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

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!

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 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)

IFA followed the invitation of IWGA and Olympic Channel to attend their Media Workshop at the Olympic Channel headquarters in Madrid, Spain. Exchange of knowledge, best practice examples and current available technologies were subject of this two-day workshop. Within the event we had the opportunity to discuss and evaluate our ongoing cooperation with the Olympic Channel and talk about our strategy and major fistball events in 2019. We have high interest in using their services in our federations media work and take the Fistball media experience to another level.

Within yesterday´s Board meeting IFA approved new IFA Competition Rules, which are now also applicable for events of the Regional Associations. Furthermore, the Board discussed the Selection and Qualification Criteria for The World Games 2021 as well as new IFA Masters Regulations and new IFA Standing Orders.

IFA is happy to announce Board member Roger Willen from Switzerland as new IFA Development Director and Gastao Englert from Brazil as inaugural IFA Olympic Education Director to promote the Olympic Day each year on 23 June as well as the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP) on 6 April.

The first Olympic Day was celebrated on 23 June 1948 celebrating the foundation of the International Olympic Committee at the Sorbonne, Paris, on 23 June 1894, where Pierre de Coubertin obtained the revival of the Olympic Games. Olympic Day is much more than just a sports event, it is a day for the world to get active, learn about Olympic values and discover new sports. Based on the three pillars move, learn and discover, Interna-tional Sports Federations and NOCs are organising sports, cultural and educational activities through-out the world.

At the UN headquarters in New York, on 23 August 2013, the UN General Assembly declared 6 April as the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP) – a decision that represented a historic step in recognizing the transformative power of sport and its great potential in advancing pos-itive social change. This day is commemorated globally each year by international, regional, national sport and develop-ment organizations to honor the role that sport plays in society, whether by encouraging healthier life-styles, making sport more widely accessible or using it as a vehicle for development in areas made vulnerable by conflict, poverty and inequality.

Furthermore, the Board discussed the preparation of the upcoming IFA 2019 events including the IFA 2019 Congress dated 14 August 2019 in Winterthur, Switzerland and confirmed a schedule of its meetings for 2019. The next Board meeting is dated 12 December.

IFA confirms the registration of 18 teams for the IFA 2019 Fistball Men’s World Championships Switzerland dated 11 to 17 August 2019 in Winterthur.

– Argentina
– Australia
– Austria
– Belgium
– Brazil
– Chile
– Czech Republic
– Danmark
– Germany
– Italy
– Japan
– Namibia
– Netherlands
– New Zealand
– Poland
– Serbia
– Switzerland
– USA

See also Bulletin 1.

The IFA Fistball World Tour Finals will be carried out in Salzburg, Austria from Friday, 13 September to Sunday, 15 September. For the second time after 2018, these IFA Fistball World Tour Finals replace and restructure the former IFA Fistball World Cup.
The winners of the continental club championships and the best two teams in the World Tour Ranking powered by Sportastic play against each other in a men’s and women’s competition.

Just before the end of this year’s World Tour the International Fistball Association (IFA) is pleased to announce that Salzburg has been chosen as highly qualified host of the second edition of the IFA Fistball World Tour Finals in 2019.
The city of Salzburg and the venue, Sportzentrum Nord, offer perfect infrastructure to host our Fistball World Tour Finals.
Apart from the world-wide known sights, such as the Salzburg Fortress, the city and the federal state of Salzburg provided great support right from the beginning of the bidding process.
IFA is sure the participating teams can look forward to a great final event, which will be carried out for 3 competition days for the first time.

Winfried Kronsteiner, chair of the International Fistball Association’s (IFA) Sports Commission and initiator of the World Tour: “We will see the best eight men’s and women’s teams qualified as Continental Champions or through the World Tour as a worldwide series of fistball tournaments in various categories. Each of the participating 100 teams had the chance to qualify for this event. It is obvious that our sport keeps growing, evolving and exploring new territories. Our very young World Tour develops permanently. I am sure we create a great stage for all players to deliver their best performance and to excite the fans”.
Furthermore the World Tour Finals in Salzburg should bring a new motivation to the local fistball clubs to their further development. The finals will be organized together with local clubs and with Fistball Austria so to put the organization on a broad basis.
Winfried Kronsteiner: “There was a wide evaluation of the first edition of the tournament. We are sure the second will be another milestone for this event.”

Clube Duque de Caxias (BRA) currently head the table of both, the men’s and the women’s competition of the IFA 2018 Fistball World Tour ranking presented by Sportastic.
Overall, more than 90 women’s and men’s teams from 11 nations and 5 continents participated in the IFA Fistball World Tour. In total, there will be 20 tournaments on five continents.

