New Zealand at the IFF General Assembly

Last Saturday Floorball New Zealand Secretary General Christo Matheson travelled to Zurich for the 2022 WFC and IFF General Assembly. Besides representing New Zealand at the event and meeting with representatives from across the world, he raised concerns over the implementation of the IFF app to the General Assembly, highlighting that this has effectively left New Zealanders with no way of watching the World Cup.

Christo acknowledged the IFF’s right to monetise their tournaments but expressed Floorball New Zealand’s position a paywall was not conducive to the development of the game in our country and amongst smaller floorball nations as it would effectively eliminate casual viewership in New Zealand. Additionally, he raised Floorball New Zealand’s frustration with the implementation of the app and relatively short notice with which this decision was taken by the IFF central board. Given more time, Floorball New Zealand would have liked to pursue an exposure deal for a nominal fee that could have resolved this issue. Additionally, due to technical difficulties, New Zealanders have been unable to use the phone number registration for the IFF app for the duration of the tournament and the IFF app is still unavailable for android devices.

The IFF response acknowledged the issues with the implementation of the app but argued that the opportunity had to be taken at this time. IFF Secretary General John Lejlund pointed out that the OTT Solution (an app to centralise IFF content) had been a goal of the IFF for the past year and a half. He also pointed to the exposure broadcast deals agreed with countries such as Indonesia, the United States, and Brazil which were also not attending the tournament as an example of the IFF’s desire to reach such agreements.

Following the General Assembly, Christo also took the opportunity to chat with representatives from our AOFC friends and the wider floorball community including Singapore, Thailand, Australia, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Ukraine. This was a great opportunity to share development experience, discuss proposals put to the general assembly, and explore the possibility of future international tournaments. Christo also had a chance to meet briefly with IFF media coordinator Juerg Kihm who will help New Zealand towards an exposure broadcast deal for future tournaments to avoid the issues experienced at the 2022 WFC.  

The IFF’s report of the general assembly and full minutes are available here