The IFA Board of Directors sent out a proposal for the IFA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SELECTION AND QUALIFICATION CRITERIA to the Regional Associations and representatives for feedback latest until 17th of March 2018.
Due to logistical reasons the number of participants in an IFA competition should generally be limited to 16 teams. In that case IFA should establish a system of qualification which nations are invited and ac-cepted and which existing competitions might be used to decide the admission.
The leading principle for this proposal is the universality of Fistball.
Determination (draft):
1. Deadline for team registration: 1 year before the event (e.g. #fistball19MWC: 10 August 2018)
2. Counting only team registrations from member federations, which have already paid the mem-bership fee for the current year, a deposit of 500,00 € for registration until the deadline of the team registration and no further liabilities to IFA (e.g. #fistball19MWC: fee 2018 and deposit of 500,00 € paid until 10 August 2018)
3. Applying the “IFA World Championship Selection and Qualification Criteria” only if there are more than 16 teams after step 1 and 2; if less team apply all teams are accept.
4. Introduction of a minimum quota of 1 team per Regional Association
5. Decision that no Regional Association should send 50% or more of the participants that means a maximum of 7 teams per Regional Association)

IFA World Championship Selection and Qualification Criteria (draft):
A. The Regional Association should be represented by
a. the Regional Champion (of the respective category)
i. of the year before the event if the Regional Championship is held before end of November in that year or
ii. of the year before if there was no Regional Championship in that year or
iii. of two years before if the was no competition according ii. or
b. the highest ranked team from the concerning Regional Association which participated at the last World Championships if a. is no applicable.
B. As a next step all teams finished TOP 8 at the last World Championships are added/qualified.
C. The remaining places are provided to team from the Regional Association according to a quota referring to the number of members reported to the IOC from the respective Regional Associa-tion. The teams within this quota are ranked by
a. the Regional Champions (of the respective category)
i. of the year before the event if the Regional Championship is held before end of November in that year or
ii. of the year before if there was no Regional Championship in that year or
iii. of two years before if the was no competition according ii. or
b. the highest ranked teams from that Regional Association, which participated in the last World Championships (of the respective category) if no Regional Championship was con-ducted within the last three years before the year of the respective World Championship or
c. by decision of the Board of the Regional Association if b. is not applicable. The Board should take into account national matches played between the teams.

Within the last meeting the IFA Board of Directors approved new Fistball – Rules of the Games valid 1 April 2018 with minor changes concerning the weight of junior balls and ball contacts.

The IFA Youth Congress 2016 proposed a change of the ball weight which was also supported by the chairwomen of the IFA Medical and Anti-Doping Commission Dr. Giana Hexsel (BRA) to reducing the number of injuries.

Furthermore the IFA Youth Commission proposed a change of the ball contacts in the age group of U12 from 4 to 3 or 4. Both variations have been integrated in the official IFA Fistball Rules valid 1 April 2018. The final decision concerning the ball contacts should be made by each national federation on it’s own as there are no international championships in theses age groups.

Furthermore in the German versions the (in some cases) used terminology “Damen” or “Herren” has been changed to “Frauen” or “Männer” to be consistent.

14 nations from all over the world make the IFA 2018 Fistball Women’s World Championship in Austria to the biggest World Championship in Fistball history. IFA is glad that there will take part 8 nations from Europe, 4 from America and 2 teams from the Asia-Oczeania Area.

“We are very happy that so many nations from all over the World participate at the World Championship. The Organizing Team is working to prepare a great event for all players, officials, referees and spectators and we’re glad to welcome all of them in Austria”, says IFA-President Karl Weiß.

The IFA has now published the 18WWC_Bulletin 1 with all information for the participating teams. The matches will take place in the ÖBV Arena in Linz, Austria which starts on Tuesday 24 July, the Final takes place on Saturday, 28 July.

Participating nations:

At the first ever IFA 2018 Fistball World Tour Final, on Friday, April 27 and Saturday, April 28, the best eight teams of men and women compete against each other in Vaihingen / Enz (Germany). Teams from five countries from three continents will be represented. In addition to the continental champions from Europe, South and North America, five respective six teams have qualified via the IFA 2017 Fistball World Tour. The TSV Jona (Switzerland) and SG Novo Hamburgo (Brazil) each qualified with a women’s and men’s team for the final.

The IFA has now published the Bulletin 2 with the official schedule. 28 games will be played from Friday on the sports venue Am Postweg. Start is at 9 o’clock. The evening games start at 17 o’clock.