Chile would like to host the next Women’s World Championship in 2 years, Club Gimnastico Aleman de Llanquihue applied to host it. At a first 2-day visit of the venue and the host city, IFA had several meetings with the Organizing team and the major of Llanquihue to discuss the concept and get a better understanding of the plans.

Club Gimnastico Aleman de Llaquihue (CHI) applied to host the IFA 2020 Fistball Women’s World Championship with a very good structured and modern concept. Within its trip to the USA for the 1st competition manager meeting and to Buenos Aires to the Panamerican Championship, IFA Administrative Director Christoph Oberlehner visited the city of Llanquihue (CHI) to inspect the venue and the infrastructure of Llanquihue. Oberlehner was also able to convince himself of some important city’s projects (new town hall, lakeside promenade, revitalization park), which will be ready in time for the World Championship.

In a meeting with the mayor of Llanquihue, Victor Angulo, Pablo Flores (Administrator of the City) and Luciano Belmar (Coordinator of the City), Hernán Mödinger from the Organizing Team and Christoph Oberlehner (IFA) talked about the upcoming event and the support of the city for the host club. In a further meeting with the Organizing Team different topics were discussed. On a visit of the venue and its infrastructure as well of some hotels IFA got a very good impression how the presented concept will work and planned the next steps with the Organizing Team. Also the local press is very interested in the Women’s World Championship and did a live broadcast within the meeting with the major. Furthermore a camera team of a TV station was part of the pre-event visit and afterwards Mödinger and Oberlehner were guests in a talk round at the TV studio. “I’m very excited of the venue and the strong support of the city and also within the club to host the next Women’s World Championship. Llanquihue offers a unique place for that championship and presented a modern concept. Club Llanquihue and Fistball Chile would be very well prepared to host the Championship”, said Christoph Oberlehner.

A final decision who will host the next Women’s World Championship is made probably in the beginning of November at the next board meeting of IFA.

Team Brazil has won the female and the male team event at the 2nd Pan-American Fistball Championships which happened within the framework of the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires at the SAG Club of Punta Chica of Buenos Aires in Villa Ballester. The three days club competition was won by the female and male teams of Duque de Caxias (Brazil).

Runner up of the female national team division were Chile and Argentina whilst Argentina reached second position in the men´s event and Chile finished third. The runner up of the female club competition were Sogipa (BRA) and Manquehue (CHI) as well as Condor (BRA) and CCAA Rosario (BRA) in the men´s division.

On Friday the PAFA 2018 Congress under the strong leadership of the confirmed female President Christiane Süffert (BRA) took place. The IFA member federations from North and South America met to discuss the new PAFA Statutes and elected the board. With Silvana Nerys taking over the position of the Financial Director and Patricia Stopp elected as new Secretary now female representation is 3 out of 5 PAFA Board members. As Vice-President Bob Feid was reelected. The new Sports Commission is now chaired by Gastao Englert. The congress discussed the IFA Qualification system for the IFA World Championships and The World Games 2021 – Birmingham as the next IFA female championships in 2020 will also serve as qualifiers. IFA promoted the recently established Fistball Academy for the fistball development worldwide.

Christiane Süffert will stay as representative of PAFA on the IFA Board of Directors. IFA was represented at the congress by IFA President Karl Weiss, IFA Secretary General Jörn Verleger and IFA Administrative Director Christoph Oberlehner as well as the chairwomen of IFA Medical and Anti-Doping Commission Giana Daniela Hexsel.

Weiss, Verleger and Oberlehner not only attending the continental championship but also the IOC Olympism in Action Forum (together with Gastao Englert), the IOC Session, the AIMS Council meeting and many more meetings with sports leaders as well as all parks of the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires for several sport events.

Verleger and Oberlehner also used the chance to visit Chile, likely to become host of the IFA 2020 Fistball Women´s World Championships as well as IFA President Weiss attended with great sadness the memorial for former IOC Member and GAISF President Patrick Baumann at the Urban Park. Furthermore, IFA attended the IFMA “Sport is Your Gang” Charity Event under the leadership of AIMS President Stephan Fox.

“IFA thanks the IOC for the opportunity to attend the meetings and sessions in Buenos Aires. It was a great experience to participate e.g. at the IOC Olympism in Action Forum and visiting the Youth Olympic Games. It was a great shock, which hit us all very hard, when we learned the death of Patrick Baumann, President of GAISF, whom we all called a friend,” said IFA President Karl Weiss.