QuidditchUK Makes Plans for 2021
After the United Kingdom’s Muggle quidditch teams slowly came back to play under the guidance released this past fall, the pandemic situation struck again, and the UK is on its third full lockdown now. That hasn’t stopped QuidditchUK from making plans for this year.
QuidditchUK had planned to hold the British Quidditch Cup in April, but it has to reevaluate that plan because of the third lockdown and expectations that vaccinations won’t be complete until late summer 2021. As a result, the organization is working on a new season structure that will be more flexible in response to the pandemic for when its athletes are able to train and compete again safely. The course of the pandemic response will affect whether or not there will be a British Quidditch Cup this year.
We are also cautiously optimistic that regular training may be able to return by the summer, due to a combination of vaccinations and new guidelines being completed in conjunction with the UK Sports Councils – it has been a long process, but Abby Whiteley has made huge progress in ensuring a safe and significant return to training. We will continue to update our COVID-19 page and directly communicate any significant changes to club leadership.
Together with its plans for 2021, QuidditchUK shared the results of last fall’s fundraiser. In November, the organization made an effort to raise £3,000, but it faced difficulties. A month later, it succeeded, and the organization accomplished its goal on December 25.
The latest news in international quidditch is that the European Quidditch Cup (EQC) and the IQA European Games are still set to take place in summer 2021, but QuidditchUK doesn’t seem so sure that these events will happen as planned.
QuidditchUK are maintaining a stance that any international competition this year is both impractical and unsafe, and are pushing to delay any further competition until 2022.
It has been decided that the qualifying club teams will have to qualify again for EQC 2022 in the next European Qualifier Tournament, and that tournament should happen at the end of 2021. The qualifying teams for EQC Division 1 will receive a refund for the team fee for EQC 2020. Refunds for Division 2 clubs are not available yet, but they should receive them sometime soon too.
