Dear Friends,

It is with great pleasure that we report to our Members on your Federation’s activities during the past year.

Strategic Plan 2023 – 2028

We continue to deliver against the vision and objectives of our strategic plan making good progress against our four pillars –

1. Growth: which will involve increasing our Membership, taking boccia to new geographical areas; developing boccia at grassroots level where it can have a positive impact on peoples’ health and well-being, especially in schools, and growing the game as a leisure activity everyone can enjoy, however young or old and whatever their ability. We continue to see expansion in our activities in Africa and the Caribbean, along with recent development activities in South America.

    

2. Sustainability: in the broadest sense, making sure that boccia has the resources and people properly trained and motivated to support our growing competition schedule; that succession plans are in place; and that we do everything we can to minimise our impact on the environment. We continue to work with our sustainability partner, KPMG Australia and look forward to releasing our Sustainability Strategy in 2025.

    

3. Excellence: which means we will do everything we can to excel on the field of play; in how we present our sport; and in providing opportunities for athletes to compete at the highest level. We were delighted with the general presentation of competitions in 2024, recognising the incredible efforts made by our Host Organising Committees (HOCs) and their partners to ensure outstanding athlete/team experience. With an expanded competition programme in 2025 we will continue to work with HOCs to ensure competitions are delivered to the very highest standards.

    

4. Good Governance: under which we commit to govern boccia in a professional and transparent way, adhering to the best principles of corporate governance and expecting all associated with the sport to behave in a spirit of fairness and high ethical standards. We have commenced a review of our Governance arrangements and will be reporting progress through consultative sessions with our members next year, culminating at our General Assembly in the autumn of 2025.

We will continue to use our Regional Members meetings to update on progress and to spotlight our objectives to ensure that our strategic plan remains relevant to the needs of our sport and membership. We have recently reported to members that our regional meetings will be in March, July, October (General Assembly) and December of next year.

World Boccia Sanctioned Competition Programme

Paris 2024 Paralympic Games

For many, the paralympic games in Paris 2024 were the highlight of the year. The Paralympic Games was a great success from a boccia perspective. There were 125 athletes, which is the highest we have had at a Games. We also saw the widest representation of countries to date at 36, which shows the growth of the sport worldwide, including athletes representing the region of Africa for the first time at a Paralympic Games and nations winning medals for the first time including Argentina, Colombia, France, Indonesia, Singapore & Ukraine. We were also delighted to be close to achieving gender parity at the Games, and it is our ambition to reach 50-50 representation by LA28.

We extend our congratulations to all of our members competing at the Games, representing their country with such distinction both on and off the field of play. World Boccia hosted many of its corporate partners and friends during the Games and the feedback from guests on the presentation and standard of play was exceptional.

We extend our warmest thanks to our International Technical Officials who worked tirelessly during a tough schedule. Their attitude and professionalism epitomised the standards we continually strive for across our movement.

We must also thank the Paris Organising Committee, the International Paralympic Committee and their partners for hosting an excellent games, the learnings from which we have already started to share with LA 2028.

Competition Programme

This year has witnessed the delivery of another very busy competition programme with 13 sanctioned events (including Paris) being delivered across all four regions. World Boccia’s competition programme included 6 Intercontinental Challenger Competitions; 4 World Cups; and most recently, representation at the World Abilitysport Youth Games in Thailand.

The year kicked off the inaugural World Boccia Paralympic Qualifier Tournament, held in Coimbra, Portugal. This competition was warmly received by those countries who attended, and such was its impact, it is now the intention of World Boccia to extend the concept to a World Boccia Paralympic Qualifier Tournament for individual players ahead of LA28.

We were pleased to see the continued progress within the African region with an Inter-continental Challenger competition being held in Egypt, the fourth international competition in Africa in four years.

In January, we were delighted to announce that the World Boccia Championships 2026, had been awarded to our member for Korea. We continue to work with the Korea Boccia Federation to ensure the success of this pinnacle event.

We look forward to 2025 with much anticipation and excitement. World Boccia, in partnership with HOCs and our members will deliver its largest ever competition programme, delivering 18 competitions, including the World Youth Championships in Brazil and our four Regional Championships.

The growth of our competition programme is in large part due to the desire and support of our member nations to work in partnership with us. We remain indebted to all our Host Organising Committees for staging these events and particularly to their staff, officials and the wonderful volunteers for delivering our competition programme to an extremely high standard.

We would also like to recognise the invaluable support of our World Boccia Technical staff and officials who give their time so willingly and on such a regular basis. Without their commitment and the support of event partners our programme simply could not happen. A huge thank you from everyone at World Boccia and we look forward to your continued support in 2024 and beyond.

Technology

In early 2024 we released the latest version of the Boccia Competition Management System (BCMS), which is used at sanctioned events to manage all aspects of competition including seeding, draws, timing and results. The BCMS also provides detailed competition information through the internet in real time.

We would like to thank our technology partner Rocca for their invaluable assistance in developing the system and for their continued support moving forward. The platform now delivers most levels of functionality operational, although it remains a project of continuous improvement and work is still in progress and being developed constantly with daily input from the World Boccia team and Rocca. Next year’s very busy calendar of events will be able to be managed through the platform which will reduce administration for our membership.

Ball Licensing

Following an open supplier tender process, the second phase ball licensing scheme for 2025-28 has been completed. Seven of the previous 8 manufacturers have confirmed that they will be continuing, and their balls have all been tested and have passed the prerequisite tests. Two new licenses have been granted to manufactures from Brazil and we welcome them to our supplier family. Members have been informed and the new licence period begins in January.

