The International Quidditch Association regrets to announce that, after consulting the National Governing Body representatives about the current COVID-19 situation, the IQA Board of Trustees has decided to cancel the IQA Continental Games 2021.
We want to thank the bidding partners for the IQA European Games and Pan-American Games for their patience and support during the past couple of months and the work put into the bidding process for our events.
Since the initial postponement of the IQA World Cup, the IQA has continued to carefully monitor the situation. After gathering information concerning vaccination, feasibility and safety concerning the event, it became evident that the effects of the pandemic on the NGBs and national teams are still as significant as previously: national teams are primarily impacted by the limitations on organising practices and group workouts, and current travel restrictions and, furthermore, the suspension and cancellations of tournaments during the whole season has also caused a loss of revenue.
The IQA conducted a thorough dialogue with NGBs to have the broader vision of their current situation, in order to make the best decision in the interests of our community and of their safety. The complete report can be found here.
Below there are some findings coming from the report, that express the expectations of our community towards the containment of COVID-19 in future events:
- All respondents indicated that they want some sort of measures and policies regarding COVID-19 implemented at IQA events.
- The majority of the NGBs agree that equipment should be disinfected between games and that there should be additional sanitation stations and bathrooms.
- In addition, about half indicated that they would like to have even stricter measures and policies such as mandatory masks (with exception for athletes and officials on pitch), more distance in the seating areas, separate seating areas which are limited for athletes and event volunteers, adapted gameplay schedules to reduce the contact between teams, set referee and volunteer crews, and either a negative PCR test prior to traveling or prior to attending the event. There is a split in opinions on mandatory vaccination for our events: some have indicated they would only attend if vaccination is mandatory, others want to leave the choice to the event attendees.
We decided it is important for NGBs and athletes to be able to resume training properly. Not only that, we want to allow NGBs to continue their national seasons again, in order to ensure everyone safely and fully knows the new rulebook prior to attending international tournaments.
The IQA did explore the possibility of postponing the Continental Games to December-February but decided against this considering that in 2022, the International Quidditch Association aims to host either the IQA World Cup or the IQA Continental Games.
Further decisions regarding the IQA World Cup are delayed until further work from the IQA BIPOC committee is completed.
We thank you for your continuous support.
Feel free to reach out to the IQA events department if you have any questions or concerns, through [email protected].