IQA Recap: Fast Takes with L. Grinwis
By Whitney Ho
If you’re anything like us here at FastBreak News, the 2025 IQA World Cup is still fresh on your mind. While we’ve already heard from players, fans and staff, we have one more perspective to offer you — one that details the work done before, during and after the tournament. This time, I had the amazing opportunity to sit down with Laurens Grinwis, a committee member from the IQA and the person behind Belgium’s successful World Cup bid and weekend. In our conversation, Grinwis shared insights into the committee’s responsibilities, the challenges faced in making decisions during high pressure moments and the values that drive his commitment to international Quadball. This interview offers a behind-the-scenes look at the processes, priorities and personal dedication throughout Grinwis’s experience and offers the final piece of our deep dive into the 2025 IQA World Cup.
Leading Up To The Event
We opened the interview detailing Grinwis’s experience leading up to World Cup and their role on the committee. After the bidding procedure was complete and Belgium was selected to host the tournament, Grinwis was asked to be the tournament director because of his prior experience running European Quadball Cups and his role in the bidding process. However, he rejected the offer, the decline stemming from his year-long hiatus from European Quadball and his intention to focus on their family. IQA later sent a follow-up offer for him to join the committee as a consultant, acting as a middle man between the IQA and the local partners, which he accepted.
Additionally, as the president of the non-profit responsible for hosting EQC since 2019, the committee asked for his assistance for financial aspects. When paying local partners, transactions must be done in euros, a hindrance for the IQA as an organization in the U.S., as they would lose money in transaction fees every time there was a transfer. The purpose of the non-profit’s involvement, in Grinwis’s words, was to “be the middle management, where all the contracts would be done from the non-profit and if there’s any payment (needing) to be made, we could do a bulk transfer from the IQA to the non-profit and only lose a little bit of money once and then the non-profit can pay it forward.”
It’s important to recognize that the non-profit’s involvement came with little personal gain, acting to support the IQA in times where money is crucial and taking on extra work to allow the weekend to be as successful as possible. Despite the heavy workload and the complex financial logistics involved, the non-profit assumed these duties to make it easier on the IQA and on local partners, allowing for financial integrity while simultaneously allowing the rest of the committee to focus on creating a meaningful and memorable tournament experience. Although Grinwis himself said “in the end, I was an idiot accepting that,” we as attendees have much to be thankful for in terms of the non-profit’s involvement and their role in assisting the IQA financially and locally.
Bidding
Grinwis, as the sole man in charge of the Belgium bid, began looking into where he could host the 2025 tournament before 2019. At one point, he found out that Proximus Basecamp, the venue home to the Belgian national soccer (football for my non-American friends) teams, was available for renting. However, there was not a lot of interest from the Belgian Federation to host a tournament, and he “always knew the location wasn’t the most convenient. It was manageable, but not the most convenient.” So, Proximus Basecamp was not the original goal or idea heading into the bidding stage, but rather a tournament hosted entirely within the city of Brussels.
At one point, Grinwis got into contact with someone from the Brussels regional government who was also responsible for sports tourism, and the discussion of potentially having the World Cup in Belgium took off. The representative was “very keen on helping (IQA) out,” and was also how Grinwis secured the original partnership with Brussels. Around the same time, however, Belgium was dealing with the local municipality elections, a process that is very complex due to the amount of municipalities connected inside the Brussels region that all work independently without one central location. All of these different municipalities also manage their own sports complexes, and it was near impossible to find one municipality to host. At this point, large personal efforts on Grinwis’s part had already been made to make the bid and finding partnerships, so “it would have been a waste to not” host World Cup in Belgium and the idea of Proximus Basecamp being the official venue resurfaced. At first, Basecamp was confused but also interested, so on a weekday, Grinwis headed over in person to discuss hosting the event.
