World Netball, previously known as the International Netball Federation and the International Federation of Netball Associations, is the worldwide governing body for
Netball
Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...
. The INF was created in 1960 and is responsible for world rankings, maintaining the rules for netball and organising the
Netball World Cup
The Netball World Cup is a quadrennial international netball world championship organised by the World Netball, inaugurated in 1963. Since its inception the competition has been dominated primarily by the Australia national netball team and th ...
and
Netball at the Commonwealth Games
Netball was first played at the Commonwealth Games in 1990 as a demonstration sport. It has been an official Commonwealth Games sport since 1998. Together with the Netball World Cup, the Commonwealth Games netball tournament is one of the two ...
In June 2021 INF announced an official rebrand and became known as World Netball.
General information
The organisation is based in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
, England.
The INF has over 70
national members which are grouped into five regional areas: Africa, Asia, Americas, Europe and Oceania.
The INF is governed by a congress that meets every two years, a board of directors that meets three times a year, a chief executive officer and a Secretariat.
[ It is also responsible for providing ]world rankings
A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second.
In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of o ...
for national representative teams. The INF organises several major international competitions including the Netball World Cup and Netball World Youth Cup. It is also a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA; french: Agence mondiale antidopage, AMA) is a foundation initiated by the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against drugs in sports. The agency's key ...
.
History
In 1957, a pair of national netball organisations discussed the need to create an international governing body for the sport to help address issues like standardising the rules. This conversation was started between England and Australia, while Australia was touring England. In 1960, netball representatives from Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies finally gathered to create the needed organisation, the International Federation of Women's Basketball and Netball. The meeting took place in Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon), with rules for the newly creating organisation being created. A decision was made at this first meeting create a world championship competition for the sport to be held every four years, with the first event to be held in 1963 in Eastbourne, England.
The organisation has since undergone lies several changes. After all countries adopted the name "netball" for the sport, the organisation was renamed the "International Federation of Netball Associations" (IFNA). This name was used until November 2012, when the organisation changed to its current name, the "International Netball Federation" (INF), to bring it in line with other sports governing bodies.
Netball World Cup
The INF is responsible for organising the Netball World Cup
The Netball World Cup is a quadrennial international netball world championship organised by the World Netball, inaugurated in 1963. Since its inception the competition has been dominated primarily by the Australia national netball team and th ...
(formerly the ''World Netball Championships''), the premier event in international netball, held every four years. The table below contains a list of these championships/cups, where they took place and how many teams competed in the event and the winners.
Netball World Youth Cup
The INF is responsible for organising the Netball World Youth Cup (formerly the ''World Youth Netball Championships''), the premier event in international netball, held every four years in a year other than that of the Netball World Cup. The Netball World Youth Cup is the pinnacle of netball competition for emerging players who are under 21 years of age and the INF has held an U21 international competition every four years since 1988. The table below contains a list of these championships/cups, where they took place and how many teams competed in the event and the winners.
Fast5 Netball World Series
The Fast5 Netball World Series is an international competition that features modified ''Fast5
Fast5 (originally called Fastnet) is a variation of netball featuring shortened games and goals worth multiple points. The new format was announced by the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) (now the International Netball Fed ...
'' rules, and has been likened to Twenty20
Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have ...
cricket and rugby sevens. The competition is contested by the six top national netball teams in the world, according to the INF World Rankings, with teams from Australia, England, Fiji, Jamaica, Malawi New Zealand, Samoa and South Africa having played in the series so far.
The Series was first held in England from 2009-2011 and the game played was called Fast Net, this evolved into Fast5 in 2012.
Goals and objectives
The INF’s fundamental purpose is to promote, improve and grow netball globally, in accordance with the ideals and objects of the Olympic and Commonwealth movements.
One of the goals of the INF is to attain International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...
( IOC) recognition for netball and to lobby for the sport's inclusion at future Olympic Games.[
]
National organisations
The INF is responsible for Netball across the Globe with currently (March 2022) 88 Members, 65 Full Members and 23 Associate Members across 5 Regions; Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania. 117 countries interest to netball. 39 Nations only interest and havent teams and federations.
Members by Regions
Members
This list is incomplete:
Timeline
The following (incomplete) list is a timeline of national organisations becoming affiliated with the International Netball Federation:
1960
* Australia[
* ]England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
[
* ]New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...
[
* South Africa][
* Welsh Netball Association
1978
* ]India
India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
* Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Kitts and Nevis (), officially the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is an island country and microstate consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, both located in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands chain ...
State Netball Association
1992
* United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
2010
* Switzerland
2019
* Bangladesh
See also
* INF World Rankings
* Netball World Cup
The Netball World Cup is a quadrennial international netball world championship organised by the World Netball, inaugurated in 1963. Since its inception the competition has been dominated primarily by the Australia national netball team and th ...
* World Netball Series
The Fast5 Netball World Series is an international Fast5 netball competition that was contested for the first time in October 2009. The new competition features modified Fast5 rules, and has been likened to Twenty20 cricket and rugby sevens. The ...
* List of national netball teams
* Asian Netball Championships
* European Netball Championship
References
Bibliography
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External links
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INF blog
"IFNA" on Facebook
{{DEFAULTSORT:World Netball
Sports organizations established in 1960
1960 establishments in England
Organisations based in Manchester