Around four months before the 2023 Men’s Fistball World Championship, the International Fistball Association has announced the match schedule for the world title matches. The draw for the four preliminary round groups will be broadcast on Wednesday, March 22.
With the announcement of the schedule is already certain: defending champion Germany and Austria, finalist at the 2019 World Championship in Winterthur, are already seeded as group heads of the preliminary round groups A and B. Accordingly, the reigning world champion from Germany will compete on Saturday, July 22, directly after the Official Opening (2 p.m.). Austria will start the tournament at 7 pm. After the three preliminary round days, the 16 participating nations will start the knockout round on Tuesday. The quarter-finals are scheduled for Wednesday. The first placement matches on Thursday afternoon will conclude the event at the Rhein-Neckar Stadium, which has a capacity of up to 7,500 spectators for the Fistball World Championship.
The final phase will then take place in the SAP Arena – in front of more than 12,000 fans. For this purpose, natural turf will be laid in the multifunctional arena for the first time. Among the matches scheduled for Friday, July 28, are the Presidents Cup final and the two semifinals (6 p.m. and 8:15 p.m.). On Saturday, July 29, the 16th Fistball World Championship in history will conclude with the fifth-place matches, the bronze medal (3:30 p.m.) and the grand final (6 p.m.). The International Fistball Association (IFA) reserves the right to make changes to the scheduled matches due to possible TV broadcasts. “For the first time, only one match will be played at a time,” says Competition Manager Sönke Spille: “This means the complete focus will always be on the two teams which are playing at that time.”
What is already certain is how the groups will be allocated. The Top8 nations from past World Championship will be assigned to preliminary groups A and B, while the eight other teams will start the tournament in groups C and D. “With this format we promise exciting matches from the first encounter,” says Gastão Englert, Chairman of the IFA Sports Commission and Technical Delegate of the World Championship 2023: “The tournament mode gives all 16 nations a chance to win the World Championship title.”
In addition to Germany and Austria, Brazil, Switzerland, Italy, Chile, Argentina, Namibia (Top8 Fistball World Cup 2019), Czech Republic, USA, New Zealand, Denmark, Serbia, Australia, Japan and India will also participate. Which teams will meet in the four preliminary groups will take place on March 22. Then the draw for the group stage will be broadcast on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@IFAFistballChannel) and on the Facebook page of the World Championship facebook.com/FistballMWC).