IFF Event Schedule Proposal

Problem Statement

While the IFF event structure announced in 2025 offers administrative efficiency, it presents three fundamental challenges that conflict with IFF's development goals:

Limited Competitive Opportunities

Lower-ranked teams, new members, and returning associations face four-year gaps between official events if they underperform, severely limiting their ability to develop competitive programs and retain player engagement.

Barriers to Upward Mobility

The top 12 teams maintain automatic qualification through a closed cycle, preventing talented emerging teams from accessing higher-level competition and creating a structural ceiling that discourages investment in development programs.

Hosting and Scalability Constraints

The European Challenge requires hosting 12+ teams, but most capable hosts are in the top 12 tier, creating a hosting bottleneck that may further restrict participation opportunities as membership grows.

Solution: This proposal introduces a European Nations League system that addresses these issues by providing regular competitive opportunities, merit-based promotion pathways, and smaller, more accessible hosting requirements.

System Comparison

Event Flow Comparison

Current System

New Proposal

Current System

• Top 12 ranked teams go directly to European Floorball Championship (EFC)
• Bottom 13 ranked teams play in European Challenge (EC) top 5 teams qualify to World Trophy
• Top 11 ranked teams from EFC qualify to WFC and 12th place to World Trophy (WT)
• Top 3 from World Trophy Qualify to World Floorball Championship (WFC)

New Proposal

• Create European Floorball Ranking system
• Establish a European Nations League (ENL) on a 2 year cycle where results affect ranking
• Play European Challenge and Championship on same year
• Make European Challenge and Championship part of European ranking

Advantages and Disadvantages

Current System

Advantages

• Streamlined IFF schedule that reduces administrative burden
• More efficient schedule that minimizes time on event organization
• Streamlined schedule that frees IFF resources

Disadvantages

• Limited opportunities for lower-ranked teams (4-year gaps)
• Top 12 teams maintain automatic qualification (closed cycle)
• Limited opportunities to face top 12 teams
• Hosting challenges for European Challenge

New Proposal

Advantages

• Transparent ranking system based on current performance
• Faster advancement through rankings
• Smaller, more accessible hosting requirements
• Opportunities for new and returning members

Disadvantages

• More IFF events overall
• Additional oversight and management needed

Event Schedule Comparison

Current System

New Proposal

European Floorball Nations League

Event Schedule

Every two years, a round of games is played on any International weekend.

Exception on World Trophy year, teams participating in the World Trophy will not have a EFNL game that year instead the World trophy will act as a EFNL round.

Host Requirements

To register, teams must commit to hosting a four-team event (one training day and three competition games). This requirement solves the issue of finding hosts and ensures that all teams are committed to the event.

Group Formation

Registered members are divided into groups based on current European Floorball Ranking

Group Setup

Groups of four are created as long as there are enough members, if a group becomes less than three one member from group above is moved to create two groups of three.

For example if there are:

8 Registered Members: 2 groups of 4
9 Registered Members: 3 groups of 3
10 Registered Members: 1 group of 4, 2 groups of 3
11 Registered Members: 2 groups of 4, 1 group of 3
12+ Registered Members: Multiple groups following the same pattern

Each round is considered a European Floorball Ranking round, for each group the first place team is promoted to the next league, and the last place team is demoted.

Example:

A team ranked 1-4 places last is now ranked 5
A team ranked 5-6 places first is now ranked 4
A team ranked 5-6 places last is now ranked 7
etc..

Ranking Ladder with Promotion/Relegation

European Floorball Ranking

European Floorball Nations League, European Floorball Championship, World Trophy and World Floorball Championship all affect the European ranking for all teams.

European Floorball Nations League Ranking

After promoting and demoting teams each team gets the rank according to the position they have in their group.

European Floorball Championship and Challenge Ranking

European Floorball Championship: Ranking is based on result in competition, top team is ranked 1 and bottom team is ranked 12 in Europe.

European Floorball Challenge: Ranking is based on result in competition, top team is ranked 13 and bottom team is the minimum rank based on how many teams are in the competition.

World Trophy Ranking

Top team is promoted to the lowest team in their new league. Bottom team is demoted rank of the highest team in their new league.

