It is with great pleasure that the International Ringette Federation can announce that history will be made in 2015. In July 2015, the IRF, for the first time since its inception, will officially welcome two new member countries. Joining existing members Canada, Finland, Sweden and USA, will be Czech Republic and Slovakia.
This expansion will also provide growth of the World Ringette Championship event as both countries will be sending teams to compete at the 2016 World Ringette Championships in Helsinki, Finland this coming January. The IRF is very proud of the recent international growth and development of ringette in Europe and looks forward to the participation of the Czech and Slovakian teams as they make history during the 2016 WRC!
The induction ceremony took place during the Czech Challenge Cup in Prague, July 2015 where IRF president Sini Forsblom presented the Czech Ringette Association and Slovakian Ringette Association each with an official IRF Flag and a certificate of membership.
![President of the Czech Ringette Association Veronika Hulkova and board member Lenka Kobylakova and president of the IRF Sini Forsblom](http://test.ringet.cz/domains/test.ringet.cz/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/handshake_CZK_veronika_hulkova-300x200.jpg)
![handshake_SVK_jana_kardosova](http://test.ringet.cz/domains/test.ringet.cz/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/handshake_SVK_jana_kardosova-300x200.jpg)
Zdroj: http://www.ringette.cc