The newly elected IFA Presidency under the leadership of IFA President Jörn Verleger unanimously adopted the IFA Strategic Plan 2019 – 2023 in its first meeting after the elections. The meeting took place immediately after the elections in Winterthur.

The strategic aims are:
1. High quality IFA events
2. Governance structures according to good governance principles
3. IFA serves as service-oriented organisation for its member federations providing real stake-holder value
4. Use of international platforms and participation in international Multisport events serves as showcase for Fistball
5. Increase youth appeal of Fistball

Our vision for the year 2023:
– IFA is an International Federation recognised by the IOC
– A success at the IWGA World Games 2021 has secured a men´s and women´s event on the programme of the IWGA World Games Chengdu 2025
– IFA is a member of the International Masters Games Association and applies for a place on the programme of the European Masters Games
– 30 teams participate at the IFA 2023 Fistball Men`s World Championships Qualifiers
– IFA has 5 Continental Associations organising Championships
– 60 countries participating in Continental Championships
– IFA Youth development has led to a participation of 14 teams at the 2020 World Champi-onships Austria and the 2022 World Championships New Zealand
– Media development has secured an international TV-Broadcast contract
– Marketing development has secured an international Sponsorship contract
– IFA counts 65 70 Member Federations
– IFA has sold 12.000 tickets for the final day of the IFA 2023 Fistball Men´s World Champi-onship Germany
– IFA is IPC recognized
– IFA is part of the World Urban Games 2023
– IFA has developed a second discipline
– Fistball as official sport at the CSIT World Sport Games
– IFA has developed the Fistball Academy to an established format for the promotion of Fistball.

The draft of the Strategic Plan had been discussed by the Board of Directors since the beginning of the year and was presented in detail to the member federations during the IFA Membership Gathering on 12 August.

Strategic Plan 2019 – 2023

Just eight days before the IFA 2019 Fistball World Tour Finals in Salzburg start, IFA published the Official Bulletin 4 of the event.

Bulletin 4 contains all final information re the official welcome reception, Anti-Doping or a draft for a press release in the attachment teams could use for their media work.

Ticket information for all Fistball fans

Get your ticket now! Tickets are still available on: Ticket-Website

#WeAreFistball #WTFinals #Fistball

From 13th to 15th of September, Salzburg will be the centre of the fistball world. The best women’s and men’s club teams will compete for the title at the Fistball World Tour Final in the Sportzentrum Nord.

Deputy Mayor and Sports Officer Bernhard Auinger is delighted: “I am delighted that we have succeeded in bringing another major international sports tournament to Salzburg, the IFA Fistball World Tour Final, after the Tennis Davis Cup. Salzburg has already proven several times that it is an ideal venue for large sporting events. This will also be the case this time.”

The city of Salzburg supports this fistball highlight of the season with more than 30.000 euros. Around 15.000 euros will be provided directly and the rest as value in kind (e.g. personnel for set-up and dismantling, provision of various equipment and objects, etc.). “In addition to financial support, the organiser also needs manpower and services in kind such as the provision of personnel for set-up and dismantling. Now that everyone is pulling in the same direction, this event will certainly be another sporting milestone in the city of Salzburg,” sports consultant Auinger continued. Since 2017, Sportzentrum Nord has been an attractive venue for popular sports for Salzburg, but the modern centre has also made a name for itself internationally as an event location for top sports. Several international competitions have already taken place, such as the European Company Sports Games, the Mozart Trophy (an international youth football tournament with over 80 teams from seven nations) and Austrian championships in table tennis and breakdancing.

Most important title in club fistball

A total of 16 teams – including teams from Argentina and Brazil – will compete in the World Tour Final in the state capital. “It is the most important title to be won at club level in fistball. The fans can look forward to a sports spectacle,” IFA President Jörn Verleger looks forward to the event. “The best fistball players in the world come to Salzburg and show off their top skills. At our side events, spectators and fans can also become active themselves”. As a German he of course keeps his fingers crossed for the four German teams in particular and after the World Champion title they are also striving for the next international title. With this tournament, fistball should gain an even stronger presence in the Salzburg sports scene and in school sports.

Added value for the people of Salzburg – the exciting supporting programme

Sports fans can look forward to an extensive supporting programme in addition to exciting matches and top sporting performances. Additionally to an own kids area with various sports stations, Friday is dedicated to the schools of Salzburg with free admission. On Saturday, a multi-sports tournament with fistball, football, table tennis and volleyball will take place on the sports grounds. Before the medal games begin on Sunday, it is the turn of the U10 and U12 players to take part in their own fistball tournament. The best teams are allowed to enter the Center Court with the final teams.

