Swiss Alp League was a great success!

The Swiss Alp League was a great success this year. Match stories, results, and pictures will follow, but as Swiss Korfball we would like to thank a few key people who made the League possible this year:

• The organizing task force: Louise (Zurich), Vasileios (Basel), and Lisa (Lausanne), with a special thanks to Louise for taking on most of the work. Thank you!
• The referees: Tom Vlaminckx joining us from Belgium (twice! Both in February in Lausanne and in April in Zurich) and Peter Bušík joining us from Slovakia (in March in Basel), and Ben De Boeck for his referee support on the first two competition days. We are honored and grateful to have Tom and Peter traveling to Switzerland and thank them for their great guidance of the games.
• Thanks to all players, coaches, jurors, volunteers, and supporters for an exciting and passionate competition.

Swiss Alp League will start this weekend!

The highlight of the korfball year is about to start this weekend: the Swiss Alp League will have its first competition day in Lausanne on 17 Feb 2024. Three clubs are invited to join the Swiss Alp League: reigning champion Korfball Club Zürich, KC Lausanne, and Korfball Basel. Clubs are allowed to join with multiple teams, with no overlap between teams. Korfball Club Zürich is the first club to enter with two teams this season. The next date for the Swiss national competition indoor korfball will be 9 March in Basel, and the Finals are planned for 6 April in Zürich.

We are very grateful to the organizing task force (Louise, Vasileios, Lisa) and the referees for making the competition possible this year. A big thank you to referee Tom Vlaminckx joining us from Belgium in February in Lausanne and in April in Zurich and referee Peter Bušík joining us from Slovakia in March in Basel, and Ben De Boeck for his referee support.

We wish all players, coaches, referees, jurors, and supporters a great and sportive season!

Update on Swiss Korfball Camp

Dear korfball friends,

We are happy to announce that this year, the first ever Swiss korfball camp will be organised! It will take place from Friday afternoon/evening 17/05 until Monday morning-noon 20/05. In this message, we would like to give you some more information regarding the camp and will also share the official signup-link! Please note that -unlike the previous form- signing up in this form, means you will actually sign up, and we will also count you for the total expenses.

The camp will take place in Tägerwilen, Switzerland, close to the Bodensee, from Friday-afternoon until Monday-morning. We will be sleeping in different rooms, beds and bedding will be provided, and will cook our own breakfast, lunch and dinner!
Our days will be packed with both teambuilding- and korfball-related activities, and on Sunday, a korfball-tournament will take place! More details will follow later, but a first weekend-program can be found here:

Friday 17/05
Arrival and unpacking
Sharing all information regarding program, discovering the area
First night together <3

Saturday 18/05
Korfball-training
Teambuilding
Quiz

Sunday 19/05
Korfball tournament with guest teams
Barbecue!
Talent-show

Monday 20/05
Cleanup and packing
Final activities and goodbyes : (

The official signup-link for the camp is here. If you cannot join all days, feel free to join a couple of days, but please try to indicate accurately which days you can and cannot be there, as the activities will be based on the number of people present! The deadline for signing up is 1st of March. After this, we will share even more details (including packing lists, more precise timings and addresses) so everyone can prepare accordingly for this awesome event!

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Lieke or Carra, we are happy to help!

Lots of love,
The korfball camp organisational team – Lieke and Carra

Korfball League Final

After a fun trip to the Netherlands to watch the korfball league final in Rotterdam last year, we’re happy to announce we’re going again! With a big upgrade even, this year we’ll combine it with an open training given by our national team coach Casper Boom. 

This open training will take place the 13th of April in the hall of RKC WION in Rotterdam from 9.30 – 11.30. Since this is quite early, the suggestion is we arrive again on Friday, the 12th of April stay in a hotel close to the hall: Bastion Hotel Alexander. 

As last year, we will organise the transport by going by car together, but if you prefer to go by train/ plane you’re also happy to arrange that yourself. 

Since we need to buy the tickets, the deadline to sign up is the 18th of February. You can simply sign up by joining this Whatsapp group. The tickets cost €46,75 and this include the following schedule: 
12:30: Hall opens
14:00 Final of the U19
16:00 Final of the Korfball League

We’re hoping to get again a nice group together to watch the highest level of korfball, play a bit ourselves and mostly, have a fun weekend together : )

Edinburgh International Korfball Tournament

By Melina
To keep traditions going, Team Basel organized a trip to the spooky capital of Scotland to participate in the International Korfball Tournament hosted by Edinburgh University. A few Zurich and Lausanne members also joined the Basel force, leading to a total of 12 players (7 female and 5 male) who competed against 32 other teams for the title.

We arrived in Edinburgh on Friday and started the weekend strong by leaving everything on the dance floor of the Three Sisters pub, making our mark as a party force to be reckoned with. On Saturday the day started with a tour around a cloudy, but surprisingly not rainy Edinburgh, led by our local tour guide (a.k.a. yours truly), before getting to the court to face four teams, in 12-minute matches. Games started a bit slow, with a tie against the first and arguably easiest opponent, but then the energy picked up with two outstanding wins! The day ended with another tie in a challenging but very fun game against Holland 2. Although undefeated, we ended 2nd in our Group, behind Bristol, a team we had beaten by 4 goals!! Despite the unlucky ranking we didn’t let it get our spirits down, but instead dressed up fancy and enjoyed a traditional dinner and ceilidh (Scottish dance) with the other teams.

On Day 2, we had to face three more teams and there was no place for error! We started with a comfortable win against Northern Storm, followed by a close win against Edinburgh city thanks to an amazing buzzer beater from Andy! Our final game of the day was against Edinburgh Mavericks, whereby our team made a great effort, and kept the score close for the entire game, but unfortunately lost the match by one goal. This result had us finish the tournament in 8th place, and although we all felt we could have ended higher we still had a great weekend full of team-building, endless fun and great memories!

Finally, we would like to send a special kudos to Inez Trouwborst (participating on behalf of Team Lausanne), for being the top scorer and MVP of the team! 🥳 Team Basel and Zurich should definitely start getting a bit nervous about facing her in the Alp League (I know I am) and potentially organize support groups for victims of her deadly shots. Did this story inspire you to join an International Korfball Tournament? Then read the story below!

Paris Tournament

by Gregi
Are you craving some more international korfball experience? Then look no further, as there is an exciting Korfball Tournament taking place in Paris on May 25-26 2024! Massy is hosting an unforgettable weekend tournament in the heart of Paris, promising a thrilling sports experience and the chance to explore the charm of this iconic city. If you want to secure a spot for this fantastic event, express your interest by clicking on the link and add your name to the list.

Gregi from KCZurich is enthusiastic about forming a team to participate, but we need your support! Your interest can make this team a reality so let’s come together for an amazing weekend of Korfball and adventure in Paris.

Urban Korfball

At the IKF Korfball World Congress that took place in Taipei during the IKF World Korfball Championship 2023 the newly elected president Mr. Gabi Kool unveiled a new forthcoming innovative format. It is called Urban Korfball and will be played 4×4 outdoors. There is not much information about it yet, but we are very excited IKF is coming up with new ideas to promote this beautiful game to a wider audience. Stay tuned!

Match Day January 2024

On January 13th the first Match Day of 2024 took place in Zurich. The Zurich club
welcomed Team Basel and our friends from Ulm, Germany, and with several player and team combinations we had a total of 5 matches. Divisions had a mix of different levels and experiences with Korfball, with the main objective for everyone to get plenty of game time and exposure to real game conditions. To achieve that, games also included the 25 second shot clock, to prepare for the regulations we will follow in the upcoming Alp League. It was also a good chance for the team representing us in Edinburgh to play together in anticipation of the international tournament the following weekend.

After the games we head out for a well deserved drink and dinner to finish the day. Overall, it was a great opportunity to get the blood pumping with some friendly games before things get dead serious at the Alp League (Just kidding – Let’s all remember the main thing is to have fun… but then again what’s more fun than winning 😈)

Development Training & Train the Trainer with Samantha Jonkman

By Louise
On December 3rd 2023, Samantha Jonkman, future assistant coach of the Dutch national team and ex-player of a top Dutch club and the national team, came to lead two training sessions for us: the very first development squad session and an open clinic afterwards. Both were a great success and everyone learned a lot. Trainers were able to get ideas and inspiration for new exercises, everyone had fun and was able to learn from Samantha. Moreover, the development squad had their first session and had a blast playing together. It was amazing to see everyone having fun and improving their skills. A big thanks to Samantha for coming to visit us! We are looking forward to more clinics and development squad sessions this year!

KCZ and Friends

On November 4th, Zurich hosted all Swiss Clubs and two International Clubs, Ulm (DE) and BlauwZwart (NL), for their annual KCZ and Friends tournament. And it was all we had hoped for and so much more!
The tournament started with a group phase, with Group 1 consisting of Lausanne, BlauwZwart and Zurich 2, while Group 2 included Basel, Ulm and Zurich 1. BlauwZwart and Zurich 1 were undefeated in the Group phase, which was followed by an elimination phase whereby Zurich 1 faced off Lausanne for a spot in the final and secured its place with an incredible buzzer beater from Pelle. BlauZwart also made it to the final after battling it out with Zurich 2.
The final results were in, with Lausanne winning the small final against Zurich 2 to gain 3rd place. In the big final Zurich 1 ended at 2nd place, after BlauwZwart successfully defended their title to win the tournament once again! Overall the day was such a great success, full of thrilling games (example to your right of how amazed we all were with the level of korfball) and we even captured the attention of Korfball Germany who wrote a nice article about the event that you can
find here.