World Anti-Doping Agency

We are delighted to report that we remain complaint with the high standards and expectations of WADA and remain committed to ‘clean sport.’ We thank our members for supporting this critical objective and for ensuring your athletes and teams are fully conversant with the expected standards.

Safeguarding

World Boccia has reviewed, updated, and extended its safeguarding policies and procedures and will be sharing with our membership to ensure the highest standards of safeguarding at our events and activities from 2025 onward.

World Boccia Committees

Our Committees continue to do valuable work to ensure our sport remains up to date, relevant and focused on the needs of our athletes.

Some of the key matters the Committees have dealt with are:

• Competition and Rules Committee: Athlete slots for all the World Boccia competitions were allocated in accordance with the Competition System; review of the Ball Licensing process; the preparation for a review of the 25-28 quadrennial competition programme and Boccia Rules, both of which involving consultation with Members and are now completed.

• Referees Committee: International Referees for the 13 competitions were selected and appointed; the continued development of the Referees evaluation programme, updated rule clarifications and changes and the delivery an International Referee course and the support for newly qualified referees.

• Classification Committee: Classifiers were selected and appointed for all the 2024 competitions; the Committee has worked hard to prepare for the implementation of the new IPC’s Classification Code and attended the IPC Classification conference in Bonn. The Committee continue to work diligently to ensure this core activity of our sport is maintained and continually improved.

• Development Committee: The Committee has delivered numerous coaching courses and additional webinars on a variety of subjects. They are working hard on a Level 2 Coaching Course and hope to launch this in 2025.

• Bids Committee: Has evaluated all the bids received for 2025 competitions; approved all contracts for hosting sanctioned competitions; and evaluated and selected a host for the World Championships. The Committee continue to explore and develop an approach to multi-year hosting agreements.

• Anti-Doping Committee: A number of new members have been appointed to the TUE Committee.

• Athletes Committee: The Committee continue to provide input to the Board; and evolve their approach to ensure your athletes are represented and engaged.

Our Partners

We would wish to thank our Partners who continue to support the mission of World Boccia including our legal advisors, Hogan Lovells, our Marketing and Branding consultants, Giant Arc, Flooring Partner, Gerflor, Financial Services partner, Fairfax Financial Management Limited, Audit Partner, UHY Hacker Young, Insurance partner, Towergate and our key commercial sponsor, Korea Autech Carrier,

We would also like to extend a warm welcome to our new sports and leisurewear partner, Tarw Sports.

We also thank the Board and staff of the International Paralympic Committee and the Association of Paralympic Sports Organisations for their support and assistance throughout the year.

Our People

We are incredibly fortunate to be able to draw on the wisdom and expertise of so many people who come together to ensure the success of World Boccia.

Our Executive Team, led by our CEO, Paul Trayner, Dr Ilona Berry, Dom Tremblay, and Gustavo Alvarim, who all work incredibly hard to ensure we can discharge our strategic plan and key objectives throughout the year and to liaise with our Members.

We were delighted to welcome Graham Thomas, our new media consultant, to the World Boccia team. Graham has already had a significant impact on developing the profile of boccia and has been instrumental in guiding our new communications strategy which will be implemented in 2025, in line with our strategic plan.

We also extend our thanks to our Board members who contribute so much toward the governance and strategic direction of our organisation and give up their time to attend competitions, Committee meetings and Board meetings. Also to our Honorary Vice Presidents, Mr David Hadfield OBE and Professor Joaquim Viegas and members of our Advisory Board Mr. Martin Lam and Mr. Sunghee Kang who are available to the Board for consultation on important matters and we thank them for their time and expertise.

We must pay tribute to our volunteers. Without your incredible effort and support we simply could not deliver and grow this wonderful sport of ours. To our Committee Chairs and members, our Technical Officials, Classifiers, Development Team, Athletes Committee and Medical Commission and of course to our ,members, your staff and support teams who make such a difference to the development of boccia across the world and the continuous improvement of our athletes, our player and officials’ pathways and playing infrastructure.

We wish you all happy holidays and the very best for what will be another memorable year in 2025.

The directors of the company have elected not to include a copy of the income and expenditure account within the financial statements.true

For the financial year ended 31 December 2024 the company was entitled to exemption from audit under section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.

The directors acknowledge their responsibilities for complying with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 with respect to accounting records and the preparation of financial statements.

The members have not required the company to obtain an audit of its financial statements for the year in question in accordance with section 476.

These financial statements have been prepared and delivered in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime.

Boccia International Sports Federation Limited is a Company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales. The registered office is 101 New Cavendish Street, London, W1W 6XH.

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” (“FRS 102”) and the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 as applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime. The disclosure requirements of section 1A of FRS 102 have been applied other than where additional disclosure is required to show a true and fair view.

The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the company. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.

Income and expenses are included in the financial statements as they become receivable or due.

Expenses include VAT where applicable as the company cannot reclaim it.

Research expenditure is written off against profits in the year in which it is incurred. Identifiable development expenditure is capitalised to the extent that the technical, commercial and financial feasibility can be demonstrated.

Intangible assets acquired separately from a business are recognised at cost and are subsequently measured at cost less accumulated amortisation and accumulated impairment losses.

Amortisation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:

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Debtors and creditors with no stated interest rate and receivable or payable within one year are recorded at transaction price. Any losses arising from impairment are recognised in the profit and loss account in other administrative expenses.

The company is exempt from corporation tax, it being a company not carrying on a business for the purposes of making a profit.

The costs of short-term employee benefits are recognised as a liability and an expense.

The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.

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The company is limited by guarantee, not having a share capital and consequently the liability of members is limited, subject to an undertaking by each member to contribute to the net assets or liabilities of the company on winding up such amounts as may be required not exceeding £1.