Added value for the sports city of Salzburg – media value of up to one million euros

On the three days of the competition, around 2,000 spectators* are expected at the centre court in the Sportzentrum Nord. The organisers are expecting around 800 overnight stays in the region by the participating teams alone. The international field of participants from Argentina, Brazil and the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) will also make the sports city of Salzburg better known. In addition, there will be national and international coverage of Salzburg as a sports city in print and online media worldwide. ORF broadcasts more than six hours live on ORF Sport+ and there are reports in ORF Kurzsport (about 600,000 viewers* & 8% MA) and in ORF Sportbild (about 50,000 – 100,000 viewers*). All reports are also available on ORF TVTHEK. Around 250 volunteers ensure that everything runs smoothly. These mainly come from Salzburg and Upper Austria. The IFA expects over 150,000 people to be reached on social media channels. The Women’s World Championship 2018 in Austria, with a media value of more than EUR 700,000, can be used as a comparative value by reporting in the national and international media. Everyone is confident that this advertising value will be exceeded.

The programme in detail:
On Friday, 13th of September, the final tournament with the quarter finals of women and men will start at 10 am. Saturday (from 11 a.m.) and Sunday (from 12 noon) will be dominated by the semi-finals and medal matches. A centre court with room for 1,000 spectators* will be created in the Sportzentrum Nord for the World Tour Finale.

Salzburg for Austria:
The two Austrian teams “Union Haidlmair Schwingenschuh Nussbach” for women and “Tigers Vöcklabruck” for men are among the favourites. As eighth and third in the world rankings, respectively, the Upper Austrians* qualified for the World Tour Final for the first time. The local heroes can be trusted to have a lot to offer, as the reigning Austrian champion, Nussbach and Vöcklabruck are among the closest favourites as vice state champions. The support of the fans is assured.

That’s what players* say:
Sabine Süffert, Sogipa (Brazil)
“We currently train three times a week for preparation. On September 7th all players will land in Europe. On Saturday, 8.9., everyone will meet in Austria and on Sunday we will start with a test match against the Austrian national team. Furthermore there will be a test match against the Austrian champion and World Tour participant Union Nussbach. For me, the World Tour Finals will be a special event, as I have been studying in Salzburg for six months now”.
(Sabine Süffert has been preparing for the finals in Linz/Urfahr since spring and also trained with Seekirchen and Vöcklabruck).

Mathias Karafiat, Union Tigers Vöcklabruck (Austria)
“Our goal is to reach the semi-finals and win a medal at our first participation in the World Tour Finals. We want to take the momentum from the World Championship and the tournament victory at the Major tournament in Jona with us and show fistball on world class level.
For preparation we played many tournaments: Rohrbach, Widnau and Jona. After the World Championships all but 1-2 participants entered the intensive preparation for the World Tour Finals. We train together at least twice a week and apart from that we meet regularly in smaller groups for defense or service training. All players are in top-form, except Max Huemer, who has shoulder problems.”

Sorry, this entry is only available in German.

According to the first available figures, the IFA 2019 Fistball Men’s World Championship had an incrediable total reach of over 83.4 million people in print, TV and social media. In print 8.9 million were recorded yesterday, 28.7 million in TV and 32.3 million in social media, among others ARD Sportschau, ZDF Sport, ORF Sport, SRF Sport, RAI, NDR Fernsehen, n-tv, FOCUS Online, Deutschlandfunk and many more (see list below).

In the print sector, Germany accounted for the largest share with 8.96 million reach, followed by Austria with 6.16 million and Switzerland with 3.20 million. Additional articles with a total reach of 3.93 million were published in New Zealand, Brazil, Namibia, China, Italy, USA and the Netherlands.