After the tournament, we had the opportunity for some real mingling and bonding over food and drinks. The night continued at Paddy’s for more drinking and dancing. Finally, for a few very keen beans (and survivors of the night out) from Team Basel, Ulm and Zurich, there were a few friendly games hosted on the Sunday, to close off the weekend in the friendly spirit that it was intended for. Thanks again everyone for joining and congratulations to the winning team BlauwZwart!

Happy 2024!

We wish you all a healthy, happy and korfbally new year! As Swiss Korfball, we are very excited for 2024! This year is already starting with fantastic events: a Match Day in Zurich, a trip to Edinburgh, the Alp League that will follow shortly and some newly organized events and training by and with all of you.
We will find out who will be this year’s Swiss national champion and we are already super proud for our national team to compete at the European Championships in Turkey this October. This will be an exciting year full of Korfball and hopefully plenty of possibilities to meet and see all of you!

IKF World Korfball Championship 2023

Even though we cannot cheer for our own national team during the World Championship, you might still be interested in watching the other teams. It has started last weekend and is on for 10 days. You can find the match schedule here and there is a live stream on the IKF’s youtube channel. This might be a great opportunity for a team event, meet up and watch some games together!

Swiss Korfball Camp

As announced on the Matchday Saturday, Lieke and Carra will be organizing the first ever Swiss Korfballkamp! This awesome event will take place on the weekend of 17.05 – 20.05.2024 (the Pentecost weekend, Friday evening until Monday afternoon), in an Airbnb near the Bodensee. The weekend will be filled with fun team building activities as well as korfball-activities. Other than an interesting and challenging training for all levels, we are currently also in touch with some German teams, who will hopefully come and play a day of matches. The main goal is to have fun with a big group of people who love playing korfball and having a good time. More information is on the flyer and otherwise just ask Lieke or Carra.

Match Day in Basel

On 30th September, we finally had a match day again – a great opportunity for new and experienced players to get some game time. Basel Newcomer Alana agreed to give us an insight into the day:
„My Debut in the World of Korfball“
by Alana Valero

My first match day was a day of many firsts – my inaugural experience playing korfball with two full teams, and my first time witnessing a fully set up korfball court. I had been forewarned that the real court was bigger, but my endurance and lungs were evidently not on the same page. As I looked over at the seasoned KC Lausanne team, engrossed in their drills, nervousness began to creep in. However, this faded away as soon as we stepped onto the court. We engaged in several games with mixed teams, and I found immense joy in observing the highly skilled players who had been playing since they were seven years old. What struck me most was the camaraderie and sportsmanship on display. Players from both sides were unfailingly friendly, always ready to lend a helping hand, and quick to exchange high-fives, regardless of which team they represented. This environment created a truly welcoming atmosphere for a newcomer like me. My debut in the sport was an unforgettable experience, and I can confidently say that I eagerly anticipate the next opportunity to step onto the korfball court. 🙂

Swiss Korfball AGM

The annual General Assembly Meeting was held this year online on the 12th of September. Attendees were the Swiss Korfball Board Geoffrey Pegler (GP, President), Geert Hendriks (GH, Vice-President), Jet Bosma (JB, Secretary, minutes), Konstanze Grammatikos (KG, Board member) and Vasileios Cheras (VC, Treasurer). Also present on behalf of a member club, taskforce members, auditors and appointed as club representative who can vote were Ineke Mostmans (IM) on behalf of KC Lausanne (KCL), Gian Reto Nussbaumer (GRN) and Fabio Figueiras (FF) on behalf of Korfball Club Zürich (KCZ), Rémy Böhler (RB) on behalf of Korfball Basel (KB), respectively. Also present were Renate de Bock (RBo) and Annabel Markel (AM). During the AGM several topics were reviewed, such as the activities of last year, the Development Task Force, as well as the standard AGM procedures including financials and the discharge of passing and election of a new Board member.

Board members

Jet Bosma was discharged as board member and secretary of Swiss Korfball. We would like to thank her again for all her work, input and initiatives she contributed to Swiss Korfball. Ben Gusenburger has been elected as the new Board Member of Swiss Korfball. Here is some information about our newest Board Member: Ben was introduced to Korfball through his brother and his wife and joined his first Korfball Club KCL (Korfball Club Roude Léiw) after watching the Eurobowl West in 2007. He also became a Member of the Luxembourg National Team and National Team coordinator for Eurobowl West 2009. In 2022 Ben joined KCZ and is since then an active member. Outside of Korfball, he is a bike and Tesla enthusiast. He also likes to challenge himself in endurance events, building up to his first full Ironman (planned for 2025). Ben is also an avid FC Luzern fan – Hopp Lozärn.

National Team Coach

We would like to thank Matthias Friedel again for a successful 5 years as coach of the Swiss National Team, ending with successful qualification to EU 2024 and only just missing entry to the WC in 2023. At the AGM Casper Boom has officially been appointed and introduced as the new Swiss National Team Coach. Casper will be focusing on two points:
the Development squad for strong new korfball players in Switzerland
and the upcoming European Championship 2024.

Casper is an experienced, still active Korfball player and coach. He has played the great game of korfball since he was 6 years old. His best performances were during his time at Dos ‘46, they were 3x indoor champions and 1x outdoor. They also won the European Cup 3 times. He has played all over the world during his years in the Dutch national team, where he connected with many other national teams he is still in touch with. When he is not coaching, he still plays on the 3rd team of Blauw Wit in Amsterdam. As a coach he trained as head coach at MIA, Dutch 1st level, and the second team of DOS ‘46 in the Dutch League, and other second teams of Korfball league. Professionally, he is a sports teacher and social worker for the city of Amsterdam. He is very enthusiastic to start coaching the Swiss Korfball National Team: Together, we will shine and play at our best during the European Championship in 2024. First session took place October 22nd, 13:00 to 17:00 in Basel.

Although he won’t be in Switzerland all the time, he is always available online for support, will evaluate videos. He is very eager to combine fun and hard work during his training sessions of sets 3-3 or 4-4. But most important to him is a good team spirit.

Communication and Social Media

At the AGM and generally, we would like to thank again all Korfball National Team and Club Members, who look after our social media and create such great content, filming, taking pictures and posting from Swiss and international events. Special thanks to Sylvia and Gwendolyn who have been a great support to Konstanze this past year.

Congratulations to the Swiss U15

Already featured at a previous newsletter, but worth mentioning again and topic at the AGM: Rainier, Juliette and Gwen joined the AGM meeting together with some of the players of the U15. The team excelled and played better as anyone anticipated. The team reached bronze level, the first medal for Switzerland. The team told us how exciting it was to play as a team all together and to win 3rd place. Gwen told us that she sometimes had to play against real giants. It was tough and challenging but she really enjoyed it in the end. Great thanks to the support team: Juliette and Gwen. We are happy to have Gwen joining the senior squad. We closed with a thanks for the team and they also thanked again for the sponsorship of drinks, food and our best wishes to them.
They really appreciated that.

Development Squad

Swiss Korfball will be organising something new this season: the Development Squad. The Development Squad is made up of players from the national team and players who showed great potential in the last season(s). The main goal of the Development Squad is to raise the skill level of the players, their clubs, and the national team – and to have fun of course. In the future, we also hope to increase the presence of Swiss Korfball abroad and participate in international tournaments. The Development Squad will meet a few times per season to train with various trainers, learning new playstyles, improving team play, and solidifying the foundations. The first training session will be on December 3rd in Zurich. We are also very happy to announce that Samantha Jonkman has confirmed to come to Zurich for a full afternoon of korfball. She is twice former topscorer of the Dutch top league and will be assistant trainer of the Dutch national team starting next year. Samantha will lead the first Development Squad session on December 3rd along with a train-the-trainer session afterwards, which will be open to everyone. More details about both parts of the afternoon will be communicated as soon as possible. We look forward to a great afternoon of korfball and welcoming Samantha to Switzerland!
The development squad task force,
Louise (contact person), Levi, Renate

The Oreganos at the Nitra Tournament

by Annabel
Saturday morning, July 8th. After what was for some a 15 hour train ride all the way from different corners of Switzerland, a long evening of drinks and food, followed by a well earned good night’s sleep, our SK club mixed team The Oreganos got ready for a match filled day in the scorching Slovakian summer heat – with a beautiful view of the castle! Throughout the day, we faced strong opponents, winning against some, losing against others, whilst in between happily fueling up with from scratch made Gulasch soup and Slovakian “cola“ and beer. Overall, we made 8th place out of 15, having enjoyed the day and competition, and working on our tans, voluntarily or not. Our top scorers of the day and the number of respective goals were:
Sam 7
Lieke 6
Carra 5

For Saturday evening, the hosting team of Nitra organized a movie themed night out in a club, so there we strolled around town, Cruella and her Dalmatians, on our way to dinner, followed by a party to remember, connecting and dancing with the other players of the day. After what seemed to be a far too short night of sleep, Sunday came to be less intense with a series of beach korfball matches – in slow motion – and relaxing in the shade and the swimming pool. Ending the weekend tournament on a slow note with card games and beers at various pubs, we eventually went our separate ways – happy and tired – some preparing for a trip through Eastern Europe the next day, others for their trip home. Looking back to this great weekend, we are very much also looking forward to next year’s Nitra tournament! SAVE THE DATE July 13th-14th, 2024!

