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IFA Fistball World Tour starts with more than 100 teams and 29 tournaments

The third edition of IFA Fistball World Tour is just a few weeks ahead. 115 teams from five continents have registered to participate in the third season of the new club series, which has been established to enhance the value of the club tournaments worldwide.

At least the two best women’s and men’s teams will get wild cards for the World Tour Finals, the former World Cup. “The World Tour is a world-wide series of fistball tournaments in various categories through which teams can secure wild cards for the World Tour Finals, the former World Cup. In 2019 eleven teams got a wild card for the final event of the World Tour in Salzburg from 13 to 15 September“, said Winfried Kronsteiner, chair of the International Fistball Association’s (IFA) sports commission and initiator of the World Tour. IFA will regularly publish the current World Tour rankings on their website www.fistball-worldtour.com.

Overall, 115 teams from nine nations and five continents will participate in the 2019 IFA Fistball World Tour. They fight for points in four tournament categories world-wide. In total, there will be 29 venues in eight countries on five continents.
Five of these will be major events, in which the winners will gain 1,000 points at both, the men’s and the women’s category. Find an updated list below:

IFA Board approved new rules concerning yellow and red cards

Today, the IFA Board of Directors met the 2nd time in 2019. Together with deputy chair of the IFA Athletes´ Commission Eric Kindler (USA) the Board approved unanimously changes of the IFA Juridical Regulations concerning yellow and red cards. The IFA Athletes´ Commission supported the proposal of the IFA Sports Commission regarding yellow and red cards at IFA competitions valid for all members of delegation according to match report form. If a player/delegation member receives two yellow cards in two different games for his team within a tournament, he is automatically suspended for the next game. Single yellow cards are to be cancelled before the semi-finals. This is to avoid the scenario where a player/delegation member is suspended for a second yellow card he received in the semi-finals, for the final. If a player/delegation member receives a red card, that player/delegation member will be automatically suspended for the next game. In addition, further sanctions by the IFA Jury may be imposed in case of a red card.
Minor changes of the Fistball – Rules of the Game valid as for 1 April 2019 concerning the weight of fistballs for U16 and U14 men´s competitions Junior suggested by the IFA 2018 Youth Congress and supported by the Sports Commission have also be approved unimounasly. The new weight limit is 330 and 300 grammes (+/- 10 grammes).
Furthermore, the Board unanimously approved the nominees for the elections at the IFA 2019 Congress on 14 August in Winterthur as well as the Board approved a proposal of the Board for amendments to the IFA Statues to be send out to the member federations on 14 February, 6 month prior to the congress. Further details will be published soon.
Next meeting is dated Sunday 3 March / 1:30 PM (European Time).

IFA 2019 Fistball World Tour starts with 29 tournaments on 5 continents

With the new record of 29 World Tour stations on 5 continents, the new season of the still young IFA Fistball World Tour starts at the end of February. 10 tournaments take place in South America, 16 in Europe and one tournament each in India, the USA and Australia. Of the highest ranking category, the so-called major tournaments, two are each organized in Brazil and Switzerland and one in Germany. The registration deadline for club teams to participate in the World Tour runs until 4 February.

Eight tournaments more than last year are in the new season of the IFA Fistball World Tour on the tour calendar. This year, 29 tournaments will take place on five continents. The tournament series begins this year on 23 February in Merces in Brazil and ends on 1 December in Manquehue in Chile. “We are very glad about how the World Tour has developed and that the tour is well received by the organizers and clubs. It is particularly pleasing to have another World Tour Station in USA, Asia and Australia in addition to the proven World Tour stations and major tournaments in South America and Europe. In addition, there are some new tournaments, especially in Europe,” says Winfried Kronsteiner, chairman of the IFA Sports Commission and initiator of the World Tour. For the first time, an indoor tournament with the IFA500 tournament in Leipzig is part of the tour. The courts in Leipzig have outdoor dimensions, which is why the tournament was added as a World Tour station.

“Tournament hosts and teams are looking forward to the start of the season”

“We have slightly adopted the requirements for the new World Tour season and have integrated the feedback from the clubs and hosts. We didn’t expect 29 hosts in the thrid year of the World Tour. It shows us that we are on the right path. I am glad to see how the tournament organizers and teams are supporting this enthusiastically, and looking forward to the start the new IFA Fistball World Tour season,” said IFA President Karl Weiß. Interested clubs can register for the World Tour for free until 4 February. CLUB TEAM REGISTRATION.

