Less than three months after the men’s World Championships in Mannheim, the next sporting highlight for the men’s and women’s fistballers is coming up: the World Tour Finals 2023 will be held in Curitiba, Brazil, from October 19 to 22. The preliminary round groups for the men’s and women’s competitions are now set.

For the second year in a row, Curitiba will host the world’s best club teams. At the Clube Duque de Caxias Curitiba venue, eight men’s and eight women’s teams will battle it out for the most important trophy in club fistball. The majority of the teams in the capital of Paraná will come from Brazil (4x men, 4x women). “The 2022 World Tour Finals in Curitiba was already a great success, where the organizers provided optimal conditions for great fistball. We are therefore happy that there will be a new edition in 2023,” said Christoph Oberlehner, Secretary General of the International Fistball Association.

Men’s competition

Defending champion TSV Pfungstadt will be the only German representative in preliminary group A to face no less than three Brazilian clubs. Clube Mercês made it into the competition as the best team in the Pan American Championship behind last year’s finalist SG Novo Hamburgo as well as 6th place in the 2022 World Tour, joined by Sogipa Porto Alegre (2nd World Tour) and host Duque de Caxias (5th World Tour), who won the bronze medal in 2022. In Group B, Gastão Englert, chairman of the IFA Sports Commission, drew three teams from Austria to last year’s finalist and 2022 Pan American champion SG Novo Hamburgo. Union Tigers Vöcklabruck (Champions Cup Europe winners) reached the semifinals last year but missed out on a medal by a narrow margin. In their group they will also face DSG UKJ Froschberg (3rd World Tour 2022) and UFG Grieskirchen/Pöttingen (4th World Tour 2022), who are well known to them from the Austrian Bundesliga.

Competition Women

The women of Sogipa Porto Alegre are currently the measure of all things in club fistball. Not surprisingly, then, as defending champions, Pan American title holders and winners of the 2022 World Tour, the Brazilian women are among the big favorites for the title. In their strong preliminary round they will face the Brazilians of SG Novo Hamburgo (Best Pan-American Team 2022, 5th World Tour 2022), TSV Dennach (Germany/2nd World Tour 2022) and Union Nussbach (Austria/7th World Tour 2022). In Group B, last year’s finalist Duque de Caxias (Brazil/6th World Tour 2022) is desperate to win a medal (1x gold, 1x silver, 1x bronze) as they did in the previous three events. Opponents are TV Jahn Schneverdingen (winner Champions Cup Europe 2022), Askö Seekirchen (Austria/3rd World Tour) and Clube Mercês (Brazil/9th World Tour).

Match schedule

On Thursday and Friday, October 19 and 20, the matches of the preliminary round will be played. The top two teams in each group will qualify for the semifinals. The finals are scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 22. “Each team will play at least five matches and will be in action on each day,” says Gastão Englert, Technical Delegate of the World Tour Finals: “This is also our response to feedback from previous events. I am convinced that we are in for exciting days of competition in Curitiba.”

Teams Men

Teams Women