First Swiss Korfball Camp: 18-20 May 2024

A weekend full of korfball close to Lake Constance, doesn’t that sound great? Please share your interest before 1 November via this link.

“This awesome event will take place the weekend 17.05 – 20.05.2024 (the Pentecost weekend, Friday evening until Monday afternoon), in an airbnb near the Bodensee. The weekend will be filled with fun teambuilding- as well as korfball-activities. Other than an interesting and challenging training for all levels, we are currently also in touch with some German teams, who will hopefully come and play a day of matches. Main goal is to have fun with a big group of people who love playing korfball and having a good time. More information is on the flyer and otherwise just ask us 

Kind regards, Lieke & Carra” 

Update from the Swiss Korfball Board

The season 2023-2024 has officially started! We are looking forward to many korfball and social events across Switzerland, of which the dates and location will be shared soon.

Helvetii Cup
The newly created outdoor Helvetii Cup has been moved to next year due to issues in the calendars of the Clubs. For next year, we are planning to add it as a fixed date into everyone’s calendar. Therefore, we are asking the Clubs to check if they prefer May or August to find time to start the Helvetii Cup 2024.

Swiss Korfball General Assembly meeting (AGM) 2023
This year’s AGM will be held digitally. All participants, pencil Tuesday September 12th, 2023, at 7pm to 8.30pm into your calendars. The agenda and all relevant information will be shared beforehand. If you already have some input and ideas, please reach out any time.

Board Members
If you are a Swiss Korfball Enthusiast and want to join the board as its newest member, please reach out until August 31st latest, to be up for elections.

Development Task Force
We are looking for volunteers who are eager to support the development of our National Team. We are building up a task force focused on developing new talent to a higher level. Please reach out to any member of the board if you are interested.

Overview dates upcoming events
These are the next events coming up:
12. September 2023 Virtual SK AGM 7.00-8.30pm
4./5. November 2023 KCZ and Friends in Zurich
The complete calendar 2023-2024 is to be published after the AGM.

New korfball rules IKF
The IKF Playing Rules Committee has published ‘The Rules of Korfball 2023’, valid as of 1 September 2023. Just two small adjustments have been done in the text: the marking of the floor on the free pass area and a situation about the shot clock. The new rules can be found under 04 – Playing Rules via this link.

Beach Korfball
Beach korfball is added to the list of games during the world games. This special variant of korfball is easy to play as it can be played at any location and in small teams. Swiss Korfball is considering the opportunity to play during events with the development squad to give our rising stars more options to play official international matches. The task force development will pick up this topic and give more information in a later phase. Geoff will elaborate more in a note on a later stage.

U15 Swiss National team becomes 3rd at the U15 European Korfball Championship 2023!

Last weekend, when over 2 million Swiss were watching fireworks at Zürifäscht, the Swiss U15 korfball team was making it’s own fireworks in Budapest, Hungary at the U15 European Korfball Championships. Competing against much larger squads in the fast moving 4 vs 4 format, the strong team spirit and benefits of intense recent training showed as the team battled, unfazed, against often significantly older and taller opponents.

During the tournament the Swiss U15 team beat some well established korfball countries; Catalonia, Portugal and Slovakia. After losing to Hungary in the round-robin the Swiss team got revenge in the play-offs.

Not only did the team achieve the bronze medal (the first ever tournament medal for Swiss Korfball), the team also walked away with both male and female top scorer awards and the highest of praises from the tournament winners – who had to work hard to beat the Swiss team.

It was great to see the enthusiasm and strong competitive spirit of the Swiss U15 team along with some super talent, great goals, amazing work rate, strong stamina, stunning interceptions, quick counter attacks, solid defense and overcoming injuries.

(Text continues after team picture)

For sure, it won’t be long at all before we see these stars of last weekend featuring in full Swiss senior internationals. A super thank you and congratulations to our U15 Swiss stars – Aaliyah, Alain, Parice, Romain, Guillaume, their coach: Julliette & team managers Gwendolyn & Juanita.

A shout of thanks and appreciation also has to go out to all who helped Swiss korfball reach this great achievement – From zero to European U15 heroes in just a few weeks, thanks largely to one family – but only possible thanks to all of the efforts and support of those that started and continue to develop Swiss korfball – we have come a long way in just a few years – but this is just the start of greater things to come!

The bar and expectations now raised for the senior national squad in the European Championships in 2024!

Korfball at the Lake in Lausanne

On June 24, 2023, KC Lausanne organized the most popular event of the summer, Korfball at the Lake. Apart from KC Zurich and Korfball Basel, two non-swiss clubs, Kwik KC and VfB Ulm, also participated in the friendly tournament. Kwik KC were declared the winners after winning all 4 games in the round-robin league. As a special attraction, an extra game was played between Kwik KC and the best players of Switzerland. It was a close contest and it ended in an exciting draw. After the games, we continued the tradition of playing korfball in the lake to cool down. This was followed by a barbeque by the lake, another tradition of the korfball at the lake event. KC Lausanne hopes to keep hosting this fun and friendly event for the foreseeable future.

U15 Swiss National team to join the U15 European Korfball Championship 2023 in Hungary

Dear friends and supporters,

We would like to share some exciting news with you! Switzerland will be participating in the upcoming Under 15 European Korfball Championship in Hungary. It’s our first time competing in this international European tournament, and we couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity.

As you may know, the competition will feature teams from the Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Catalonia, Slovakia, and Switzerland. The Netherlands is considered the favorite to win. However, we are not letting that deter us. We see this as a chance to showcase our skills and hard work and make our mark on the European stage.

What makes our journey even more special is the fact that all of our team members are family! Aaliyah Gfeller, Parice Gfeller, Romain Nijenhuis, Guillaume Nijenhuis, and Alain Gfeller will represent Switzerland together. We have been training very hard for the past seven weeks (April/May/June), focusing on improving our skills, team tactics, and building a strong team dynamic.

While the competition will undoubtedly be tough, we are embracing the challenge with determination and unity. Our goal is to give our all and make Switzerland proud. We may be the underdogs, but we believe that with hard work and perseverance, we can achieve great things.

The tournament is just around the corner, starting on July 8th. We will continue to train relentlessly, refining our strategies and developing our skills until then. We hope to make you all proud and inspire future generations of korfball players in Switzerland.

We cannot wait to represent our country and family in the Under 15 European Korfball Championship.

Match Day in Bern – replaced in September

The match day in Bern (13 May) is cancelled. We will replace this event by our formal outdoor cup which will take place in September. The final date will be decided by the clubs, we get back to all of you in our next newsletter.

The Helvetii Cup is our new outdoor national competition event. Outdoor korfball is very popular in the Netherlands because of its special atmosphere. The weather aspect can have an impact. Strong wind will influence your tactics, whereas the shining sun will bring even more happiness to our game. We recommend clubs to start preparing for the Helvetii Cup to win the first cup of the coming season!

Alp League 2022-2023 – Competition Day 3 – Lausanne

Having already secured the title as Swiss Champion, Zurich had nothing to lose on the last day of the Alp League. Also, Lausanne knew they would for sure be second already, but they wanted to get as many points as possible. Hence, they played a very strong game, going all in. Lausanne won both of their matches. Zurich however won their first against Basel In their first game against Basel, Lausanne won 10:4. Basel then played another game against Zurich. The game was tighter this time and ended in a 10:2 score to Zurich. In the final game of the league, Zurich for the first time had to give some points away by losing to Lausanne with 21:8.

Overall, the Alp League 2023 was a great success. The games played reached a level we have never experienced before in Swiss league games. On this final competition day, we also had a great referee, Nick Vertessen, joining us from the Royal Belgian Korfball Federation – a massive thank you!

Thank you

A big thank you to everyone who participated, coached, refereed, to the spectators cheering for us and a special appreciation to the organizers, the Alp League Taskforce! Well done and a big applause!

In addition to the Swiss Alp League Champion 2023, we also announced awards for individual players this year. The award for Best New Talent of the Year 2023 was given to Elindi from KC Lausanne. A big shout out also to the nominees Giuseppe and Deepak. Our MVP for the ladies was Anouk. Also to mention is Afke for scoring most goals. Our MVP for the gents was Daan who scored the most goals, and an honorable mention for Pelle who also showed real support, team spirit and drive. For next year’s Alp League we are also planning to award the Supporter of the Year.

Alp League 2022-2023 – Competition Day 2 – Zurich

The second day of the Alp League started with the most important game of the tournament: Zurich vs Lausanne. If Zurich wins (and also wins the Basel game), they will be Swiss Champions. If Lausanne wins, they still have the chance to become Swiss champions. Both teams knew that on day 3, Lausanne will have their joker Nick playing, and Zurich will not have everyone from their starting 8. So, the fight was on. Lausanne took their chances and went ahead. Zurich did well in keeping up, and the score was almost even throughout the game, with Lausanne leading most of the time. Zurich then made use of their home advantage: with lots of fans and the club cheering as loud as they could, the team took all the energy and converted it into some goals. Zurich won 12 to 10.