IFA 2019 Fistball World Tour with 5 Major tournaments

Five tournaments take place in the highest category, the Major category, in which 1000 points are awarded. Fie further tournaments are held in the second tour category with 750 points each. The World Tour is a worldwide series of fistball tournaments in four different categories through which teams can secure a wildcard for the World Tour Finals, the former World Cup. In addition to the six continental winners from Europe, North and South America, Australia, Africa and Asia, the two best-placed teams in the World Tour qualify for the World Tour Final. The 2019 World Tour Final won the women Clube Duque de Caxias (BRA) and the men Sociedade Ginástica Novo Hamburgo (BRA).

Photo: Rouven Schönwandt

IFA 2019 Fistball World Tour Schedule:

Photo: Rouven Schönwandt

Annual Report 2018 by the IFA President published

Looking back to 2018 this was a successful year with the highlights of the IFA 2018 Fistball Women´s World Championship in Linz, the IFA 2018 Fistball U18 World Championships in USA, the inaugural IFA Fistball World Tour Finals in Vaihingen/Enz, the European Men´s Championship in Adelmannsfelden, the Pan-American Fistball Championships in Buenos Aires and the Asian-Pacific Fistball Championships in Melbourne.

This report briefly outlines the major developments and improvements made in 2018 with regards to the Strategic Plan 2016 – 2019 of the International Fistball Association (IFA), which was approved in January 2016 by the IFA Board of Directors.

IFA has fulfilled the Strategic Plan 2016 – 2019 in many fields of action with passion.

IFA Fistball World Tour slightly adopted and continued in 2019 – registration for club teams ends 4 February

More than 85 registered club teams and 21 hosts from 3 continents prove that the IFA Fistball World Tour was a success story. To extend that success story we offer again a slightly adopted version to the Fistball community for 2019. The biggest modification is the new tournament category “IFA 500” and we terminated the category “IFA 100”.

HOST REGISTRATION:
Hosts can register their tournaments from now on until 20 January 2019 by using the following link: REGISTRATION HOSTING IFA WORLD TOUR TOURNAMENT.
The slightly adopted quality criteria for the tournament categories in 2019 can also be found there or here: TOURNAMENT CRITERIA 2019.

Right after this process a full list of tournaments will be published in the end of January.

CLUB TEAM REGISTRATION:
Club teams can register for this year’s edition of the Fistball World Tour as well by using the following link: CLUB TEAM REGISTRATION.
The application procedure will be closed at 4 February 2019, 00:00 GMT.

We are really glad that our World Tour encountered that much worldwide interest within the fistball community.
We are looking forward to a further development in 2019.

IFA publishes official Bulletin 2 of Men’s World Championship Switzerland

In just eight months the IFA 2019 Fistball Men’s World Championship in Winterthur, Switzerland will start. The International Fistball Association today published the Official Bulletin 2 of the Men’s World Championship.

Bulletin 2 contains all final information concerning e.g. the event schedule, registration of players and team nomination.

Ticket information for all Fistball fans

The ticketing sale started successfully in the middle of November. Early-Bird tickets with a special discount are on sale until 31 March 2019. Buy your ticket as soon as possible to profit from the best prices! In addition to the Early-Bird prices there are special discounts for groups and children offered.
Ticket prices start below 10 CHF per day for adults.

Tickets are available on: Ticket-Website

#WeAreFistball #FistballMWC #Fistball

IFA announces participants of World Tour Finals 2019

The IFA Fistball World Tour Season 2018 is closed and IFA is glad to confirm all participants at the IFA 2019 World Tour Finals, which take place in Salzburg dated 13-15 September.

The following teams are qualified and have registered:

CC…Continental Champion WT…World Tour Ranking

TV Vaihingen/Enz, Condor and VfL Kellinghusen (all male competition) have not registered for this event.
Union Haidlmair Schwingenschuh Nussbach (AUT) and Ahlhorner SV (GER) registered for the tournament, but because of their position in the ranking and the registration of all other teams, they are not qualified for the World Tour Finals.

Overall: clubs from 6 countries and 3 continents
Women: clubs from 4 countries and 2 continents – 3x BRA, 2x GER, 2x SUI, 1x ARG
Men: clubs from 6 countries and 3 continents – 2x BRA, 2x SUI, 1x AUT, 1x GER, 1x USA
Women´s and Men´s division: Clube Duque de Caxias (BRA)

The drawing of the first round matches will be covered live on Facebook probably in February 2019. Mark already the date 13-15 September 2019 in your calendar for the IFA 2019 World Tour Finals in Salzburg!

Congratulations to all participants and together we are Fistball!

Fistball Australia and IFA held Fistball Classes in Australian School

On Monday, for the second year running, Fistball Australia together with International Fistball Association featured in the Premier’s Sporting Challenge Learning to Lead Program, this time at Northlakes High School just outside of Newcastle, New South Wales.

