IQA Postpones World Cup Again
As previously announced in April, the International Quidditch Association (IQA) postponed IQA World Cup 2020 to 2021. Yesterday, the IQA made an announcement about postponing it again. Now, the IQA World Cup will happen in 2022 or 2023.
The main reason was the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many national teams cannot practice and face other difficulties. Teams have problems with getting travel visas and fundraising, including the current fundraising lottery by Italy’s national quidditch association. Pauline Raes, IQA Events Director, described the IQA’s reasons for the decision:
We believe that the IQA World Cup should strive to offer the highest level of competition, and showcase our incredible sport, while offering an equal opportunity for all our members to bring their best players, with adequate time to prepare and train for the event, and ensure an enjoyable and safe event for all attendees.
IQA World Cup 2020 should have happened in Richmond, Virginia, but the Muggle quidditch community wasn’t satisfied with that. In June, Jamie Lafrance, a person of color, sent an open letter to the IQA asking for a relocated event. Soon after that, the IQA created a new BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) committee. The postponement is an opportunity for the committee to create new, specific criteria for the selection of event hosts.
The IQA thanked the local partners in Richmond for their support. One of them, Jerrine Lee, Director of Sports Development at Richmond Region Tourism, commented on their partnership:
We love working with the creative and passionate staff at the International Quidditch Association and look forward to partnership opportunities with the team in the future. Like the Richmond Region, quidditch is incredibly inclusive and diverse, and we can’t wait to welcome athletes from all over the world.
The postponed event also means that there won’t be any conflict with the dates of the IQA Continental Games. The IQA Pan-American Games and IQA European Games were scheduled to happen in 2021; however, due to the first postponement of the IQA World Cup, they were postponed to 2022–23. The new postponement means that tournaments could happen in 2021. The IQA wants to open bidding and release the bid manual next week.
