per day or 1,90 euros per match. Tickets for the final round in the SAP Arena start from 49 euros for 2 days.
Presales were launched today at the extraordinary IFA Congress. In the coming weeks, the German men’s national team and, for the first time, the women’s national team will have the chance to once again prove their exceptional position in world fencing at the World Games in Birmingham (Alabama/USA). Which 15 teams will join Germany at the World Championship tournament in Mannheim in 2023 will be decided by the end of the year following the registration and qualification phase.

Although the draw and the final schedule will not take place until the spring of 2023, it is already clear that there will be no parallel matches. Even in the preliminary round phase, each of the eight daily matches will be presented at Rhein-Neckar-Stadion like a highlight and produced for television. On the question of whether and to what extent the World Championship will be seen on TV, the TV coverage quota for the Fistball final of the World Games on July 14 at 9 p.m. can also be an indicator. The match will be broadcast live on Sport1.

The spectacular 2017 World Games Fistball final between Germany and Switzerland not only thrilled spectators in the stadium. The broadcast of the final reached almost 300,000 viewers on TV. SPORT1’s market share was a strong 3.0% in the SPORT1 core target group. This was the best value on all days of SPORT1-TV coverage of the World Games 2017.

“Fistball will be a big topic in July 2023, not only in Mannheim,” IFA Secretary General Christoph Oberlehner is certain. For the 2023 Fistball World Championships, one of Germany’s largest arenas will open its doors for a top-class international sporting event.

The IFA 2023 U18 Fistball World Championships will take place from 4 to 7 January in Christchurch, New Zealand. The member federations were informed about this decision in the IFA Extraordinary Congress on 3 July.
Immediately after this Extraordinary Congress IFA published Bulletin 0 with the official invitation to all member federations.

Even though the event was already awarded to New Zealand in 2019 the COVID19 pandemic affected this event very much. In a result this coursed some organizational problems for the New Zealand Fistball Association (NZFA) and IFA as well as the cancellation of the planned venue. One further topic was also that New Zealand closed its borders completely for many months and just re-opened a couple of weeks ago.
The Organizers of NZFA secured a new venue at short notice and are now able to organize all other issues as well. The U18 World Championships take place at Selwyn Sports Park which fulfills all requirements to host a great Fistball event.
The Organizers want to create the event as a special experience for all participants and offer a new year’s eve party on 31 December as well.

Bulletin 0 contains different information regarding venue, accommodation, and transport as well as information on the registration process. All interested member federations can register for this event latest by 15 August 2022.

Download the Bulletin 0

The IFA Youth Commission invites all interested participants, coaches, trainers and athletes to the 5th IFA Youth Congress (virtual congress) on Sunday, 03 July 2022, 10:30 a.m. Link: http://tinyurl.com/IFA2022YouthCongress

The Youth Congress will be conducted as a virtual meeting and will end at approximately 11:30 a.m.

We inform about the current activities of the IFA and its Youth Commission as well as the developments and projects of the Fistball Academy. For this purpose we have prepared the following agenda:

TOP 1 Welcome and opening of the Youth Congress

TOP 2 Activities of the Youth Commission
o Current information on the strategic goals of the Youth Commission
o Involvement and activities of the U 18 athlete representatives

TOP 3 The Fistball Academy
o News about the current status of the Fistball Academy
o Current status of the training and video platform “United by Fistball
o New projects of the “Training modules” platform
o Presentation youth festival

TOP 4 U18 World Championships
o Information about the U18 World Championship 2022 / 2023 in New Zealand
o Bids to host the U18 World Championships in 2024

TOP 5 2 x 2 Fistball as 2nd Fistball discipline

TOP 6 Proposals / suggestions

Miscellaneous / Other

EN_Invitation and agenda Youth-congress 2022_final

In addition to the large-scale live broadcasts from Birmingham, some of which will cover more than ten hours each day, there will also be extensive highlight summaries to watch. Broadcasts will include (as it stands now) the inaugural Women’s Fistball Gold Medal match on Wednesday, July 14 at 2:00 a.m. CET and the Men’s Gold Medal Match on Thursday, July 14 at 9:00 p.m.
“We are very pleased that Sport1 has today published over 100 hours of free-TV and simulcast live stream coverage of the World Games 2022 on SPORT1.de and in the SPORT1 apps! This is great news, after all, we were the highlight in their TV coverage in 2017 with Fistball.”, said IFA President Jörn Verleger.
The spectacular Fistball final 2017 played between Germany and Switzerland not only thrilled the crowd of spectators in the stadium itself. The transmission of the final reached an audience of almost 300,000 viewers on the German TV Channel SPORT1. The market share of SPORT1 was at a strong 3.0% in the SPORT1 core target group of men from 14 to 49 years (M14-49). This was the best figure during all days of the SPORT1 TV coverage of The World Games 2017.

On 19 April 2022 IFA sent out the invitation to a virtual Extraordinary IFA 2022 Congress on 3 July 2022 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

On 26 June 2022 IFA updated the invitation and the congress file including the amendments to the IFA Statues and the reporting of the Board of Directors.

