 Javier de Ancizar (ARG) and Julien Babel (SWI) attended an online meeting with the Alliance of Independent Recognized Members of Sports (AIMS), an organization recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that works towards strengthening each individual sport, combine expertise, share knowledge and maintain close cooperation with the IOC so that the individual sport can achieve official recognition from the IOC. Since 2017 GAISF opened its doors to observers. The observer status aids the development of each and every sport and takes advantage of the GAISF network. This will further contribute towards their fulfilment of all criteria for full membership and also to increase the possibility of their members receiving the required recognition by the highest national sport authorities and or national Olympic committees. All of these International Federations and sports have interest to join the AIMS family. This very much reflects the constantly evolving nature of sport. GAISF is the entry point in joining the Olympic family. From GAISF membership the new members will become part of the AIMS family.  The meeting was directed to GAISF’s observers like the FIFG. Mr. Stephan Fox, AIMS President and GAISF Vice President, as an executive of both organizations, committed himself to work towards increasing the support to all the observers in order to help them achieve their full members recognition. He believes the observers should get much more in return to their resources, effort and time invested to get their observer status.
AIMS invited all the 13 observers to an online conference to discuss current challenges during the pandemic and post pandemic. The next meeting will be held during IF Forum in Lausanne in November.
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 The deadline for registering the tournaments into the system and including them into the Regional Ranking was June 24th. France decided not to upload the tournament in the system, therefore the French Open will not count in the Regional Ranking.
Every president has been notified several times during the year, and the FIFG has sent a last official reminder letter on June 8th about the upcoming deadline and the following consequences. Unfortunately France decided not to include their tournaments in the system, so the French Open will not count in the 2020 Regional Tour.  As it was known before, the 2020 FIFG FootGolf World Cup is rescheduled for 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The new schedule contains the original format but a bit shorter version. As the Olympics was rescheduled to 2021, the FIFG and the Japan FootGolf Association have decided to change the schedule of FIFG FootGolf World Cup as follows: from Wednesday, September 22nd to Sunday, October 3rd, 2021. “We understand the situation of FootGolf families has changed completely from the one before the COVID-19, but we do believe that it will be important for all of us to get together at the World Cup in 2021 in Japan for the future of FootGolf. Also, we hope having the World Cup in 2021 that best FootGolfers gather from all over the world will lead to a better world after the coronavirus crisis.” said Shinpei Matsuura, president of the Japan FootGolf Association. The complete schedule: Wed, Sep, 22nd: Practice Day Thu, Sep, 23rd: Practice Day, Welcome Party Fri, Sep, 24th: Individual, 1st Round (Group A) Sat, Sep, 25th: Individual, 1st Round (Group B) Sun, Sep, 26th: Individual, 2nd Round (Group A) Mon, Sep, 27th: Individual, 2nd Round (Group B) Tue, Sep, 28th: Individual, 3rd Round for the top 300 players from each category & extra round for the other 200 players. Wed, Sep, 29th: Individual Final Round for the top 200 players from each category & extra round for the others, Awarding Ceremony. Thu, Sep, 30th: 1st Round for team competition (18 holes) Fri, Oct, 1st: Quarter finals for team competition (18 holes) Sat, Oct, 2nd: Semi finals for team competition (18 holes) Sun, Oct, 3rd: Final for team competition (18 holes), Awarding Ceremony, Farewell Party There are players already qualified for the individual tournament in 2019 thanks to their results in the previous World Tour.  The 2020/2021 World Tour restarts in September.
 Given the results carried out in a questionnaire by the FIFG in June, it has been decided that the World Tour will not resume on July 1st. After analyzing several factors and the results, the FIFG has determined the World Tour will resume from September 1st through August 31st in 2021.
The FIFG has asked their member countries about the different situations. They have provided their local restrictions and opinions regarding the practice of FootGolf. There is a lot of uncertainty in most countries of when everything will be normalized, all is basically assumptions. It was clear, the World Tour can not be resumed from July, but it can be restarted from September. The actual World Tour ends on 31st August 2021. The tournaments played prior to the suspension (March 27th), will count towards the rankings. These tournaments will be discounted from the amount each Region can organize. For instance, Region 1 already had a FIFG 500 in March; they now have two FIFG 500 remaining until August 31st in 2021.  As the FIFG Board decided to give the opportunity to the Regions to decide if they want to hold their FootGolf events as part of the Regional Tour, Europe, Asia and Oceania decided to start the Regional Tour on the first weekend of June 2020. The American continent is still waiting for better circumstances.
