International Korfball Federation

Korfball, the only full equal team sport in the world, with 100% gender-equal teams, appeared twice at the Olympic Games, with demonstration events held at the Antwerp 1920 and Amsterdam 1928 Games.

The International Korfball Federation (IKF) would later be founded in Antwerp, Belgium, on 11 June 1933, as a continuation of the International Korfball Bureau, which had established in 1924 by the Dutch and Belgian Associations.

To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Royal Netherlands Korfball Association (KNKV), the first IKF Korfball World Championship would be staged in 1978, in the Netherlands. The sport has also been contested at the World Games continuously since 1985.

A member of the Association of the IOC-recognized International Sports Federations (ARISF), the IKF has 75 members as of January 2026. Gabi Kool (NED) is the federation’s current president, and its office is located in Utrecht, in the Netherlands.

The newer discipline of beach korfball, which is played on a four against four format (each team consisting of two men and two women), has also been governed by the IKF since 2015. With regional Beach Korfball World Cup tournaments staged since 2018, the inaugural IKF World Beach Korfball Championship would later be held in 2022, in Nador, Morocco. In the latest edition of the World Games, in 2025, beach korfball was contested for the first time, along with the indoor korfball event.