While Proximus Basecamp has the appeal of hosting the national teams and referees, Grinwis also opened up about its local significance. He said, “every time the Belgian National Team is coming together for a game, tournament, whatever — you always see on the news that they have arrived at the center” and having the tournament at Basecamp was a professional jump for an amateur sport. Additionally, having a non-soccer sport at the venue would create the opportunity for media attention on a local and national level to boost awareness for the sport. After all of these tasks were completed by Grinwis, a private person working independently, the bid was presented to the IQA, and Belgium was selected to host the 2025 World Cup.
Pitch One
As a reminder to our readers, Friday’s Pitch One received a lot of backlash due to teams believing it to be unsafe for play. Additionally, some of our readers called the pitch “dangerous” and “unplayable”. When asked if he’d like to comment on the reactions to the original Pitch One, Grinwis said, “there was one reaction where it says ‘I don’t think it was as bad as people were saying it was’ and I agree, and that’s about everything I’m going to say.”
Reffing
At one point, the organization discussed a grade system to evaluate refs, an example being the categorization of refs based on how comfortable the committee would be giving them the final or recognizing that certain refs would be better utilized in the group stages. There were many people rejected because of inexperience, and there was a lot of manual labor involved in the process. In terms of the quality of refereeing, Grinwis said, “I don’t think it was better or worse than what I’ve seen at a European Quadball Cup, for example, but I’ve also not been that close for a few years…so I was looking at it from a little bit of an outside perspective.”
Venue Change
The day that tickets sold out for the event, the IQA was taken aback at the force of the community, who showed much more interest than previously expected. Immediately, the IQA began brainstorming solutions, and Luna Deroo (a Belgian representative responsible for the communication with the municipality of Tubize) called Grinwis and suggested a plan of moving venues from Basecamp to Stade Edmon Leburton for the final and third place match. Grinwis shared the plan with the organization and “they talked about it for about an hour and a half or so — looking into all the different hurdles — and it was pretty much decided that if all the different partners were on board, meaning Proximus Basecamp itself…the stadium itself because it wasn’t confirmed yet, medical aid, buses…all these different parties need to be informed and on board, because if anyone else were to cancel or say ‘no, it’s not possible,’ we would have to stay.”
The entire process was completed in a singular weekend — the weekend before the event — and by the Monday of the week of the tournament, all parties were on board and the organization obtained safety clearance from the local police. Unfortunately, as a result of such a unique situation, there was a bit of miscommunication within the organization itself. The original gameplan had to be completely rewritten and was not executed because of the frantic nature of Sunday afternoon transfers from venue to venue.
While the process of transferring from Basecamp to Stade Edmon Leburton was less than ideal, I believe having the finals at the stadium elevated the overall experience. Being able to watch the games in a more traditional finals environment and sit with the community in the bleachers was wonderful, and I must applaud IQA, Grinwis and Deroo on their efforts to solve the venue problem and make it work, despite many hurdles and challenges throughout the process.
Bussing
In regards to the community’s concerns about bussing throughout the event, I’ll include a written response from Grinwis in his own words. This response contains clarification on Belgian law and the bus company’s rules, which I am a stranger to, so hopefully Grinwis’s analysis will be more clear than what I could offer on this topic. The response has been edited for clarity and style.
“Under EU Regulation 561/2006, bus drivers must follow:
Max daily driving time:
→ Nine hours (10 hours only allowed twice per week – already used before the event).Max duty period (working day):
→ 15 hours (includes driving, waiting, prep, etc.).Mandatory daily rest:
→ 11 consecutive hours before the next duty period (can only be shortened to nine hours three times per week).Continuous driving limit:
→ Max 4.5 hours without a 45-minute break.
IQA Transport Model
Buses were used for team pickup at 8:30 AM in Brussels, and return from Tubize in the evening.
They did not stay on site and could theoretically be assigned to other jobs between runs.
Drivers’ daily schedules varied — not all were active every day.
To legally perform the 8:30 AM pickup, a driver needed to:
Leave HQ by ~8:00 AM, which means:
Must have completed 11 hours of rest, so:
Must have returned to HQ by ~9:00 PM the previous day, requiring:
Departure from Tubize no later than ~8:00 PM (30 min drive to Brussels, 30 min to HQ).