FIFG asked the members how they can go on with the Regionals in times when the World Tour is suspended. In Region 1 (North & Central America) and in Region 2 (South America) it is not possible to resume the FootGolf season now with the Regionals. After the governments lightened the rule in European countries, Region 3 decided to restart the Regional Tour from 1st June. It means the first FootGolf weekend is going to be the upcoming one. Asia & Oceania (Region 4) are also let to hold the Regionals as it was planned before. Regional Tours consist of FIFG 50, 100, 250, 500 and 1000. Every region can organize any of these tournaments, though the FIFG 250, 500 and 1000 will only count for the regional rankings if it is organized prior to the reestablishment of the World Tour competitions. While the World Tour is suspended these tournaments should be differentiated with the letter R (regional) and the region number. For example, a FIFG 500 in region 3 would be a R3-500. Taking part in the Regionals, players need to have the World Tour licence!  The COVID-19 pandemic makes everything harder nowadays and the fight against the virus has a different status in every country. FIFG asked the members how they can go on with the Regionals in times when the World Tour is suspended.
The FIFG carried out another questionnaire to obtain information regarding all of the country members’ thoughts of the implementation of the Regional Tour. The results have indicated that more than 70% believe it should be decided within each region. “Every region is living different realities; therefore, we believe Regional Tour tournaments should be considered as an internal decision.“ said Javier de Ancizar, World Tour director. Regional Tours consist of FIFG 50, 100, 250, 500 and 1000. Every region can organize any of these tournaments, though the FIFG 250, 500 and 1000 will only count for the regional rankings if it is organized prior to the reestablishment of the World Tour competitions. While the World Tour is suspended these tournaments should be differentiated with the letter R (regional) and the region number. For example, a FIFG 500 in region 3 would be a R3-500. “We believe this will help the player know what they are competing for.” he added.  After evaluating all country responses and feedback, the FIFG decided to postpone the continuation of the World Tour at least until July 1st. FIFG keeps following the worldwide situation and makes a decision on June 15th.
The FIFG has shared a questionnaire with all the country members in order to see what the FootGolf condition is across the globe due to the international health emergency of the COVID-19. The results show:
“On the weekly board meeting, FIFG decided to postpone the continuation of the World Tour at least until July 1st. We will take the next 30 days to keep examining all the country regulations and ratify or rectify our decision on June 15th.” said Javier de Ancizar, World Tour director.  The BlueGolf console is officially ready to operate. The members have started to upload the few tournaments held in 2020.
The new scoring and ranking system have been tested and developed in the last months. A lot of members have already started to try and use the BlueGolf system. Those countries that have organized FIFG tournaments need to add tournament scores and link them to the POY rankings. They should also edit the calendar and reschedule the tournaments for after June 1st.  With the postponement of the World Cup until 2021, and the impossibility to run the World Tour 2020 as expected, the first FIFG Masters will take place in 2022 instead of 2021.
As it was written in the World Tour 2020 guidelines, the Masters will be played every year with the best National, Regional and World Tour players. This tournament will take place in parallel with one of the Major tournaments of the following year (rotating every year among the 4 Regions) in order to take advantage of the organizing structure, logistics, etc. The plan was to hold the first Masters in 2021. Because of the postponed World Cup and the suspended World Tour, FIFG decided to move the first Masters to 2022.  Because of the economic instability, FIFG made financial decisions to help the members to hold tournaments in the future.  The problem of COVID-19 is clearly affecting local businesses and creating financial and economic instability all over the world. In this regard, in case the World Tour resets this year, FIFG decided to eliminate all fees for those that will host FIFG 250, FIFG 500 and FIFG 1000 tournaments. Also, decided to reduce the mandatory cash purse for the Majors down to USD 3,000 instead of USD 7,500.  |
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