The second challenge of the day for Lausanne was their next game against Basel. With some great team play and having players from all levels starting from the beginning, Lausanne was able to claim two points against Basel, lifting up their team spirit.

In the last game, Basel played against Zurich. This was the deciding game: if Zurich wins, they are Swiss National Champions. Zurich started off with their strongest 8, and after some initial difficulties took the lead up to 16:0 at half time. They managed to keep and extend the lead and win the game with 23:2. Due to some injuries, Basel had a difficult time, but still used the game well for their new players to learn and develop. With this last win, it was decided: Zurich is Swiss National Champion 2023!

Development trainings March & April

March
After a big celebration on Saturday, the keenest of all players went to the development training in Zurich, led by Lausanne coach Levi Optland. On the menu was the new version of korfball, which is IKF’s new strategy to make korfball an Olympic sport. With some similarities to street Basketball, it’s a faster version played on just one korf.

April
The referee of the last Alp League Day, Belgian coach Nick Vertessen, also held a development training session. It was an intense afternoon full of different exercises, different strategies and techniques. Many thanks to Nick for travelling to Switzerland and helping develop korfball in Switzerland.

International korfball – Join our Teams

Swiss Korfball has been invited to a variety of events this coming year. We might for the first time participate with a junior team during the U15 European Korfball championship. This championship in Hungary on the 8th and 9th of July will be played in a special game style with only 4 players on the pitch. We already have 5 players who are interested, but if you know someone who is interested to join, don’t hesitate to connect with us.

Also, we are trying to get a team to play beach korfball on 25-26 August 2023 in Wroclaw, Poland. This will be the official European Championship and should be a weekend with sun, sand and fun. So far, we have 2 players, but we need at least 4, preferably 6, to join.

Alp League 2022-2023 – Competition Day 1 – Basel

On 11th of February the Swiss Alp League competition kicked off for the season 2022-2023. This year, all three Swiss korfball clubs, namely Korfball Basel, Korfball Club Zurich (KCZ) and Korfball Club Lausanne are competing for the title of the Swiss Champion. The first league day took place in St.Jakobs Halle in Basel, where the home team, Korfball Basel, welcomed the other two competing teams. Matthias Friedel, former national team coach and official IKF referee, was responsible for refereeing all three competition games.

In the opening game, Korfball Basel played against KCZ. The visitors had a strong start into the game, and didn’t have any trouble to maintain their lead throughout the game. The end of the game found KCZ taking the win with a final score 3-15.

In the next game, KCZ faced Korfball Lausanne, which had a lot of player absences and lined up with 7 players on the field. In return, one player from Zurich was not allowed to shoot. Despite the numerical disadvantage, Korfball Lausanne put up a strong fight against KCZ, resulting in a tight game. In the end, KCZ managed to keep the lead throughout the game and to overcome Korfball Lausanne’s resistance, and got the win with a final score 10-8.

Finally, in the last game Korfball Lausanne managed to overcome the hurdle of Korfball Basel, who appeared to have improved from their last game. The final whistle found Korfball Lausanne as the winning team with a final score of 7-12.

In an emotional atmosphere, all the team members gave a standing ovation to Jantine Brussee, player of Korfball Basel, when she was substituted off the court in the final minutes of the last game. This move was a minor thank you to Jantine, who is a major contributor to the development of Korfball in Switzerland and was strongly involved in both Swiss Korfball and Korfball Basel. Jantine, thank you for everything!

The day concluded with a friendly match of mixed teams from all the participating clubs, followed by a nice social event after the games. The teams will compete against each other on 11th March, in Zurich for the second day of the Swiss Alp League.

Korfball Clinic

After the intense first day of the Alp League championship, a few brave warriors have returned to the battle field for a three hour development training led by the captain of the Swiss National Team Daan Van den Berg. Starting the day by testing their agility on agility ladders as much as their aching muscles allowed them to, they continued with accuracy training throwing and catching tennis balls, and eventually finishing off with some good old shooting exercises, keeping it competitive yet fun.

Swiss Korfball in Edinburgh

As first activity in 2023, on January 21st and 22nd, 11 players from Basel, Zurich and Lausanne travelled to Scotland to participate at the Edinburgh International Korfball Tournament (EIKT) where 30 teams met to compete against and celebrate with each other. In total, we faced seven opponents, in the end making 4th place out of 30, after facing a strong Holland team that brought home 3rd place. This tournament weekend was an incredible opportunity to test our
limits and identify our strengths and potential for improvement as well as
celebrate the international Korfball community in Scottish tradition. At that point, our thanks and appreciation goes out to the organizers of the Edinburgh
University Korfball team, the great teams and players we met socially and on the court, and of course our own team, which made the entire experience possible to begin with.

Last korfball weekend of 2022 including clinic by Leon Simons

The last korfball weekend of 2022 started off with a matchday on Saturday. Five divisions from Lausanne, Basel and Zurich fought for the win. Although there were some pretty close battles, there was one clear winner in the division of Lausanne. After the matches everyone came together for some drinks to celebrate another successful matchday!

“Practice makes perfect”. That is why korfball enthusiasts met the next day, on a Sunday morning, for a session. But there were notably more players than the day before, because our special guest was a talented Dutch korfball legend. His name is Leon Simons. He taught us an additional credo, “playing needs to be fun, for everyone”. He demonstrated a bunch of various (and of course funny) activities that give everyone the opportunity to feel victorious. These techniques have certainly already inspired some Swiss korfball trainers for the upcoming training sessions.

National Team in Türkiye: Our stories

At the beginning of this month, the national team was in Türkiye to qualify for the World Championship. The team fought hard and surprised many experienced teams, who thought Switzerland would be an easy game. In the end, they didn’t manage to qualify for the World Championship, but by coming 4th, they are automatically qualified for the European Championships 2024, what an excellent achievement! And if a team steps back, Switzerland might still go to Taipei. 

To give you an impression of what an experience the players, coaches and staff had in Türkiye, some of us volunteered to write a diary entry. So enjoy reading!

Saturday, 29th November 2022
by Vas

Saturday was the official arrival date on Turkish ground for our National team. Me and Sam were the first ones to reach the hotel that would host us for the next 7 days of the tournament. After a rich breakfast in the morning, we went out exploring the area of Kemer trying to scout for the fastest route to the beach, while boosting our vitamin D production walking under full sunshine. After taking advantage of the all-inclusive lunch buffet, we took the opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the hotel facilities that were about to be appreciated the following days such us the (ice cold!) pool, the sauna and Turkish hammam. As we were waiting for the rest of the team to arrive, we enjoyed one last gin n’ tonic before we switched to the “sports” mode. An evening walk around the seaside of Kemer allowed us to relax our minds from the anticipation of the games to come. The day concluded at time at the hotel lobby where the team was waiting its last members to arrive from the airport.

Sunday, 30th October
by Carra

Our first night in the hotel was not a great one. I was woken up by the prayer in the morning at 6, and then decided to go to breakfast with my roomies Anouk and Lieke. After a short first training session, we all have lunch together and then I go on a tour of the hotel, to check out all of its facilities. A small stop in the hotel room and then I have to run to get to our first team meeting on time! The coaches share the goals and expectations of the tournament and the whole team gets hyped up for the first game on Monday. After a bit of chilling at the pool, I go get my notebook and pen for the team managers meeting. I finally get to meet all the team managers (and again see how young I am compared to all of them), get to ask all of my questions (yes, there were a lot), and receive all the needed information to get through the whole week smoothly! Let the tournament begin!

Monday, 31st October
by Jet

Training, shared meals & beers, friendly matches, since April the team gathered a lot to finally reach that point of the first match.
All being extremely eager to see what is the strength of the team in comparison with the other teams. Fully aware that Catalonia is one of the strongest we will play. No pressure to win. Me being proud to represent Swiss Korfball together with a group of friends, a real strong team.
National anthem, shivering, it is real. Good game and the first whistle. Fast pace, strong rebounds by the Gfeller’s. Fighting for every ball. A real match. A fantastic buzzer beater of Julien 10-6.
Half time it is clear for both teams. Yes, Catalonia might be better, but Switzerland is not going to give anything for free.
Third quarter, 15 – 11, Catalonia still a the better side, but WoW we are still in the game. After the final whistle it is indeed Catalonia that wins this match but hey, our confidence grow more.
Time for a happy jump to our fans that made it all the way from Basel to Turkey. Tomorrow, next game, we are ready to rock!

Tuesday, 1st November
by Ineke

Today I’m woken up by a couple of roosters. They started their day even before the Imam of the local mosque starts the sun rise prayer. An early morning it is. Luckily the pool bar party last night finished at a decent hour. Every other day there is live music in our hotel and it feels like the band is standing next to my bed.

We have our daily training at 9am today. We train our shot and the tactics of our next game coming up: Scotland. I’m in the starting 8, so I take some time to practice the national anthem of Switzerland. I realize that it is made in German and the French translation is impossible to get. Words just don’t fit the melody. I decide to follow Federer and Wawrinka and just keep my mouth shut, while looking seriously straight ahead. My supporters at home make the comment later that I should do better on that part. I play the first half where we are able to get the lead of the game, but the Scottish team is tight behind: 8-7 at half time.

In the third quarter it gets really tense. The Scottish team takes the lead for a bit. A wake up call to get back into the game. We take a bigger lead now and are able to finish the game with a 14-11 win.To end the day we go and watch the very tense game between Catalonia and Turkey. Turkey will be our next opponent and they are strong!

