Many questions have been coming in on the whereabouts of the new 2014-2017 IBSA Goalball Rules and Regulations.
 
At present they still haven’t been approved and we within IBSA Goalball will inform you all as soon as this has been done.
 
The final draft was completed mid-August. This took longer than expected due to last minute changes that needed to be made e.g.: changes to the number of mens teams able to compete at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games.
 
It was decided at the IBSA General Assembly in Copenhagen that the rules shall be reviewed and up for approval at the first meeting of the new IBSA board. This meeting is set to take place on 13 October 2013.
 
It was also decided that in the meantime the new rules will be tested again. This occurred late last month in Finland. The purpose of this test was to test the referee procedures and the workability of the new game sheet for the table ITOs. A few small issues were found and have been fine tuned.
 
We can also inform you that the Senior Course Conductors (SCCs) came together last month to continue working on the referees and ITOs manual. This was a very productive weekend. A lot of work has been done and this manual should be ready in the next couple of weeks.
 
As soon as the new rules have been approved they will be placed online at this website along with a copy of the new manuals.
 
If you would like more information on either the new rules or the new referee’s manual, please feel free to contact our sports director, Kari Räsänen.