Please register your delegates on https://tinyurl.com/IFAcongress2022 latest 30 June 2022.

With a 4:1 (11:7, 11:6, 9:11, 11:7, 11:7) victory against Austria, the German men’s national Fistball team defended its title at the European Championships in Caldaro (ITA) (June 9-12, 2022). For six players from the squad of national coach Olaf Neuenfeld it was the first European Championship title. Almost 2,000 spectators watched the European Fistball Championships.

It was the remake of the World Championship gold medal match of 2019, the winner is again Germany at the European Championships. The team around captain Fabian Sagstetter was able to secure the 15th European Championship title four weeks before The World Games in Birmingham (Alabama/USA) after a hard-fought match. Only in the 3rd set the Austrians could challenge the favorite, the other sets were relatively clear in favor of the reigning World Champion.

Bronze went to Switzerland after a likewise very exciting and contested match. The Italians started strongly in the first set and were able to take a 1:0 lead in sets, but Switzerland was able to turn the match around afterwards and secure the bronze medal thanks to a 4:1 victory.

The Czech Republic managed to beat Belgium 3:1 in the 7th place match, while Denmark secured the 5th place thanks to a 3:1 win against Serbia.

The INTERACT Pledge Signing Ceremony took place on 9th June during the 27th TAFISA World Congress in Portoroz, Slovenia. 18 International Sport Organisations signed the INTERACT Pledge in front of an audience of over 300 people.

With their signature, the following organisations have taken the responsibility to create a better world through Sport for All for the next generation:
· ITTF Foundation
· International Fistball Association
· World Flying Disc Federation
· International Functional Fitness Federation
· International Federation Icestocksport
· Fédération Internationale de Teqball
· International Dance Organization
· International Taekwon-Do Federation
· Majorette Sport World Federation
· Confederazione Boccistica Internazionale
· World Minigolf Sport Federation
· International Zurkaneh Sport Federation
· World Judo Federation
· World Jiu Jitsu Confederation
· Badminton World Federation
· World Pilates Confederation
· International Tchoukball Federation
· International Jump Rope Union

Through the pledge’s resolution, based on international and Euopean Policy Papers, signatories commit to:
· Integrate Sport for All as part of elite and major sport events, as well as their legacy;
· Strengthen partnerships with national and local hosts to foster local Sport for All approaches;
· Adapt sports and disciplines to the needs of diverse target groups. This can be done through the modification of rules, equipment, environment and teaching styles;
· Team up with other International and European Sport Organisations and share your knowledge, experience, expertise and resources to promote Sport for All;
· Provide frameworks, support and assistance to national and local members, helping them develop Sport for All initiatives

The signing ceremony was a huge success for INTERACT – an Erasmus+ co-founded project of TAFISA in which IFA is member – , and showed once again how the Sport for All movement is growing.

The INTERACT Pledge is available here. International Sport Organisations interested in signing it should contact the INTERACT Team at contact@interact-sport.com. More signing ceremonies will be organized in the coming months, with the next event during the 2nd European Sport for All Games in Perugia, Italy, 23rd – 29th September 2022.

318 participants representing 173 organisations across 54 countries joined the 27th TAFISA World Congress in Portoroz, Slovenia, which was hosted by the Olympic Committee of Slovenia – Association of Sports Federation and Sports Union of Slovenia. Over the course of a week, the Global Sport for All Movement came together to meet, exchange, and discuss how Sport for All can adapt to a changing environment and better contribute to society. IFA was represented by President Jörn Verleger, Secretary General Chris Oberlehner and TAFISA INTERACT project member Theresa Eidenhammer.

On the evening of 8 June, Congress participants were welcomed by a cultural show. With features ranging from gymnastics performed by seniors to modern dance, the cultural performances demonstrated the joy of being physically active at all ages, setting the tone for the Congress.
Tackling the theme of “Sport for All in a Changing World”, the Congress offered insights from over 50 international speakers, moderators and panellists including International Fistball Association President Jörn Verleger contributed to an inspiring programme.

TAFISA General Assembly
On Friday 10 June, the TAFISA General Assembly, TAFISA’s supreme decision-making body, was held and voted on important decisions for the future of the organisation. The host of the 29th TAFISA World Congress 2025 was elected to be Sokol, in the city of Prague, Czech Republic.

TAFISA’s Statutes were also revised and updated. The new statutes can be consulted here on TAFISA’s website: TAFISA Statutes 2022

Finally, the General Assembly concluded with the election of the new TAFISA Board of Directors. Wolfgang Baumann was elected TAFISA President and a new Board of Directors was elected for 2022-2025, with five women present on the Board for the first time in TAFISA’s history.

TAFISA’s 30th Anniversary
On the occasion of TAFISA’s 30th Anniversary, a very special programme was held in the Tartini Theatre, retracing the history of TAFISA and inviting both pioneers and the new generation to share their thoughts on Sport for All. The celebrations continued with a beach party where participants marveled at fire dancers while enjoying a slice of birthday cake and signature non-alcoholic cocktails.

Watch the Highlights
You can (re)live the Congress through the highlights video posted on the official TAFISA Congress YouTube channel.