Selection (19.08.2019) Frankenpost (GER), Stuttgarter Zeitung (GER), Stuttgarter Nachrichten (GER), Schwarzwälder Bote (GER), Südthüringer Zeitung (GER), Mannheimer Morgen (GER), Darmstädter Echo (GER), Mainpost (GER), Sindelfinger/Böblinger Zeitung (GER), Tageblatt (GER), Schwarzwälder Bote (GER), Böblinger Bote (GER), Nordwest-Zeitung (GER), Freie Presse (GER), Badener Zeitung (GER), Vaihinger Kreiszeitung (GER), Oberösterreichische Nachrichten (AUT), Wiener Zeitung (AUT), Kronenzeitung (AUT), Kleine Zeitung (AUT), Blick (SUI), Der Rheintaler (SUI), Zofinger Tagblatt (SUI), St. Galler Tagblatt (SUI), Solothurner Zeitung (SUI), Scoop (NZL), Jornal (BRA), Republikein (NAM), Allgemeine Zeitung (NAM), Xinhua News (CHN), AD (NED), NewsBeezer (USA), Die Neue Südtiroler Tageszeitung (ITA), SportNews.bz (AUT), Inside The Games, Top Online (SUI), Meinbezirk (AUT), Grafelbergnoticias (CHI), Der Nordschleswiger (DEN), Focus Online (GER), Alabama News (USA), The Timaru Herald (NZL), AlAireLibre (CHE), www.en24.news, PRESS.international (GBR); Deutschlandfunk Nachrichten (GER), ZDF Sport (GER), SRF Sport (SUI), NewsBeezer Austria (AUT), n-tv (GER), ARD Sportschau (GER), ZDF Sportreportage (GER), ORF (AUT), RAI (ITA), SRF (SUI), NDR Mediathek (GER)

The International Fistball Association (IFA) wins a new teamwear outfitter with the Italian manufacturer Erreà Sport. Both agreed on a duration until the end of 2024. In the future, the IFA Board of Directors, the employees and the referees will wear Erreà clothing. In addition, the Italian company will equip the organizing teams and volunteers at future IFA events at particularly favorable conditions. The cooperation begins with the IFA Men’s World Championship 2019, which will take place from 11 to 17 August in Winterthur, Switzerland.

“The decisive factor for the cooperation was the many matches between the values of Erreà Sport and Fistball. In addition to quality, passion and cooperation, sustainability is a key value for both of us. Erreà produces sportswear in an ecological way that has been awarded the Öko-tex standard 100 certificate,” says IFA Secretary General and designated President Jörn Verleger. During a visit to the company in Parma, he was could see first hand the quality, working methods and delivery capability of the new partner. “Erreà is a partner who can react quickly and flexibly to special requests. Due to the worldwide availability of their articles, the cooperation is also of great interest to many of our member associations.”

IFA expands its service function with new partner Erreà Sport

“Many thanks to our previous teamwear partner Erima for the longstanding and excellent cooperation. With Erreà, Fistball takes the next step in the worldwide distribution of our sport”, says IFA Administrative Director Christoph Oberlehner. From the Men’s World Championships in Winterthur onwards, the IFA Board of Directors, staff and referees will wear Erreà sportswear. The new cooperation will also enable IFA to further expand its service function for its members and organizers. The teamwear partner will provide equipment for organizing teams and volunteers at particularly favorable conditions and will also be advertising at the IFA events.

“We are very pleased about the conclusion of the contract with IFA. We deliberately decided to cooperate with the IFA and the sport fistball in general. With our locations in 80 countries worldwide, we are very interested in making contact with national associations and clubs from all continents,” says Erreà founder and CEO Angelo Gandolfi.
Euroteamsport Zitzlsperger in Vilshofen (GER) is responsible for handling Erreà’s fistball activities and plans to launch its own fistball online shop (www.fistball-shop.com) for teams and clubs in autumn 2019.

Today in 3 weeks on the 16th August 2019 in Winterthur at the Berufsbildungsschule, Zürcherstrasse 28, the International Fistball Association will host the inaugural IFA Awarding Ceremony and United by Sports Conference to provide an overview of and honor special initiatives within the Fistball family. Furthermore, it is to improve the knowledge, skills and understanding across a number of core topics of IFA.

The event is supported by the United Through Sports (UTS) initiative. The key note will be presented by Ass. Prof. Robert Kaspar (Seeburg Castell University) with welcome addresses from AIMS President Stephan Fox and IWGA CEO Achim Gossow. The presentations will be from Germany, Switzerland, Argentina, India and IFA.

The inaugural IFA Award Ceremony will take place from 9:30 to 10:30. The IFA United by Sports Conference is held right after the Award Ceremony from 10:30 to 12:30. Welcome coffee is served from 9:00.

Within the ceremony IFA will award the:
– IFA SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT AWARD
– IFA WOMEN IN SPORTS AWARD
– IFA ACTIVITY AWARD
– IFA LIVETIME AWARD

The event is open to the public and will be presented with consecutive translation to German and English.

Please confirm your participation latest until 5th August by email to office@ifa-fistball.com.

Dresscode: casual

Invitation

The International Fistball Association (IFA) awarded the next Fistball highlight event: The 2020 Women’s World Championship takes place in Chile. The women’s event will be carried out in Llanquihue from
2 to 7 November 2020.