Practical Realities During the Event
Not every driver worked all three days, so there wasn’t a fixed “cutoff” time per bus.
To reduce uncertainty for the transport companies, I pre-communicated a general rule: Buses would depart ~1 to 1.5 hours after the last scheduled game each day.
This gave operators confidence to manage driver shifts flexibly — as long as the tournament stayed on schedule.
Since driver rest and driving limits are non-negotiable, even minor delays could create:
Last-minute cancellations,
Non-availability for next-morning pickups, or
Legal violations for the operator.
What happened on Friday evening?
As we communicated that they could leave around ~1h30 after the last scheduled game, and Ireland vs Vietnam was pushed into a slot that didn't exist, the buses were never asked or informed whether one bus could stay later. I presume — but cannot confirm — that the bus driver might have had to leave anyway, to respect the legal timeframe.
What happened on Saturday morning?
I completely take the responsibility and blame for everything that happened on Saturday morning, but to my defense I was really worked to the bone with no backup. On Monday, before the tournament weekend, I was called by both bus firms while I was picking up the practice field equipment (and pretty much having to drive all around Belgium to make that possible). They asked me to confirm the pickup/dropoff points within the hour by email...
So, on my phone, I had to look between three different spreadsheets and several communications, to give all the correct information. I thought I did so, but when I was called on Saturday morning by one of the bus drivers that they were present but no group was, I knew something was wrong. So I double-checked everything, and yes, I f*cked up, and instead of sending them to North, I sent them to South.
So this is why the buses were later at the Northern Pickup point. The traffic accident / jam was only impacting a little bit of the journey time, but did not affect the pickup time. I also don't know who claimed that it was due to the traffic jam, but I definitely want to be clear that that was completely on me and I take full responsibility for it.
What happened on Sunday afternoon (to the stadium)?
There seemed to have been some miscommunication between myself and the actual organization. It was always planned that only the original bus spots could come back to do the transport to the stadium, and just as a one-time trip — not as a shuttle service. This was pretty much the only thing we could do in such a short time.
I remember I was asked about whether they could do some additional trips, but never got the chance anymore to check that. So I think that's why some people thought everyone could just get on a bus to the new stadium, but that wasn't the case. I also advised to put that in the communication about the new stadium, but was told "we'll figure it out later.”
What happened on Sunday evening?
As due to the major delays happening, the finals started way later than scheduled. With some networking, we convinced most buses to stay, but not everyone — as they needed to respect their legal times. This is, for example, one of the reasons why one bus had to leave before even the bronze medal game was properly over.
I hope this information definitely clarifies some misconceptions.”
Ticketing
Grinwis stated that in the future, the exact plan is unclear, but at least in Europe the ticketing process has been a staple since 2015-2016 and the process that the IQA settled with for this tournament is a sound system in their eyes. Additionally, he assisted in setting up the ticketing process, where things would be done more digitally, because in the past the process was in-person where it would take upwards of 10 minutes per player while the volunteers would have to check multiple individual spreadsheets of information. This World Cup saw the rise of the QR code, where each player had their own details and allowed for less manual spreadsheeting. Grinwis also stated, “the check-in procedure has long been implemented in European Cups, and is not strange to anyone attending. This process could take a bit. This is why the individual QRs were ‘invented’ for this tournament, to speed up the process. And that seemed to work, cause that's where we heard about the smooth process.”
Additionally, “related to this, is the ticketing. As the IQA pretty much requires you to shut off the venue for exclusive use, we must make sure that everyone entering the facilities has the credentials and/or has an entry ticket. The entry ticket for players was a secondary QR code - distributed after the check-in procedure was completed. While in theory, this seemed like a great idea, we were definitely lacking the staff to scan everyone”, Grinwis added.