A good night sleep will be required! Luckily no pool party tonight. And let’s hope the roosters have a long sleep as well (and the Imam runs late on his prayers).

Wednesday, 2nd November
by Ben

After the win against Scotland on Tuesday we knew that the game against Turkey would decide if we could play for 2 or 3 place or if 4th would be the highest possible. Before the game we were confident that we had it in us as a team to beat them. Unfortunately they started really strong and we weren’t helped by the decisions of the ref. Carra had to (try to) prevent both coaches taking a yellow card. After it was clear that coming back would be impossible we decided to make some changes. Which gave a shock effect and even brought us back in the game.. But the Turkish played their game of the tournament which made them deserve the win against us. Looking back at the game we had some mixed feelings.. Disappointment because the 3th place was gone but also proud of the way we played and mostly how motivated everyone came on and almost changed the game.

Thursday, 3rd November
by Simmy / Lieke

After 3 days of having a morning training and a match, today it was time for a bit of rest. As optimal preparation for the match against Hungary, it was time for our physios to shine. Instead of training, Ben, Anouk and Lieke did their best to get all the tension out of those tight muscles to make them shine during the game against Hungary. Not sure whether it was the massages but we got off to an amazing start. After the first quarter the score was 3-5 in our favor. Sadly hard work doesn’t always pays off and we finished the match with a 23-10 loss.

Today was also a day where our mascot had a day off. Simmy went to the spa, the pool, the slide, the team meeting and supported us during the game.

Friday, 4th November
by Fabienne

I started the day with the usual ritual: breakfast, transfer to the hall, training, transfer back, lunch and getting ready for the game. There was even some time to chill by the pool and enjoy the sun and the fun company of the teammates.

Then it was game time. I had full trust in my teammates that they would rock this game and supported them with the loudest “Hopp Schwiiz” shouting I could offer. And they did, after a few goals into our korf, we managed to take the lead. That’s when I was told to warm up and to join the game. I was super enthusiastic to show what I have trained for over the last months. We fought hard, but soon got some goals against us.

I was then subbed off and on again in the other division. I took it as a fresh start and things worked better. Some nice feed positions, runners, shots from the outside. I could focus more on my opponent, there were no more runners against me and we only got one korf against my division. Then the ref blew the final whistle, the score was 13:16 to us, we won! Even though we could have won with a higher score had only the most experienced players played, this game showed that we are a team, and that also the less experienced players can be of support and valuable players for the team. I was proud of our achievement. Now, I could enjoy the evening and look forward to our last game against France, which we would start off strong again, and which I was sure we would win.

Saturday, 5th November
by Daan

Saturday was the day where we would play against France for the 4th place in the Tournament. Moral was good before the game but unfortunately we quickly found ourselves behind during the first quarter. We started our comeback in the 2nd quarter where we seemed to be the fresher team and we continued the same way after the break to come out on top with a score in the end of 14-20. Afterwards there was joy on everyone’s faces. All the tension from the week came out it was a great experience to be in the dressing room with all of the players and fans.

Once back in the hotel we all ran to the pool and jumped in while still wearing our Swiss home kit… this was great fun! After enjoying our well-deserved beers, we went to the ceremony and enjoyed a fun Turkish party night.

Following the national team: supporting the team in Turkiye

By Martin Haag

With a group of Basel players we travelled to Turkey to support our national team and enjoy some time in the sun. It was an amazing experience to be there live, cheering and supporting our friends in the national team. Those of us who didn’t make the trip made sure to tune in from work or organize a viewing together to celebrate the national team. Many of the games were super exciting and great fun to watch, from close and afar. Turkiye did not disappoint outside of the korfball tournament either – good (not to mention cheap) food, friendly people and a hotel at the beach made for a great week.

KCZ and Friends

By Korfball Club Zurich

On the 12th November, we invited korfball clubs all over Europe to join their annual KCZ and Friends tournament. And what a tournament it was! With friendship at the core of the tournament, we were excited to welcome not only our Swiss club friends, but also good old friends from Ulm, the Netherlands and some new friends from Belgium, Slovakia and France.
Short games in the morning decided who would play in division A and fight for the title, and who would play in division B, and fight for the B-title. Team BlauwZwart, Vanderbiestjes from Belgium, St. Etienne and Nitra qualified for Division A, and Zurich, Basel, Ulm and Massy played in division B.
In the B division, Zurich could give a comeback after a bad start in the morning, and win against all teams except against Basel, where they drew. That made Zurich winner of Division B.
In division A, there were also some very tight games, and team BlauwZwart, which to a majority consisted of last year’s winner team Tukkers, could claim the title once more.

Invitation Match Day and Korfball Clinic (10/11 Dec) in Basel

Match Day – Saturday 10 December
The goal of the match days is to play korfball, to learn, and to have fun. We will set up the games such that each division will play against as many different other divisions as possible. Are you new to korfball? Then this is an excellent opportunity to play your first real games!

Clinic for trainers (and players) – Sunday 11 December
On Sunday, special guest Leon Simons from the Netherlands gives a trainer development clinic. Leon Simons has many years of Korfball experience as an (international) player and doing courses such as this one. 

Who should join?

• If you are an experienced player/trainer and would like to be able to give the occasional training, this is where you will learn how to do it.
• If you are relatively new to korfball, you can join as a player participant, and learn the basics of korfball and Swiss tactics. From experience, we can tell this is an excellent opportunity to understand our sports from A to Z. Also, you will better understand why korfball trainings are made like they are.
• If you are not new to Korfball and don’t want to be a trainer: this day is also for you if you want to play Korfball and learn from Leon Simons.

Logistics
Location: behind Basel Badischer Bahnhof (direct location will follow)
Saturday: 13:00 – 17:00, followed by social/dinner
Sunday: 11:00 – 14:00

We look forward to seeing you all in Basel!

Best wishes, Korfball Basel

KCZ and Friends & Referee Clinic by Jan Weber were a great succes!

The KCZ and Friends tournament organized by Korfball Club Zurich was a great success. KCZ welcomed 7 teams from 6 different countries: France, Belgium, Slovakia, Germany, the Netherlands, and of course Switzerland. The organization committee and club are so grateful for every single player who travelled to Switzerland and hope to see you all again next year!

At the tournament, we had the great honor to welcome Jan Weber in Zurich. After an initial virtual meeting last week, where those interested could get a crash course in refereeing, learning about the theory of rules and tactics, Jan was so kind as to offer us hands on experience as “the man/woman with the whistle“, trying out what it means to not be an invested player or cheering spectator, but a level headed, objective and attentive referee enjoying the role of ensuring a just game through in-the-moment fair decisions, and not having to do this alone but whilst getting advice by him over a headset! Thank you, Jan, for this unique opportunity and hopefully, see you soon!

If you would like to read more about Jan’s experience, check out this link (in German).

Our national team ranks 4th at the IKF European World Korfball Championship Qualifier!!

By Vasilis Cheras

We made it!!

The Swiss National Team qualified for the European Korfball Championship 2024! After a preparation of several months with trainings & friendly matches across Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany , we reached Antalya, Turkey and took up the qualification challenge. We gave our best against top-notch teams, all with better rankings, and won against Scotland, Wales and France to conquer 4th place in the tournament. We gave our best against Catalunia, Turkey and Hungary showing that we are an opponent that should not be taken for granted.

We shared strong emotions during the games (hype, happiness but also frustration) that reached their pinnacle in the final match with France. The energy on the bench and on the pitch was high at all times, celebrating every goal, every defensive stop, every single rebound in every single game.

I feel blessed that I shared such an intense experience with a group of people who made me feel part of ONE team, no matter the experience level of each player.

Let‘s keep building upon the feelings and impressions of this tournament.

A big thank you goes to:
1. the coaches Matthias Friedel and Ben De Boeck who gave me the opportunity to be part of the team.
2. the staff (Anouk van Kammen, Carra Tillon, Lieke Dam Wichers) who supported the team throughout the preparation & tournament.
3. my fellow players (too many people to list ) for all the effort, energy and support during the games, and of course the amazing time we had in our rest time.
4. my brothers in crime Sam Malkin & Tom Rickli for their creative thinking in our celebrations (and our bro-mance!).
5. my girlfriend, family and friends that supported me in any way possible in the past few months.
6. to our fans that followed us in Turkey creating an explosive atmosphere during every game.
7. to our supporters in Switzerland and in the Netherlands who helped us keeping the spirits high.
8. to every sponsor that made it possible for the team to achieve this qualification.

Until the next tournament…. Hopp Schwiiiitz!!!!

Our national team plays the IKF European World Korfball Championship Qualifier tournament this week

Watch our national team live this week (31 Oct – 5 Nov) on the IKF YouTube channel:
Monday 12.45 h: Catalonia – Switzerland
Tuesday 13.00 h: Switzerland – Scotland
Wednesday 15.30 h: Türkiye – Switzerland
Thursday 13.00 h: Hungary – Switzerland
Friday 14.45 h: Switzerland – Wales
Saturday 08.00 h: France – Switzerland
All other matches can be watched via the IKF channel here (YouTube).
Results of all games and all match statistics are posted on the tournament page (IKF) and the current ranking (updated daily) can be found on the World Korfball page.

