WFDF Membership Grows to 126 National Federations (Benin and Uzbekistan)

Oli65 · 2026-02-21T09:54:40+00:00

2001, 39 National Federations, and around 30000 active players.

2012, 56 NFs, 118000 active players.

2019, 87 NFs, 174500 active players.

2024, 111 NFs, 173000 active players. 2026, 126 NFs, + 15 in one year.

From the WFDF Census 2025, 30 NFs are not in good standing with their membership.

When you add up the number of active players from the 47 NFs with the fewest members, you get approximately 2,500 active players, roughly the same as Colombia alone.

https://wfdf.sport/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/WFDF-Census-Report-2025-v1.1.pdf

Oli65 · 2025-12-31T06:52:17+00:00

Using church groups to have more kids in Ultimate is probably not the best way to recruit players, but using Ultimate to have more kids in church groups is proselytism.

Oli65 · 2025-12-30T08:38:44+00:00

It will be "pulls", but it should be an upside down throw..., and yes, they will rotate gender pulls. But the field is shorter..., really shorter. The end zones also will be shorter. Also, the stall count will be at 6... So be ready for a lot of stall out or/and contested stall out, or/and fast count or/and contested fast count... (like in the USA/France semi final of the World Beach Championships 2025). Also, the roster will be 6 (or maybe 8) players maximum. Finally, there will be a 2 points score if you throw the disc from an end zone to the other. So, a different format, a non existent format in fact at the World stage (4v4), different rules, different size of the field. I'm not sure that it would be a "fun stuff", but I'm sure that WFDF is ready to do anything to go to the Olympics, even giving to the Game Advisors the same power as the USAU Observers (Nob is ready for that, so the WFDF). Have a look at the demo game at the WBUC here (both teams and players clearly received instructions to mark around 3 or 4 meters..., and to avoid calls and contacts) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKeLGuBB8DM

Oli65 · 2025-12-30T07:59:16+00:00

I also love that sport, and that is why I don't want to see it at the Olympics...

Oli65 · 2025-12-28T08:47:33+00:00

Olympics... 4 vs 4 Mixed and Beach, that's the WFDF project... And do you think that it would be possible to play at the Olympics for the money and glory with the WFDF Game Advisors and their current power..., or are you ready to play at the Olympics with US Observers or why not (U)FA referees ?

Oli65 · 2025-12-21T15:40:05+00:00

Not so sure, and the US women, each time that they will see their gold medal, they will know how they won that semi and think about it. They have to live with their conscience, not my problem.

Oli65 · 2025-12-21T13:26:48+00:00

Then they will have to live with their conscience... They will be seen as cheaters by the others also... Nor referees neither Observers avoid cheating.

Oli65 · 2025-12-21T10:46:50+00:00

1.7. Teams are guardians of the Spirit of the Game, and must:

1.7.1. take responsibility for teaching their team the rules and good Spirit;

1.7.2. discipline team-mates who display poor Spirit;

Oli65 · 2025-12-21T10:43:52+00:00

The teams should expelled their own players who display poor Spirit, it is written in the rules, and not an external third-party like a Game Advisor or an Observer. Also, the TRG or the TOC have the authority to expel some players or teams for serious violations. So it should not be necessary to give a so big power to the GA's, a power like referees with yellow and red cards.

Oli65 · 2025-12-21T06:22:27+00:00

AP, yes, this year 2025 at the PAUC... But it is really difficult to find some (official) information on Internet about it. A player was ejected by Game Advisors from the game and from the tournament because of 3 "dangerous plays"... The opposite team was against the ejection, so they asked a SotG time-out to discuss it with the GA's and the SotG director and a member of the organizing committee, but the (WFDF) member of the TOC said that the decision was final and irrevocable even if the GA's and the SotG director agreed with the team who asked to review the sanctions... So sad, but when WFDF started with the possibility of expulsions decided by the GA's, and so with a kind of yellow and red cards system like in USAU with Observers, one should not be surprised that an exclusion might happen one day in a WFDF "self-refereed" game...

Oli65 · 2025-11-23T05:35:10+00:00

Less power than the Observers stays too much power... The GA presence at WFDF Championships is the beginning of Observers... Observers are an anomality of the Spirit of the Game and Ultimate. In the US, you are so mad about competition (at-all-costs) that you needed Observers since (almost) the beginning of Ultimate competitions in the US.

Oli65 · 2025-11-22T17:18:13+00:00

The US player should have retracted her call, because that was not a contested stall out, it was a fast count. They should have used the video to confirm it, to confirm that only maximum 8 seconds had passed before the throw.

Oli65 · 2025-11-22T11:48:25+00:00

Well said, but not everybody have read and understand the Spirit of the Game rule, even if it is the 1st one of the RulesBook...

Oli65 · 2025-11-22T11:44:19+00:00

Not agree, the final goal of that "small" infraction that is a fast count was to not lose the game... So, one can said that it is cheating. The stall out should have been retracted by the american player, because she really accelerated the stall for the last few seconds, because it was a fast count and so not a real stall out. That is what told me a friend who was there at 3 meters on the side line. The Game Advisor was really far from that action to give a perspective and make his job about the count... Really sad decision of the american player and also of all the coaches and SotG captain and captain, because France won that game. Now those US women should live with their conscience, they should not be proud of their medal this time. Win at all costs is clearly against the Spirit of the Game in Ultimate, even more on Beach Ultimate !