The local team from TV Vaihingen / Enz will be in action for the first time on Friday, April 27 around 11:30 a.m. The games are played best of five in the system “Double Elimination”, which means that in case of defeat, a team can qualify for the final via the consolation round. Each team thus has at least two games.

All teams that do not qualify for the finals or bronze medal match on Saturday will have the opportunity to attend the Vaihingen Spring Tournament on Saturday. This will also be part of the IFA Fistball World Tour again in 2018, so that all teams can score points for the classification. All teams that are in the semi-finals will receive a wildcard and enter the tournament on Sunday.

A total of more than 100 women’s and men’s teams from 13 countries and five continents participated in the IFA 2017 Fistball World Tour, which qualified in 20 tournaments on all continents.

Mayor Gerd Maisch has taken on the patronage of the Volunteer Program, which seeks out volunteer helpers to support the event.

Registration is possible until the end of February www.fistball-worldtour.com/volunteers

The second edition of IFA Fistball World Tour is just a few weeks ahead. 82 teams from five continents have registered to participate in the second 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 2018 eleven teams got a wild card for the final event of the World Tour in Vaihingen/Enz on 27/28 April“, 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, more than 80 teams from ten nations and five continents will participate in the 2018 IFA Fistball World Tour. They fight for points in four tournament categories world-wide. In total, there will be 21 venues in eight countries on three continents.
Six 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. Please note that the date of the tournament in Curitiba, hosted by Clube Merces, had to be changed. Because of some problems with the venue the new date will be 14/15 April instead of the beginning of March. Find an updated list below:

As the IFA Fistball World Tour having been a great success in 2017, IFA further develops the World Tour in 2018 and slightly adopted the requirements within the four categories.

More than 100 registered club teams and 20 hosts from 5 continents prove that the IFA Fistball World Tour was a success story that surpassed all our expectations. Pretty much motivation therefore to offer a slightly adopted version to the fistball community for 2018.
“We are still very impressed about the positive feedback of the hosts and the teams who participated in the first year of the IFA Fistball World Tour. We learned a lot in the premier year and adopted the World Tour mode a bit for the new year. We are looking forward to a great tour again, where teams can qualify for the World Tour Finals in 2019”, said IFA President Karl Weiss. IFA is very glad that also in this year 21 tournaments for men and 19 tournaments for women will be part of the IFA Fistball World Tour.

Club teams being interested in their participation in the IFA Fistball World Tour can apply by 28 January 2018, 12:00 CET.  And all this without financial obligations or other liabilities. Register your team here

After the Host Registration Period, the IFA Fistball World Tour Events are planned as follows:

IFA 2018 Fistball World Tour Events Men

IFA 2018 Fistball World Tour Events Women

The International Fistball Association is pleased to send you the best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2018!

Looking back to 2017 we hope you agree that this was a successful year with the highlights of The World Games 2017, the inaugural IFA Fistball World Tour and the IFA 2017 Fistball World Cup in Curitiba.

In 2017 we strengthened our position in media as well on TV, in Social Media and the new established www.fistball.tv. At the end of the year we have been informed that Fistball will be broadcasted also on the Olympic Channel in 2018.
Fistball has become a well respected member of the Olympic Movement.

We are looking forward to a great Fistball year 2018 with several international highlights beginning in April with the first IFA Fistball World Tour Finals in history. July is a special month for all fistball fans all over the world: The first Fistball World Championship will take place in the USA: Roxbury hosts the IFA 2018 Men’s and Women’s U18 World Championship. From 20-22 July the Masters World Cup takes place in Vöcklabruck, Austria and just 2 days later starts the IFA 2018 Fistball Women’s World Championship in Linz, Austria.

We use the Christmas days for a short holiday and closes our IFA office from 23 December to 8 January.

On behalf of the IFA Board of Directors we would also like to take the opportunity to thank you for your efforts to promote fistball all around the world. #wearefistball

It will be less than 230 days until the opening of the IFA 2018 Fistball Women’s World Championship in Austria.

Today, the ticket sales for this fistball event officially started!

The best national teams fight in Linz for the title “Fistball Women’s World Champion”.

With attractive and cheap ticket prices in pre-sale the organizers want to reach as many fans worldwide.

For clubs, associations and groups who need more than 20 tickets, there are additional discount promotions, which are explained here.

Especially important: Take advantage of the low-priced early bird ticket prices until 18 March 2018 with a discount of about 30% compared to the pre-sale prices.

Please find all information also on our website www.fistballwwc.com. #fistballwwc

Following the recent celebration of its one-year anniversary, the Olympic Channel today announced that it has reached cooperation agreements with the Alliance of Independent Recognised Members of Sport (AIMS), and the international governing bodies for fistball, muaythai, polo, powerlifting and tug of war to collaborate on content for the multi-platform global media destination.