The International Fistball Association (IFA) is pleased to announce the host of one of its major events. Club Gimnástico Alemán de Llanquihue in Chile hosts the next Women’s World Championship in 2020. The Opening matches take place on 2 November and the Final is dated on 7 November. The Club is a highly experienced host and get strong support from the local government and region, respectively. After Santiago in 2010, it is the second time the Women’s World Championship will be taking place in Chile. Besides various South American Championships in the last years, Llanquihue hosted the Men’s World Championship in 1992, the U18 World Championships in 2006, and the Masters World Cup in 2015. “Llanquihue is one of the most beautiful places in the world and the venue offers a unique flair with an impressive panorama next to the lake and the volcanos. At a first pre-event visit, we got a very good impression of their plans and of the strong support of the city of Llanquihue. Also the local press supported the application very much. The organizing team is very motivated and you could feel how important it is for them to host the World Championships. Up to 16 women’s national teams from all continents will join a great fistball competition next year which will be also a qualifier for The World Games 2021 in Birmingham, USA”, says IFA President Karl Weiß.

“We are very proud to be host city of the next Women’s World Championship and that we could convince IFA to award this event to Chile. After a lot of negotiations with the city and the government in Santiago, we get a strong support which helps us to run such a big event here in Chile. We are very glad to welcome the best female fistball teams of the world here in Llanquihue to celebrate a wonderful fistball event in 2020”, says Hernán Mödinger, head of the organizing committee. All matches will be carried out at one venue, so there will be short ways for both players and spectators. The host club sees the World Championship as a present for the citizens of the region Los Lagos and offers tickets for very low prices.

German striker Steve Schmutzler runs for IFA Vice President. ”We are very happy that Steve, who is still an active world class player at the upcoming IFA 2019 Fistball Men´s World Championship, will support the new IFA Board of Directors as Vice President” said Jörn Verleger, designated IFA President. Jörn will follow Karl Weiss, who will retire after 20 successful years in leadership of IFA. the federation.

Today, exact 3 weeks before the IFA 2019 Congress on 14 August in Winterhur the IFA Board of Directors sent out updated congress files. The new documents include the final reports of the auditors and approval of the recently provisionally approved member federations from Fiji and Cook Island. This increases IFA’s membership to 61 national member associations. Furthermore, a proposal for the future membership fee was included to reflect the financial possibilities of smaller and larger federations.

Candidates for the IFA Board of Directors

Motions of the IFA Statues will be on the agenda before the new elections, which will also further optimize the composition of the Board of Directors and creates opportunities for more representatives from Oceania, Asia and Africa, as well as more female board members.

The elections should be without surprises, as there are no opposing candidates. As Vice-Presidents have already in February been nominated Dr. med. Giana Hexsel (Brazil) and Vikki Buston (New Zealand). With Steve Schmutzler there is an additionally still active player.

Steve, born in 1984, made his international debut in the German national team in 2007. His career began as a youth player at a the Saxon club SG Waldkirchen. Due to professional changes, he moved to Bavaria in 2003, where he still lives and works as a sales representative and software engineer. For over 10 years he was the main striker of MTV Rosenheim. In 2011 and 2015 he became world champion as well as in 2013 and 2017 World Games winner.

In a new position IFA will see Christoph Oberlehner. Currently IFA Administrative Director Chris will run as successor of Jörn as IFA Secretary General. For re-election are running Treasurer Franz Peter Iten, the Chairman of the IFA Sports Commission Winfried Kronsteiner as well as board members Alwin Oberkersch and Roger Willen who also serves as IFA Development Director.
New candidates as IFA board members are Rodrigo Böttger from Chile and Kim Kruse from USA. Rodrigo participated in three World Championships (2007, 2011 and 2015) as well as in two World Games (2013 and 2017) and is currently the President of the member federation Chile. Kim played Fistball for 30 plus years for the Swim & Sport Club (SSC) in Flanders, New Jersey, USA. She was Sports Director for the Swim & Sport Club in the 1990’s running several tournaments. Currently she is treasurer for the United States Fistball Association.

Congress files

Congress translation

Unfortunately the team of Wisconsin had to withdraw their participation at the World Tour Finals in Salzburg due to financial and staff problems.
As defined in the regulations, the next best team in the ranking overtakes the place which is in this case the german club TV Vaihingen/Enz. They already confirmed their participation and take the place of Wisconsin in the official schedule.

A similar problem occurred some weeks ago with the female team of the club C.C.A.A. Rosario from Argentina. They also had to cancel their participation, their starting right goes to Union Haidlmair Schwingenschuh Nussbach.