Korfball is a ball sport, with similarities to netball and basketball. It is played by two teams of eight players with four female players and four male players in each team. The objective is to throw a ball into a netless basket that is mounted on a 3.5 m high pole.
Approximately 5 million of the 17 million people in the Netherlands are registered to one of the 35,000 sports clubs in the country. About two thirds of the population older than 15 years participates in sports weekly.
The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contested by UEFA members' senior men's national teams, determining the continental champion of Europe. It is the second-most watched football tournament in the world after the FIFA World Cup. The Euro 2012 final was watched by a global audience of around 300 million. The competition has been held every four years since 1960, except for 2020, when it was postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, but kept the name Euro 2020. Scheduled to be in the even-numbered year between FIFA World Cup tournaments, it was originally called the European Nations' Cup before changing to its current name in 1968. Since 1996, the individual events have been branded as "UEFA Euro [year]".
The Men's FIH Hockey World Cup is an international field hockey competition organised by the International Hockey Federation (FIH). The tournament was started in 1971. It is held every four years, bridging the four years between the Summer Olympics. Pakistan is the most successful team, having won the tournament four times. The Netherlands, Australia and Germany have each won three titles. Belgium and India have both won the tournament once.
National team appearances in the FIBA Basketball World Cup are the number of appearances that individual country's basketball national teams have made at the FIBA Basketball World Cup. A total of 65 countries have made at least one appearance in the FIBA international senior men's basketball competition.
European Korfball Championship or European Korfball A-Championship is a korfball competition for European national teams organized by the International Korfball Federation. It was played every four years from 1998 until 2014 and then moved to a tournament every two years, starting from 2016. The number of participated teams has varied between 8 and 16. The Netherlands national korfball team has won each edition.
The Netherlands national korfball team represents the Netherlands in international korfball. It is controlled by the Royal Dutch Korfball Association (KNKV), the governing body of korfball in the Netherlands.
The England national korfball team is managed by the English Korfball Association (EKA), representing England in korfball international competitions. In 2007 the Great Britain national korfball team was split into 3 national teams: England, Wales and Scotland, that compete in all international competitions except the World Games, where they compete as a unified Great Britain national korfball team.
Sport has an important incidence in Catalan life since the beginning of the 20th century. The main sports in Catalonia are football, basketball, handball, rink hockey, tennis, and motorsport.
The Korfball European Cup was the main annual korfball competition for clubs in Europe. The first Europa Cup took place in 1967 in London (England), with two teams from the Netherlands, Belgium and the host nation England. Ons Eibernest from The Hague won the first tournament. The tournament was won exclusively by clubs from the Netherlands and Belgium, and Mitcham (England) and Adler Rauxel (Germany) were the only clubs outside Netherlands and Belgium to reach the final. In January 2022, the IKF announced that the IKF Europa Cup and IKF Europa Shield would be replaced by the IKF Europe Korfball Champions League for the 2022-23 Season.
The 10th IKF World Korfball Championship were held in the Belgian cities of Ghent, Tielen and Antwerp in 2015. Ghent and Tielen hosted the first and second round matches, whilst the placing matches and finals were all held in the Lotto Arena in Antwerp.
Korfball in Wales has been played since 1991 and is managed by the Welsh Korfball Association/Cymdeithas Pêl-Côrff Cymru. The association was established in 2002 and the Welsh Korfball Squad was formed in 2005. In 2007, the International Korfball Federation admitted Wales as an associate member.
All-Africa Korfball Championship (AAKC) is a korfball competition for African national teams organized by the International Korfball Federation. It has been held every four years since 2006 with the winner qualifying through to the IKF World Korfball Championship in the following year.
The korfball event at the World Games 2017 took place in Wrocław, Poland.
The 11th IKF World Korfball Championship was held in August 2019 in Durban, South Africa and won by the Netherlands. The International Korfball Federation awarded the hosting rights for the tournament to South Africa on 7 November 2015, ahead of the bid by New Zealand.
The 2018 European Korfball Championship was held in the Netherlands from October 22 to October 30, with 10 national teams in competition. As the European Korfball Championship was split into an A-Championship and a B-Championship as of 2018, this tournament was used to decide which teams would participate at which level, with the top 8 teams qualifying for the A-Championship, while the teams in positions 9 and 10 relegated to the B-Championship. Netherlands won the tournament for a sixth consecutive time, maintaining its 100% win record.
The 2018 European Korfball A-Championship will be held in the Netherlands from 13 to 21 October 2018. Matches will be played in Drachten, Gorredijk, Heerenveen and Leeuwarden. It will be the first edition where the European Korfball Championship is split into an A-Championship and a B-Championship, with the idea that a certain number of teams will relegate from the A-Championship to the B-Championship after each edition, and a certain number of teams from the B-Championship will be promoted. Whether this will be a direct promotion or relegation, or whether play-offs will need to be played, is yet to be determined.
The 12th IKF World Korfball Championship was held in Taipei, Taiwan. It was the first time in the history of the IKF World Korfball Championship, the final wasn't played between Belgium and the Netherlands. The International Korfball Federation awarded the hosting rights for the tournament to Taiwan on 9 August 2019, ahead of the bids of Czech Republic and the Netherlands. The Netherlands was awarded the hosting rights for the 2027 IKF World Korfball Championship instead.
The korfball competition at the 2022 World Games took place in July 2022, in Birmingham in United States, at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex. Originally scheduled to take place in July 2021, the Games were rescheduled for July 2022 as a result of the 2020 Summer Olympics postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2021 European Korfball A-Championship will be held in Belgium from 25 to 30 October 2021. Matches will be played in Antwerp. It will be the second edition where the European Korfball Championship is split into an A-Championship and a B-Championship. The tournament will serve as a qualifier for the 2023 IKF World Korfball Championship.
2023 IKF World Korfball Championship 
Netherlands (11th title)