World Floorball Championship Ranking

Ranking is based on result in competition, top team is ranked 1 and bottom team is ranked 12-15 in Europe depending on the number of European teams participating.

Ranking System Benefit:

• Two paths for a team to advance to the European Floorball Championship, the EFC is no longer locked behind the World Floorball Championship
• Ranking games are more frequent and reacts faster to a teams growth or decline, but not too fast

European Floorball Championship and Challenge Qualification

Qualification for the European Floorball Championship and European Challenge is based on the most recent ranking round.

Team 1-12: Qualifies directly to the European Championship

Team 13+: Qualifies directly to the European Challenge

New and returning members:

Ranked last when registering the competition (continuous participation is required to maintain your rank)
May sign up for the European Challenge given that hosts can handle the extra member, European Floorball league members have priority

Examples: Current vs New System

A few examples of scenarios that can occur, in some cases unlikely but theoretically possible

Low-Ranked Team

A low-ranked European team that underperforms in the European Challenge

Current System

2029: Participates in the European Challenge, placing 6th or lower
2033: Participates in the European Challenge, placing 6th or lower

Result: An underperforming low-ranked European team receives opportunities to compete in official IFF ranking events only every four years.

New System

2029: Participates in the European Floorball League against appropriate opponents, placing last
2030: Participates in the European Challenge against appropriate opponents, also gaining experience against tougher competition, placing last
2031: Participates in the European Floorball League against appropriate opponents, placing last

Result: An underperforming low-ranked European team receives opportunities to compete in official IFF ranking events every two years minimum.

Fast Growing Team Career Progression Comparison

Fast-Growing Low-Ranked Team

A low-ranked European team experiencing a generational shift with highly motivated and talented players

Current System

2029: Participates in the European Challenge with a young team (ages 19-20), placing 6th or lower
2033: Participates in the European Challenge with an improved team, placing 1st-5th
2035: Participates in the World Trophy, gaining significant experience but not qualifying
2039: Participates in the World Trophy, qualifying for the World Floorball Championship
2040: Participates in the World Floorball Championship, competing against top 12 nations for the first time. The young talented players are now 30-31 years old

New System

2029: Participates in the European Floorball League against lower-ranked teams and advances
2030: Participates in the European Challenge, performing well and advancing further
2031: Participates in the European Floorball League, gaining additional experience
2033: Participates in the European Floorball League, competing against top 16 nations
2034: Participates in the European Championship. The young talented players are now 25-26 years old

Result: A team with a new generation of talent gains higher-level competitive experience six years earlier in the new system.

Declining Team

A top-8 ranked European team with an aging roster and a declining or non-existent youth development program

Current System

2030: Participates in the European Championship, placing in the top 11
2032: Participates in the World Championship, maintaining top 12 position
2034: Participates in the European Championship, maintaining top 11
2036: Participates in the World Championship, placing below the top 12
2037: Participates in the European Challenge, gaining experience for the first time in 7 years

New System

2030: Participates in the European Championship, placing in the top 11
2031: Participates in the European Floorball League, being relegated to positions 13-16
2032: Participates in the World Championship, maintaining top 12 position
2033: Participates in the European Floorball League, dropping to 17-20 league
2034: Participates in the European Challenge, reaching appropriate competitive level after four years

Result: The new system places teams at an appropriate competitive level faster based on their team's performance.

Unlucky Top Team Recovery Timeline Comparison

Top-Four Nation with Adverse Circumstances

A top-four ranked European nation experiencing significant adverse circumstances

Current System

2030: Participates in the European Championship, facing widespread illness/injury, placing 12th
2031: Participates in the World Trophy, again facing illness/injury, placing last
2033: Participates in the European Challenge, fully healthy, securing first place
2035: Participates in the World Trophy, qualifying for the World Championship
2036: Participates in the World Championship and becomes World Champion

New System

2030: Participates in the European Championship, facing illness/injury, placing 12th and dropping to Group C
2031: Participates in the World Trophy, facing illness/injury, placing last
2032: Participates in the European Floorball League, fully healthy, being promoted back to Group C
2034: Participates in the European Championship and becomes European Champion

Result: When an established team experiences a temporary decline, recovery is two years faster in the proposed system.