Hello Swiss Korfballers!
As some of you will know, the 2023 World Korfball Championships will be taking place in Chinese Taipei, and in November this year we will be heading to the IKF EU World Korfball Championship Qualifiers in Turkey. ✈️
Understandably, taking part in these events takes a lot of time and effort, and can be costly. While the team will pay for their own travel and accommodation, we also need monetary support with training facility fees, entrance fees, medical costs, uniforms etc. 

We’d sincerely appreciate any donation you can spare to help us towards our World Korfball Championship goal. We’re also offering some goodies that you have the opportunity to receive with your donation.

1. 🤝 Become a friend of Swiss Korfball and receive a shoutout on our Instagram and Facebook pages (10 CHF)

2. 💌 Receive a postcard from the team when they head to Turkey in November (25 CHF)

3. 👟 Join us for 1 hour of our training (100 CHF)

4. 🖋️ Receive your very own korfball, signed by the Swiss team (250 CHF)

If you are a company/business interested in sponsoring us, please send an email to info@swisskorfball.ch – we’d love to speak with you! 

Thank you! ❤️

The national team needs your support!

The national team is currently in preparation for the qualification tournament for the World Championships Korfball, but they need your help. Support us on our road to Chinese Taipei in 2023, which starts with the tournament in Turkiye in October/November 2022:

Road to Chinese Taipei: national team update

The national team is currently training, and the final selection is still being made. The next training session will be on Sunday 26th June after Korfball at the Lake in Lausanne. The Swiss team will play in an official friendly match against the French national team, so if you’re still in Lausanne, you might want to watch! It’s great practice for our team and they are all excited for the first official game of the season!

Update from the board

Strategy session

In the shade of trees at the Hönggerberg campus of the ETH Zurich, we had a great session discussing how we see korfball in Switzerland in the next 1-2 seasons, but mostly in the long(er) term. Thanks to Jantine for providing some drinks and snacks. We thank all participants from the club boards, the national team coaches, and the SK board members for their active preparation and/or participation, this is greatly appreciated!

Call for a new Cup name

One of the ideas and wishes of the clubs is to form a new outdoor cup competition! We are very excited about this idea! To get things going we will need a new name for this tournament!! Here is one to inspire you: The Alp Breeze Cup. We want you to get creative and find a name for our new outdoor cup!
If you are more of a visual person and have an idea for a logo instead of a name, feel free to pitch your idea for that as well. Anything is welcome! Let your creative spirit flow!
Send us your ideas by the 15th of July 2022. We will vote for the final name on the AGM, 20th of August. Looking forward to your ideas!!!

Call for the perfect partnership match

With the latest strategy session, we have finalized and determined our values:
Teamwork      Energy      Equality      International      Friendship

To support our funding we are looking to find companies that match our values and have the potential to become a friend or a long term partner of the Swiss Korfball. If you know a company you think that would be a „Perfect Match“ in terms of values, let us know! We would be grateful for any good recommendations and ideas

Calendar 2022-2023 published!

We have a lot of new dates for you! Swiss Korfball, in agreement with the clubs, have announced the calendar for next seasons. The dates of all currently planned events (and likely more to come!) can be found on our website: go to calendar.

Exciting news from IKF

The IKF announced the members of the IKF Olympic Format Taskforce. This taskforce is responsible to lead the project aimed at helping IKF to determine which of the new Korfball formats, with a smaller number of players compared to traditional Korfball8, has the largest chance of broad appeal among athletes, fans, National and Regional Federations and sponsors with the ultimate goal of appealing to the IOC for a possible inclusion on the Olympic program. The members of the Taskforce are Gabi Kool, Jorge Rodrigues e Sousa, Samiha Dabholkar, Jens van Poucke, Ya-Wen Lin, Marjan de Jong, Williard Johnson and our very own Geert Hendriks.

The project has been initiated in Q1 2022 and is expected to be completed by Q3 2023 after which the promotion towards the IOC will be initiated as part of a more holistic Olympic inclusion strategy. Key milestones are the creation of a research framework, including the competitive landscape of other sports and mapping out possible appeal among all stakeholders; field research among all identified stakeholders including possible competition formats, playing formats and the creation of a scaling framework. This will be followed by a presentation to IKF of the report and recommendation to support IKF’s Executive Committee in their decision making. Following that decision during the World Korfball Congress in 2023 at the World Championship in Chinese Taipei, IKF will then start the roll out, scaling activities and active promotion of its chosen format towards IOC as well as the World Games. More information about the members and a reaction of Gabi Kool, chair of the Taskforce, can be found here.

Korfball in Bern

Korfball Bern is on its way! After 2 training sessions in April and 2 in May, leading up to the match day in Bern last week (see for a full story below), the group of players in Bern is growing! At a field in Neufeld, outdoor korfball has been being played by a fantastic group of people under the guidance of trainers Daan and Lize. With Daan as head coach and team captain on the match day, the group hopes to continue growing. Already 4 new faces were seen due to great advertisement on Meetup, and players from other clubs have been joining on a semi-regular basis too. Check out the Facebook and Instagram pages of Bern, and feel free to promote this sport among your friends/colleagues/fellow students living in the Bern area.

As Swiss Korfball is very proud on all efforts taken by Daan and fellow local Bern players, they were rewarded with a ball, proudly presented by Geert on behalf of the SK board during the match day.

More outdoor training sessions are already planned. Weekly training sessions take place on Tuesdays. Material out/walk in: 18.30-18.45h and start of the training at 19.00h until 20.30h. Please register via Meetup or let Daan know
you will join so each training can be tailored to the number of people joining. See you in Bern!

Match day in Bern

Bern is not only located at the geographical center of Switzerland, but also right between the three Swiss clubs Lausanne, Basel and Zurich. Hence, we were all excited that we didn’t have to travel too far, and that we could at the same time support our newest club Bern.

Five divisions had signed up for the match day, two from Zurich and one each from Lausanne, Basel and – of course – Bern. Five divisions mean that four would always play, and one would be responsible for score keeping and refereeing, giving everyone more than enough playing time. The final score showed how equal the divisions were, three teams placed second, and we
were all very happy to congratulate Bern on their win! We’d like to thank the host Ineke, organiser KC Lausanne and Daan as the local support. Furthermore, it was excellent to see some new referees, and to have Geoff there too, who supported us and took a lot of nice pictures!

Swiss Korfball looking for help

We need you! The Swiss Korfball Federation is completely run by volunteers, and we are so grateful for everyone’s efforts. This season alone, we have people in the SK board, a social media team, an Alp League taskforce, national team staff, event organizers, many volunteers at all (starting) clubs, and many more. We are so grateful to all of you. Many of you have already informed us that you are willing to continue in their role next season, or moving on to some new adventures. To keep korfball active in the next year(s) in Switzerland, we are now looking for more volunteers. 

We are looking for support in the SK board, a webmaster, and many event organizers for upcoming events like korfball clinics, train-the-trainer events, and referee clinics. 

We also welcome people with new ideas or to continue and support Swiss Korfball to keep our sport alive and kicking. Are you willing to help too? Let us know by talking to us at the Korfball at the Lake event in Lausanne or contact us via info@swisskorfball.ch or directly via phone or whatsapp. Did you know some of our volunteers were featured on social media and the website last year? Check this out (scroll down to “Our people”)! Join this fantastic group of people : )

Korfball comes to Bern!

Korfball Bern has started with open training sessions in April and May. You are welcome to join their training on 12th, 19th April, 3rd May and 10th May. Sign up here via the Doodle so the trainer knows how many people to expect. All four training sessions will be outdoors. Please share within your network and invite your friends/colleagues/acquaintances that live in or near Bern. You can find more information at the Facebook page, see you in Bern!

Alp League: Final

On 26th March, we had the final of the Alp League. Even though Basel had already won two games and hence also the title of Swiss National Champion, Zurich and Basel still played the last official game. The atmosphere was a lot more relaxed than before previous games, seeing the result would no longer determine the champion. Zurich’s goal was to start off better than in the previous two games, which, despite not having the full team available and almost no subs, they achieved. It was a very tight game from the beginning, with Zurich drawing or not being far behind Basel. 

In the end, Basel got their Hattrick and decided the last game for them, thanks to great team play, some amazing long shots and excellent scoring at penalties. 

The Alp League 2022 was a success: not only did we all have fun and connected more within the Swiss clubs, but most of all, all teams displayed a solid level of Korfball. The Alp League is proof of how far Korfball in Switzerland has come: full teams with subs, playing tactical, fighting for the win. For each game, we also had official referees from the Netherlands or Belgium. Overall, we are proud of how far Swiss Korfball has come, and of Basel, who for the first time claimed the title as Swiss Champion, congratulations!

The Swiss Korfball Federation would like to thank the KBKB for their support in the development of korfball in Switzerland. A big thanks to both Nick Vertessen (Alp League Day 3) and Hans Van Hellemont (Alp League Day 1) for refereeing all matches, and their additional useful feedback to all players – this is much appreciated! Also many thanks to Tom Rickli (Alp League Day 2) for refereeing, the Alp League Taskforce Ben and Vasilis for the organization, and all players and clubs for joining this year’s national championship.

Interview with Renate: President of Korfball Basel

How do you feel about Basel winning the Alp League for the first time?
Winning the Alp League for the first time was a very special moment! We had a good start in the first game (or actually all games) that gave us a great boost. After winning the first game we knew that it was possible to win the league and I’m very happy that we did.