The agreements with AIMS, International Fistball Association (IFA), International Federation of Muaythai Amateur (IFMA), Federation of International Polo (FIP), International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) and Tug of War International Federation (TWIF) bring the number of partners who have announced similar agreements with the Olympic Channel to 63.

Federation partners include international sports federations (IFs), recognised federations and organisations, multi-sport organisers and non-recognised federations.

“We are excited to welcome these organisations to the Olympic Channel’s robust family of federation partners,” said Mark Parkman, general manager of the IOC’s global Olympic Channel. “As we look ahead to 2018, we are in a great position to promote all sports and athletes within the Olympic Movement, and help to distribute their content and grow their audiences worldwide.”

In 2017, the Olympic Channel will live stream more than 500 live transmissions across 210 events and 25 sports in coordination with its partners to audiences around the globe. Event coverage to date includes multi-sport events such as The World Games 2017, world championship events in 3×3 basketball, archery, badminton, boxing, canoe, cheerleading, handball, sport climbing, surfing and wrestling, and world cup events for biathlon, canoe, luge, ski jumping, table tennis and track cycling.

In addition to live event streaming, the Olympic Channel works with its federation partners to present event coverage, highlights, magazine shows, news coverage and original programming providing an additional platform to distribute content that are complementary to current broadcast and distribution arrangements.

The Olympic Channel is a multi-platform destination where fans can experience the power of sport and the excitement of the Olympic Games all year round, and is available worldwide via mobile apps for Android and iOS devices and at olympicchannel.com.
„The International Fistball Association is very glad to be the first partner of the Olympic Channel of the non-recognised federations. It is very important for us to cooperate with the Olympic Channel to reach our goals, improve ourselves permanently and enlarge our fistball community. The cooperation is characterized by high quality awareness as well in streaming as in production to present our sport in the program of the Olympic Channel perfectly”, said IFA President Karl Weiss. “IFA is looking forward to broadcast some 2018 Fistball highlight events on the Olympic Channel as the IFA 2018 Fistball Women´s World Championship in Austria in July.”

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About the Olympic Channel
The Olympic Channel is a multi-platform destination where fans can discover, engage and share in the power of sport and the excitement of the Olympic Games all year round. Offering original programming, news, live sports events and highlights, the Olympic Channel provides additional exposure for sports and athletes 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in 11 languages. The Olympic Channel was launched in August 2016 in support of the IOC’s goal, set out in Olympic Agenda 2020, of providing a new way to engage younger generations, fans and new audiences with the Olympic Movement. Founding Partners supporting the Olympic Channel are Worldwide TOP Partners Bridgestone, Toyota and Alibaba. The Olympic Channel is available worldwide via mobile apps for Android and iOS devices and at olympicchannel.com

Social Media
For more information, please follow the Olympic Channel on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, or log on to olympicchannel.com.

The IFA 2018 Men’s and Women’s Masters World Cup – the World Championship for club teams for the age groups 30 and older – is for the first time taking place in Austria. In its last meeting, the IFA Board of Directors awarded Tigers Vöcklabruck of Austria with the organization of the event, the Masters World Cup will be hosted from July 20 to 22, 2018.

Up to 400 female and male players from all over the world will in Summer 2018 compete for the medals in seven age groups at the Masters World Cup. “We are very happy to award the Masters World Cup to Vöcklabruck, an excellent and highly experienced candidate. The Tigers Vöcklabruck convinced with their bid and stand for an excellent quality for both players and spectators”, says IFA President Karl Weiß.

Only last summer the organizers did again an excellent job in hosting the Austrian Bundesliga Final3. Due to its geographical location and excellent infrastructure Vöcklabruck is an ideal host of this event. “Winning the bid to organize the Masters is a big honour for us. We will witness spectacular matches on up to eleven courts. Furthermore, the spectators will be able to enjoy great comfort and excellent catering. The entire region will benefit from this event due to the value added”, says Bernhard Kudernatsch, chair of the Tigers Vöcklabruck organizing team.

After a two-year pause, the Masters World Cup is being hosted again – for the first time ever in the fistball nation Austria. The date of the event was deliberately selected right before the Women’s World Championship in Linz (July 24 – 28). “We wanted to offer all fistball players from around the world the opportunity to first play at the Masters World Cup, and then directly after that participate as fans at the Women’s World Championship. We think that this is in particular an additional initiative for players from overseas to travel to Austria”, says Peter Hinterholzer, chair of the IFA Sport for All Commission.