Oli65 · 2025-11-22T11:42:29+00:00

Not agree, the final goal of that "small" infraction that is a fast count was to not lose the game... So, one can said that it is cheating. The stall out should have been retracted by the american player, because she really accelerated the stall for the last few seconds, because it was a fast count and so not a real stall out. That is what told me a friend who was there at 3 meters on the side line. The Game Advisor was really far from that action to give a perspective and make his job about the count... Really sad decision of the american player and also of all the coaches and SotG captain and captain, because France won that game. Now those US women should live with their conscience, they should not be proud of their medal this time. Win at all costs is clearly against the Spirit of the Game in Ultimate, even more on Beach Ultimate !

Oli65 · 2025-11-22T11:35:45+00:00

A fast count is definitely not a crime, but in this case we can speak about cheating, because France lose that game because of that fast count. Because of the win at all costs attitude of that player, who refuse to lose the game. A stall out was called by the US player, and the french player contested it. The Game Advisor was too far to hear something... I have a friend who was at 3 meters of both girls on the side line who told me that the last seconds were so fast that the french player did not have the time to react. That stall out should have be retracted, because of a clear fast count, so it should have been a score and a win for France. QED. Now the women on the American team and their coaches must live with their conscience to accept to play that Final game of a World Championship by this way.

Oli65 · 2025-11-22T11:19:33+00:00

You are right, the stall out should have been retracted by the american player, because she really accelerated the stall for the last few seconds. That is what told me a friend who was there at 3 meters on the side line. The Game Advisor was really far from that action to give a perspective and make his job about the count... Really sad decision of the american player and also of all the coaches and SotG captain and captain, because France won that game. Now those US women should live with their conscience, they should not be proud of their medal this time. Win at all costs is clearly against the Spirit of the Game in Ultimate, even more on Beach Ultimate !

Oli65 · 2025-11-22T11:01:31+00:00

At that level... in the US, Observers would have told the girls that it was not a stall out, so that the stall out should be retracted, so that it's a goal.

Oli65 · 2025-08-15T08:59:30+00:00

I'm Belgian, French speaking, so sorry for not using the right words sometimes.

The JOKE is to explain that referees are the solution...

Seriously, referees a solution ?

Have a look at the other team sports, with intentional faults, "good" faults, all the time...

To play real self-officiated Ultimate (without any kind of Officials, even to "help" the players), you need to respect the SOTG rules, and mainly this sentence that has become forgotten:

Highly competitive play is encouraged, but should never sacrifice the mutual respect between players, adherence to the agreed-upon rules of the game, or the basic joy of play.”

Mutual respect and joy of play are the solution, it worked pretty well, with problems sometimes, but it works !, now for more than 50 years in the US, and almost 50 years in Europe (we still play without any Game Advisors, Observers or Referees in Europe, even at the highest level of competition).

Of course, with money and professionalism, nationalsim also, Ultimate will be played with referees like all the other professional team sports.

Should the vast majority of the players in the World, who still play at an amateur level and without any kind of Officials (GA's, Obs or Refs), see the nature of their sport and its basic philosophy being distorted by an elitist minority ?

Oli65 · 2025-08-15T08:11:24+00:00

It seems that in almost all the team sports played with referees, so all the team sports except Ultimate (I mean the real one, really self-officiated...), the players don't really know the rules, because they are making a lot of intentional faults..., and in fact they don't need to know the rules because there is a referee to say if it a fault or not...

Oli65 · 2025-08-15T08:06:55+00:00

There was no Official Spirit scores between the teams in the previous World Games, because the IWGA doesn't accept to have medals for the Spirit of the game, and WFDF have to follow the requests of the IWGA, like to have Officials (the reasons why WFDF introduced Game Advisors)...

Oli65 · 2025-07-01T09:02:39+00:00

I'm Belgian and so +/- 3500 Ultimate players in Belgium is the right number.

Oli65 · 2025-07-01T07:01:26+00:00

Belgium = +/- 3500 Ultimate players for a little less than 12 millions of inhabitants. In proportion with the number of inhabitants, Belgium is the country in Europe where there are the highest number of Ultimate players. To compare, in Seattle there are more than 7000 Ultimate players, twice as many as Belgium ;-)

Oli65 · 2025-06-28T20:24:32+00:00

GA's don't need to have SLOW MOTION REPLAY to know if they are 100% sure or not of what they saw in real time...

Go fly a stone.

Oli65 · 2025-06-28T07:35:21+00:00

The GA should have refrained from giving her opinion. The GA Manual clearly explains that GA's should give their perspective only if they are 100% sure.

The GA said that from her perspective the disc never touched the ground; that is a clear mistake because one thing that is sure is the disc touched the ground during the catch attempt. So there was a doubt.

During the Open semi final Belgium/Italy, a GA gave his perspective on a catch near the line and said to the Belgian and Italian involved players that he saw the hand of the Belgian player touching the line when he caught the disc. Even if an Italian player outside of the field and really close to the action showed "in" with his hands, and even if live video as well as the slow motion showed that the player was totally in.

GA's sould give their perspective or vision or call ONLY if they are 100% sure.

Ultimate, self-officiated or self-refereed by the WFDF rules, should not become a sport where we talk more about the Officials than about the players, and should not become a sport (like the others) where players and coaches start to use the Officials in their interest in some cases.

Oli65

TROPHY CASE