What does it mean for Basel as a club?
It’s a big milestone for our club that has only existed for 3 years. Many of our players are new to korfball, we learned a lot and grew as a team during the tournament.

How did you celebrate your first Alp League win?
Our celebration was kind of spread out over multiple days. We had some celebrations after the second and last alp league day, including champagne in the shower, and we dressed up “Basel chic” for the dinner following our AGM. Right now the cup is touring the households of our players.

Clinic with Nick Vertessen

After a short night with our bellies filled with friet and bitterballen, some of us started the day with a slow breakfast while others went for a walk at the very beautiful lake Geneva.

Afterwards, everyone headed to the sports hall again, where we got together in the conference room to discuss some defensive tactics. Nick Vertessen from the Belgian Korfball Federation (KBKB) explained the different tactics and some other tips & tricks. This was then put to the test in a fun training with a lot of 4 vs 4. All together a cool day where we learned a lot thanks to Nick.

Swiss Korfball would like to thank Nick and the KBKB for their support of development of korfball in Switzerland!

Road to Chinese Taipei

In the weekend of 23/24 April, the national team selection training took place in Basel. A variety of people joined from Lausanne, Bern, Zurich, Basel and the Netherlands. Coaches Matthias and Ben had a close look at all the eligible players and challenged them with some tactics, a lot of shooting and the infamous “Cooper test”. They now have the tough job to make a selection by the end of the month and decide who will go to the IKF EU World Championship Qualifiers in Antalya in the first week of November of this year. Make sure to read our next newspaper for more information on the team!

Alp League: Review of Day 2

Both Zurich and Basel players entered the sports hall with nervous faces: Zurich, because they knew they needed a win, Basel, because they were still looking for a 4th girl, as COVID drastically reduced their team size. When referee Tom Rickli blew the starting whistle, Basel had managed to find a solution for their girl-problem and started off with some very nice goals, putting
themselves into a 5-0 lead. This déjà-vu startled the Zurich players and they started scoring and showed great effort. Both teams were able to display a solid level of Korfball, but unlucky Zurich did not manage to catch up with the leading Basel team, despite many excellent chances.

The 10-7 win for Basel ends Zurich’s 2-year winning streak, and Basel has been able to claim their first ever title as Swiss national champion through brilliant team work and shooting skills, even before the Alp league is officially finished. Swiss Korfball congratulates Basel for their achievement. While the third Alp League event on 26th March now no longer decides the Alp League outcome, it will for sure be a fun day of Korfball!

Road to Chinese Taipei

The national team taskforce is quietly working in the background. They had a staff meeting and the prospective players have received an information email recently, confirming the latest information and training dates. The selection training takes place in less than a month, exciting times are coming! In the meantime, the IKF has drawn the teams and Switzerland will be playing in Ankara, Turkey from 31st October – 5th November. With Turkey, Scotland and Wales, we will have some familiar faces in our group, but also some new (highly challenging) territory to conquer with Hungary, Catalonia and France.

Swiss Alp League 2021-2022 started!

The games are on! On Saturday 12 February, the Swiss Alp League of the 2021-
2022 season started in Basel. Under the guidance of referee Hans Van Hellemont
from the Royal Belgian Korfball Federation (KBKB), Korfball Basel and Korfball
Club Zürich (KCZ) played the first game. Korfball Basel got off to a quick start
and was in the lead 5-0 at half time. After the break, KCZ fought back and
showed great teamwork. The first game was won by Korfball Basel with 11-6.
KC Lausanne could not join with a complete team, but players teamed up with players from Bern and KB/KCZ to play friendly games as a mixed/scratch team. KCZ won with 10-5 from KC Lausanne/mixed team, after which KC Lausanne won with 12-5 from Korfball Basel. Great games, sports(wo)manship, beautiful goals, good defense, real team play, an experienced referee who led the games with ease and even gave good and useful feedback to the teams afterwards, followed by a dinner, it was a fantastic day! Thanks to the Swiss Korfball organizing taskforce Ben and Vasilis (also day host), thanks to the referee Hans Van Hellemont and the Belgian korfball federation for support, thanks to all coaches, jury members, scorekeepers, captains, players, photographers, and even a few supporters for joining and making this first Alp League day to such a success. Next game will be played in Zürich, on the 12th of March. See you there!

Note the new Alp League logo, which has been found via your votes on social media! Thanks for creating and voting for the new logo!

Road to Chinese Taipei

The Swiss national team aims to join the World Championship Korfball in Chinese Taipei in 2023. To get there, we will first need to qualify as one of the European teams at one of the Qualifier events in October/November 2022 in Czech Republic or Turkey.

As part of our road to Chinese Taipei, Swiss Korfball wants to give (experienced) eligible players the opportunity to play high level games in Switzerland and train with fellow (almost) eligible players for the national team. The first development event took place on 13 February, also in Basel. With 18 (!) players, we had an intense training focused on tactics led by Ben and despite his injured arm, our head coach Matthias joined the event to meet everyone as well. After the different tactics, there was time for more korfball games. Thanks to Daan for organizing this event, and we are already looking forward to the next clinic and games.

Korfball Clinic by Tom & Daan

Following the Alp League in Zurich, we will have a Clinic/Training event on Sunday. This clinic event is for everyone connected to Swiss korfball players. Do you want to take your korfball skills to the next level? Come and join us for this clinic led by Tom & Daan.

Word from our sponsors

We are incredibly grateful for our sponsors and like to be in lively exchange with them. It’s particularly rewarding when we see great articles like this one, showing how being a korfball player reflects the qualities of a consultant.

Have you ever thought about how you can transfer your korfball qualities to your job?

Swiss Alp League 2021-2022 will start soon

We are happy to invite the three Swiss Korfball clubs – KCZ, Korfball Basel, and KC Lausanne – to the 2021-2022 Alp League. The event is a three-day competition, and the winning team will be announced as Swiss National Champion 2021-2022.

Important information at a glance:
Day 1: Saturday 12.02.2022, 13.00-18.00 h in Basel.
          Primarstufe Erlenmatt, Erlenmattstrasse 6, 4058 Basel.
Day 2: Saturday 12.03.2022, 12.00 – 17.00 h in Zürich.
         Sport Center Hönggerberg, Robert-Gnehm-Platz 1, 8093 Zürich.
Day 3: Saturday 26.03.2022, 13.00 – 18.00 h in Lausanne.
         Centre sportif de Grand-Vennes, Chemin des Abeilles 11, 1010 Lausanne.

Tournament mode: competition games of 8 vs 8 players. Additional friendly games will be played with 4 vs 4, or 8 vs 8 (Incomplete or scratch teams). The results and ranking after each competition day will be published on our website.

Additional information
The following day after each Alp League Day the following events will take place:
Open event: Training/Clinic for all players in Switzerland
When/Where? Sunday 13.03.2022 in Zurich
Development events: Training only for players invited via your club and/or the Swiss Korfball board (eligible and not-yet eligible players).
When/Where? Sunday 13.02.2022 in Basel & 27.03.2022 in Lausanne

We look forward to this year’s competition. Please note, all events will be restricted to holders of a valid COVID-certificate “2G+”. See the Swiss government’s website for more information.

The Alp League taskforce: Ben, Kris & Vas

Happy and Healthy New Year!

We wish you all a healthy and happy 2022! We are looking forward to an exciting year full of korfball events:

We will start with our Swiss national competition: the Swiss Alp League (February-March) to find out if Korfball Club Zürich can prolong their title, or KC Lausanne or Korfball Basel can crown themselves champions for the first time.

We will have multiple events for players eligible (and not yet eligible) for the national team on Sundays in February-March as well, working towards the selection weekend in April. The new selection will then start their preparations for the IKF EU WKC Qualifiers 2022, to be held in October/November in Turkey or Czech Republic. This will be our first participation at a qualifier event for a World Championship, and our first step on Our Road to Chinese Taipei in 2023.

In May, another Match day is planned, and we are also looking forward to the Beach Korfball at the Lake event in Lausanne in June as great finale of the 2021-2022 season. We hope to see many of you at these events.

Best wishes, your Swiss Korfball board,
Afke, Geert, Jet, Jantine, Konstanze

Korfball in the news!

Previously, you could read the inside story of Leah Bonga as a member of the national team korfball (scroll down for her story!). That her participation did not go unnoticed in Switzerland is certain: she was interviewed by the local newspaper La Côte about her experience representing Switzerland in a sports team. Read the full interview (in French) here.

Coaching at the European Championship – an inside story

By Matthias Friedel and Ben De Boeck

Finally we are there: The European Korfball Championship in Wroclaw, Poland. It is the first time the IKF divided the Championship into two groups: A (first eight ranking countries) and B (second eight ranking countries). We start in the B Championship. It is our first European Championship and it is our first tournament that lasts for more than 3 days in total. You could feel the excitement, tension, and intensity of everyone each day. The team is once again a totally new one consisting of players who played Korfball for many years and of course players who started playing Korfball just a few months ago. A perfect mix which will enable us to be successful on the one hand and on the other hand develops Korfball in Switzerland further and further.

To play a tournament through a whole week is exhausting: Time schedules change each day and depend on the match schedule given by the IKF. Routine? Forget it. A mandatory Covid-19 test each morning before the training forced us to have breakfast even earlier. Training was taking place each day in the morning, afterwards quickly back to the hotel, taking a shower and getting ready to be picked-up by the bus to the match again. In between lunch bags were distributed so that the players at least had something to eat in preparation for the match.