FiFA President Rolf ‘Godfister’ Petersen and IFA Administrative Director Christoph Oberlehner worked with over 60 students to teach them the basics of fistball, and those 60 students will then go and teach the sport to hundreds of Primary School students across the Hunter Region. PDHPE Teachers were also exposed to the sport and will hopefully now look to incorporate fistball into their PDHPE programs.

It was a great day for fistball exposure, particularly in New South Wales where there currently is no organised fistball competition in place at this point. By all accounts, fistball was one of the more popular sports on display!

Thanks should also go to Ty Swadling for helping to facilitate fistball participation into the program. Both a PDHPE Teacher and Australian representative in trampolining, Ty stumbled across the sport while competing at The World Games 2017 and was thoroughly impressed by it. He has helped use his status in the Newcastle PDHPE community to further the exposure of the sport there, so thank you to Ty for his support. Congratulations to the Fistball Federation of Australia for its great work and development!

New Zealand new Champion at APFC 2018

New Zealand win titles in Men’s and Women’s Competition of 2018 Asia-Pacific Fistball Championships (APFC) in Melbourne. The New Zealand women’s team continued their dominance over much-improved team Australia, taking the final in a deceptively-close 4-0 straight sets final.
In the men’s competition, New Zealand had to valiantly battle and scrap for the maximum amount of sets, as they finally turned the tables on the more-experienced Aussies, winning a thrilling back-and-forth final in 7 sets over more than 2 hours of play, in what was undoubtedly the greatest fistball match ever played Down Under.
In third place finished the Fistball Federation Of India, after they used their experience to overcome the newest fistballers in our family – the Samoan Fistball Association – in a tight 4-1 tussle. Despite having only played for 6 weeks prior to the tournament, the Samoans showed incredible improvement as the tournament went on.

IFA Administrative Director Christoph Oberlehner was part of APFC and used the time in Australia for meetings with all participating federations to discuss their future plans, as well as how IFA could help them in their further development. One major topic was also the organization of international events in the Asia-Pacific Area in the future. All Federations put a lot of efforts and passion in the development of our sport in their region and IFA is very glad to see the progress of Fistball here.

Congratulations to the organizers for an excellent Championship and to all participating teams for their performance on and off the pitch. A large fistball family was formed at this event, and friendships have been formed that surely last the rest of time. Together we are Fistball!

All the matches from the last day can still be watched at the tournament website: https://apfc2018.com/tournament/livestream/

Women’s Championships:
Q1. IFA All-Stars def ️New Zealand 3:1 (15-14, 8-11, 12-10, 11-8)
Q2. IFA All-Stars def ️Australia 3:0 (11-6, 13-11, 11-9)
Q3. ️New Zealand def ️Australia 3:0 (11-5, 11-5, 12-10)
Q4. IFA All-Stars def ️Australia 3:1 (14-15, 11-5, 11-9, 11-5)
Q5. IFA All-Stars def New Zealand 3:2 (11-8, 11-9, 6-11, 6-11, 11-4)
Q6. ️New Zealand def Australia 3:0 (11-6, 11-4, 11-4)
Q7. ️New Zealand def IFA All-Stars 3:0 (11-7, 11-5, 11-9)
Q8. Australia def IFA All-Stars 3:2 (7-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-13, 11-3)

Women’s Championship Final – New Zealand def Australia 4:0 (11-6, 11-9, 11-7, 11-4)

Men’s Championships:
Q1. Australia def ️Samoa 4:0 (11-6, 11-5, 11-6, 11-5)
Q2. ️New Zealand def ️Samoa 4:1 (11-6, 11-8, 13-15, 11-6, 11-6)
Q3. New Zealand def ️India 4:0 (11-4, 11-9, 11-7, 11-6)
Q4. ️Australia def ️India 4:0 (11-5, 11-5, 11-8, 11-4)
Q5. India def Samoa 4:0 (11-9, 11-5, 15-13, 11-6)
Q6. New Zealand def Australia 4:3 (5-11, 4-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9, 14-12, 11-3)

Semi-Final #1 – ️New Zealand def ️Samoa 4:1 (11-6, 11-9, 11-8, 8-11, 12-10)
Semi-Final #2 – Australia def ️India 4:0 (11-5, 11-4, 11-3, 11-2)

Third Place Playoff – India def Samoa 4:1 (14-12, 11-6, 6-11, 13-11, 11-8)

Men’s Championship Final – New Zealand def Australia 4:3 (3-11, 15-13, 7-11, 11-9, 6-11, 12-10, 12-10)