English Text see below

In Indien gibt es seit einigen Monaten zwei Faustballverbände. Der ältere Verband ist die Faustball Federation of India, die seit vielen Jahren – wie zuletzt bei der Herren Faustball WM in Argentinien trotz offizielle Meldung einer Mannschaft – durch eine sehr kurzfristige Absage vor Beginn des jeweiligen Events auf sich aufmerksam gemacht hatte. Zudem ausstehende Mitgliedsgebühren hätten in Kürze zu einem Ausschluss des Verbandes geführt.

Auch auf Grund dieser kurzfristigen Absagen hat sich in Indien im Frühjahr 2016 ein konkurrierender Verband, die Fistball Federation of India gegründet und offiziell registrieren lassen. Der neue Verband hat frühzeitig alle erforderlichen Schritte unternommen, um bei der IFA U18 Faustball-Weltmeisterschaft in Nürnberg dabei zu sein und wurde mit dem gemeldeten Herren-Team in den veröffentlichten Spielplan aufgenommen.

Der ältere, kurz vor dem Ausschluss stehende, seit 2003 bestehende Verband hat in einer Last-Minute-Aktion seine Teilnahme organisiert und war entgegen der langjährigen Praxis am Montag dieser Woche nach Nürnberg angereist, wobei die Ausrichter und der Weltverband erst wenige Stunden vor der Ankunft informiert worden sind, da Hotels und Flüge bei Faustballveranstaltungen vom jeweiligen Verband bzw. den Teilnehmern selbst getragen werden müssen.

In sehr schwierigen Verhandlungen im Laufe des Dienstags und des Mittwochs wurde eine Lösung für diese Situation gesucht. Dabei haben sich alle Mannschaften und die IFA ausschließlich im Interesse der Spielerinnen und Spieler, die um die halbe Welt gereist sind, darauf verständig, den aktuellen Spielplan, der hinsichtlich der veröffentlichen Zeiten weiterhin volle Gültigkeit hat, um Spiele gegen die kurzfristig angereiste Frauen- und Männer-Mannschaft zu ergänzen. Diese Spielergebnisse fließen auch in die Erstellung der Abschlusstabelle der Vorrunde ein, wobei sich für die Finalrunde der besten 5 Mannschaften bei den Herren ausschließlich die besser platzierte indische Mannschaft qualifizieren kann.

Die IFA dankt allen Beteiligten für diese sportliche Lösung im Sinne der jungen Faustballspieler, hat jedoch darauf Wert gelegt, dass diese Ausnahmeregelung ausschließlich für diese Veranstaltung gilt. Beide Verbandsführungen wurden aufgefordert zukünftige unter den Maßstäben einer guten Verbandsführung zusammenzuarbeiten und haben zugestimmt der IFA zeitnah einen Vorschlag für einen einheitlichen indischen Verband zu präsentieren. Unser besonderer Dank gilt dem Ausrichter vom TV Eibach 03 für die Flexibilität kurzfristig ein weiteres Spielfeld eingerichtet und den Transport abgesichert zu haben.

Englisch
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The International Fistball Association has learned in the past month that there are two fistball federations in India.
The older federation is called “Faustball Federation of India”, which over the years caught attention with confirming their participation in several international events and cancelling in the last days before the competition. Furthermore, missing membership fees almost led to the elimination of the federation.
Considering those short time cancellations, a new rival federation was formed in India in spring 2016. This federation was officially registered as “Fistball Federation of India” nationwide.
The newly established federation took all necessary steps in time to participate in the IFA 2016 Fistball U18 World Championships. Therefore, the participation of this federation was confirmed by IFA.
The other, almost eliminated, federation (founded in 2003) organised their trip to Nuremberg in a last-minute move and arrived in Germany on Monday this week, against all expectations from former events. The host club and IFA came to know this action only a few hours before their arrival, as the international transport and accommodation is organized by the participating nations by themselves.
In very difficult negotiation on Tuesday and Wednesday we were trying to get a solution for the surprising situation. All teams and IFA decided only in the interest of youth players travelling around the half world to play fistball and finally concluded that the published schedule will remain as it was and additional games will be added on a third court for matches of all nations against girls and boys team of the Faustball Federation of India. All the results will affect the final result in the preliminary round, while only the better Indian Men’s team can qualify for the Final Round.
IFA thanks all people involved in this negotiation to find a solution in favour of the young players, but we want to emphasize that this special agreement is only valid for this event.
Both federations were called upon to clear the situation in India also regarding good governance and both agreed to provide a concept for further fistball operations in India with one official federation. Many thanks also to the club of TV Eibach 03 for the flexibility to provide an extra court and providing additional transport service.

Lara Götz from Nürnberg (Germany) spent one year working as Au Pair in the US. She is one of the lead persons, who made it possible to send a U18 Girls team to the WC for the first time in US-Fistball history. This is her story

Hello fistball fans worldwide! My name is Lara, I have been working as an Au Pair in the USA since July 2015, and I have been playing fistball for ten years at the TV Eibach 03 Club in Nuremberg, Germany. As soon as I was matched with my host family for this amazing year, I searched the internet to find the closest fistball club. As a result, I found the Swim and Sports Club in Flanders, NJ, which hosted the first Pan-American Fistball Games last August. When I showed up there for the first time I was warmly welcomed by everyone and made many new contacts that weekend. I was able to help out as a linesman in some exciting games. Unfortunately, there is no indoor season in the USA, therefore there was no more fistball after the Pan-Am Games. This was very shocking to me as we play both outdoors and indoors in Germany. Additionally, I told them that my home club will be hosting the Under 18 World Championship this coming July. So the USFA president and I along with an USFA coach decided to create an under 18 girls national team. After a few demonstrations and try-outs, nine girls with volleyball experience volunteered to learn how to play fistball in order to play at the Under 18 World Championship as the first USA girls national team.

The preparation for this big event is going well. In June the team played in a local tournament for the first time. With the help of sponsorships and fundraising, now the journey to Germany begins and I am very excited to be the assistant coach of the USA national team.

Good sportsmanship
Lara

All about the Championship – the official Homepage

The IFA Youth and Sports Commission is inviting all Member federations to the IFA Youth Congress 2016 dated Friday 22 July 2016, 6 pm in Nuremberg-Eibach within the framework of the IFA 2016 Fistball U18 World Championship Germany. The aim of the IFA Youth Congress is to discuss and share the ideas of youth concepts from the IFA member federation to increase the youth appeal of fistball. The Congress will be opened by IFA President Karl Weiss and include information about the new IFA structure, practice-oriented measures to support fistball for kids e.g. as school sport and information about the IFA 2018 Fistball U18 World Championships. If you would like to follow the Congress via Skype please send an email to office@ifa-fistball.com

IFA_Youth_Congress_2016