However, as a coach you are not only responsible to coach during the matches: You need to prepare the match days one day earlier, inform the team about the new time schedule, announcing the starting eight before everyone is in bed and checking with the physio and manager what constraint or issues we might face on the next day. Having discussions with players before and after the match, coaching the players during the match and making decisions at the right point of time within the match are additional tasks.

The new format of the IKF by dividing the Championship into two groups makes this B group so much more exciting: Each team can beat all other teams. When you win one match it does not mean anything, and pressure does not decrease until the very end of the tournament. There is no match you can give away and you always need to fight until the end. Many matches have been settled in the very last minutes. Considering the match time with 4 x 10 minutes the matches are done so quickly that you need to react fast to changing circumstances. If you are leading with 5 or 6 goals, you are likely to be the winner but for sure it is also the other way round…

The tournament has been a great experience for us as coaches. Decisions need to be made quickly, you cannot wait too long and wait for something to happen. You also need to gauge how you can support the team in the best way by taking a time out, realizing substitutions, shouting, being quiet, pushing or being demanding. It was great to have two coaches, a manager and a physio who were focused all the time. For sure we needed a few minutes in the first matches to experience what the other persons needed and how to approach them, but it was great teamwork during the whole tournament. We are all looking forward to the next opportunity to show how Korfball in Switzerland has developed and we are willing to go for the needed extra mile. Next stop will be in Turkey for the qualification tournament in 2022 to be part of the World Championship 2023 in Asia. Korfball in Switzerland deserves to go there – let’s do it!

Switzerland at the European Korfball Championships

On the weekend of 2/3 October, a group of 4 staff members and 14 players traveled to Poland, to represent the Switzerland at the European Korfball Championships (EKC B) being held from 4 to 9 October in Wroclaw, Poland. Switzerland together with host country Poland, Ireland, and Scotland formed Pool A, and Turkey, Slovakia, Wales, and Greece formed pool B. In the opening game of the tournament, Switzerland played its first ever game at European Championships, and THEY WON with less than a minute on the clock! You can relive and rewatch the game here. Did you also notice the new away shirts in white/blue, don’t they look amazing?! The second game in the pool was an exciting game against the Scottish team and the livestream can be found here. The third and last game in the pool was against the host Poland, where a ticket for the semifinals was at stake (watch it here). A rest day followed to regain energy and get back to strength, and with Switzerland becoming 3^rd in pool A, the team played the cross-finals for the 5-8^th place. Watch the exciting game against Greece again here. The final day, where host country Poland became the tournaments winner, the Swiss team played against Wales and ended the tournament like it started: with a win! If you have not watched this game, it is certainly worth it, and make sure you check out -in our opinion- the most beautiful goal of the tournament via this link.

For more information on all games in the tournament, you could read the summary overview of each day on the IKF website for day 1, day 2, day 3 of the pool phase, the semi-finals, and the finals. The EKC A will soon be played from 25-30 October and will also be livestreamed on the IKF channel on YouTube.

Thanks to our amazing staff Matthias, Ben, Lieke, and Carra (coaches, physiotherapist, team manager) and to all players Estelle, Jet, Afke, Anouk, Leah, Juliette, Fabienne, Rainier, Laurence, Daan, Gian Reto, Sam, Andy, and Tom. You all made us very proud!

We would like to thank again everyone who supported the team on the way to Poland, including our sponsors iET SA, Acumacon, Arcadis, NONAME sports consulting, Physiotherapie L. Kroes, DOM Nederland, EFESO Consulting, and Erbe Nederland, and all the volunteers and staff making the event happen.

Member of the Swiss national korfball team – an inside story

By Leah Bonga

Being part of the Swiss Team for our participation in the European Korfball Championships (division B) in Wroclaw, was a sporting and human experience that I will always remember. As a somewhat new player, this was an extraordinary opportunity to learn and improve so very quickly. By playing and exchanging with experienced players, pushing my physical limits and tactical knowledge to new heights, and benefiting from high-level coaching, is the combination of elements that allowed me to reach a whole new level of playing.

After some weeks of trainings and preparation, going to Poland was something I was both very excited and nervous about. That feeling of having only 1 week and 5 matches to give it all we had, put all the hard work and learnings of the previous month into play, is a particular mix of pressure and fun. Thankfully, we had such an amazing team spirit and support group to get us through this challenge. Our team was the party of the tournament! If we didn’t win the cup, we definitely won the most fun and friendly team award!

The tournament was very well organized, and our team management was so on point! Thanks to our team managers, physio, and coaches, we never had to think too much and just enjoy the ride, focus on matches, and rest when we could. The matches were tough, there were some great players out there. But I was very proud of our team’s achievements.

On a personal point of view, this was perhaps the one opportunity of a lifetime to represent my country in a sport and that feeling is fantastic! It was also a great way to promote Korfball among my entourage. Friends, colleagues, family, everyone asked me about it and even journalists are interested. I will definitely take advantage of this attention to promote the team we have in Lausanne and further develop Korfball in Suisse Romande! I am very thankful to have lived this experience and look forward to seeing the Swiss Korfball Team’s next amazing achievements!

European Korfball Championships will start soon

We are very proud of the Swiss national team, which has – for the first time – qualified for the IKF European Korfball Championships (EKC). Participating in such an international tournament means that we rely on sponsoring and donations from our friends, supporters, and fans. The crowdfunding has been very successful, raising more than CHF 6000 which is used to pay for preparation trainings and to minimize the amount our players pay themselves. We are also very grateful for our sponsors iET SA, Acumacon, Arcadis, NONAME sports consulting, Physiotherapie L. Kroes, DOM Nederland, EFESO Consulting, and Erbe Nederland, who support us on our road to Poland.

Program Switzerland (SUI) in the pool phase, playing against Ireland (IRL), Scotland (SCO), and host country Poland (POL): 
Monday 4 Oct, 13.30h, IRL-SUI 
Tuesday 5 Oct, 13.30h, SUI-SCO 
Wednesday 6 Oct, 19.30h, POL-SUI 
Thursday 7 Oct is a rest day.  
Friday 8 Oct, cross-finals will be played against teams from the other pool (Wales, Slovakia, Turkey, Greece), and on Saturday 9 Oct, the final games will decide the winner and final standings. More information on the tournament and the full match schedule can be found here.  

All games will be livestreamed on the IKF channel on YouTube, so you can watch each game live from your home/office! Links for the games on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are already available. 

We wish the national team a great tournament. Good luck to all players: Estelle, Jet, Afke, Anouk, Leah, Juliette, Fabienne, Rainier, Laurence, Daan, Gian Reto, Sam, Andy, and Tom, and the staff: Matthias, Ben, Lieke, and Carra (coaches, physiotherapist, team manager). We know that everyone will cheer for you from Switzerland! Hopp Schwiiz! 

We made it!

Our crowdfunding was successful! We would like to THANK everyone who donated and/or supported us in any way. Many thanks to Jet, Luzia, Lizzie, Carra, and Matthias for all their efforts in the preparation of the national team for the IKF European Korfball Championships (EKC) in Poland. Let’s go…

Together to Poland!

We wish the national team a good preparation with the many planned training sessions and games in the next weeks.

Together to Poland! – Update

We are very proud of the Swiss national team, which has – for the first time – qualified for the IKF European Korfball Championships (EKC) to be held in Poland! Participating in such an international tournament means that we rely on sponsoring and donations from our friends, supporters, and fans. With this crowdfunding page, we hope to raise enough money to pay for preparation training sessions. Are you part of the Swiss Korfball crowd? Help us out, every Franc counts! Many thanks to our donors so far, but we need more, so if you can, please help us all go…

Together to Poland!

Check out the YouTube video in your preferred language: / / or go directly to our crowdfunding page here.

Thank you very much for your help!

Together to Poland!

We are very proud of the Swiss national team, which has – for the first time – qualified for the IKF European Korfball Championships (EKC) in Lviv, Ukraine in autumn 2019. With 14 players, and under the guidance of trainer Matthias Friedel and team manager Sylvain Gfeller, we won against opponents Armenia and Greece in pool B, followed by another win in the semi-final against Ukraine, which resulted in a ticket for the EKC B in Poland!

The tournament in autumn 2020 was postponed to 2021 due to COVID-19. We are thrilled to inform you that it will now definitely take place between 4th and 9th October 2021 in Wroclaw Poland. 

Participating in such an international tournament means that we rely on sponsoring and donations from our friends, supporters and fans. Not only do we need money for flights, accommodation, food and tournament fees, but also for a new set of t-shirts, hall rentals, and preparation training costs.  

In order to send our team to Poland, we need your help. With this crowdfunding page, we hope to raise enough money to pay for preparation trainings and minimize the amount our players pay themselves. Are you part of the Swiss Korfball crowd? Help us out, every Franc counts!

With your contribution, you not only help out the Swiss National team, you also support a team sport that embodies diversity and gender equality. Our team consists of players with different backgrounds, and as the only mixed-gender team sports, we stand for gender equality.

Thank you very much for your help!

Help us all go…

Together to Poland!

Check out the YouTube video in your preferred language: / / or go directly to our crowdfunding page here.