A reaction Grinwis heard stated that it was one of the smoothest ticketing experiences they’ve ever had, so learning about other perspectives was surprising. Overall, they think the ticketing process is necessary, because one of the issues that European Quadball has dealt with in the past has been roster restrictions. Grinwis said that “it’s a double check of whether the person actually registering or checking in is the person on the roster and not someone else…it’s still important to the IQA because they deal with roster restrictions.”
When going back to the original IQA recap article, I asked the players a question: if the IQA came out and said that the current ticketing situation worked the best for them, what would your reaction be? Now that we have clarification on an IQA perspective, how does this change your opinion on ticketing?
Reader Suggestions
For this section, we recapped the reader suggestions included in the original article and Grinwis was able to respond to a few that stuck out. These responses have been edited for clarity and style.
Suggestion: “Good thinking before you start selling tickets. 300 tickets for a final is way too thin with 700 players / staff over 31 countries. No changes in prices during the ticket sale.”
Grinwis’s Response: “We never expected 700 players at all. We didn’t even expect 31 countries. We originally accounted for 24 maximum. On average, at the European Quadball Cup, we see a roster average of 17, while now the average roster size is over 21, so there were definitely more players than expected and the limited tickets was a result of prioritizing players. The price was increased for managing the stadium because that wasn’t originally in our budget and would cost another 3,000 euros. There was still a lot of interest for people to come, so IQA…increased the prices more so we could pay for the stadium and it wouldn’t come out of the players’ pockets.”
Suggestion: “Provide more vegan & vegetarian food with shorter queues (standing in line could take up to 1 hour from what I heard)”
Grinwis’s Response: “Something that we definitely saw happening is, since we lowered the price of the tickets, we asked all the food trucks and all the drink sales if we could take a margin of their sales. So we wouldn’t be paying for them to be there, they would just get what was ordered, the location itself and we would take a margin. What we saw happening is that a lot of food trucks are, for some reason, very reluctant to come to a tournament. Even though there were so many people, if they cannot guarantee a certain number of sales, they would prefer that you pay in advance for that number, that means that you as an organization would be paying for something that’s also on the players to pay for their food. While I fully agree that it would be better to have more food, we saw it as almost impossible. Every day we planned to have vegan and vegetarian options, but for Friday, the food truck cancelled on Wednesday for sick leave and we had to scramble and get someone else, and on Saturday, we were told they forgot their vegan and vegetarian options, but I don't remember whether it was sauces, sausages, or something else.”
Grinwis’s Final Thoughts
“Overall, I’m extremely disappointed in myself with how things went. That said, I don’t believe the organization — or myself — should be branded as public enemy No. 1. If I had known everything I know now, I honestly would never have tried to bring it to Belgium in the first place.
Some criticism is completely fair, but the way some people have delivered it has lacked any sense of humanity. Thinking back on the entire experience is still very triggering for me — much of it feels like a black spot.
I also want to be clear: I can’t speak badly about anyone, because I truly believe every single person on that core team gave it their all. But at the same time, I’m not sure that — ten years into the existence of the IQA — just ‘doing our best’ should still be the standard for how we operate.”
Conclusion
Firstly, I want to thank Laurens Grinwis for giving me the chance to interview him and allow his voice to be heard alongside the article that was published with the community’s reactions. Much of the responsibility for the entire event fell solely on his shoulders, and while things didn’t go perfectly, the effort that he and the rest of the committee put forward to make the experience as accommodating and convenient as possible was crucial to the success of the weekend. Hearing Grinwis’s perspective allows us to see the immense coordination and problem solving that keeps an international tournament like the IQA World Cup alive and well. From navigating last-minute changes to ensuring that every decision serves the sport’s global community, his dedication embodies the spirit that makes Quadball more than just a game.
The 2025 IQA World Cup will be remembered for its highlight reel plays and electric atmosphere, but it’s the behind the scenes efforts of people like Grinwis that turned a winning bid for Belgium into an unforgettable weekend. As we at FastBreak News close out our coverage, one thing’s clear: champions aren’t only the ones holding trophies — sometimes, they’re people who sacrifice time, effort and money for the sport they love the most.
