This year’s WFDF Congress was held in English city Nottingham on the eve of the opening day of the World Under-24 Ultimate Championships.

Huntington Beach in California is down to stage the World Beach Ultimate Championships from November 1 to 5 this year.

Next year is set to see the World Ultimate Championships head to Australia for the first time.

However, Brian Gisel, chair of the WFDF Ultimate Committee, admitted that the organisation had been faced with a lack of bids for competitions.

"One of the questions that we get asked is 'why are you holding this event here?'," said Gisel.

"The reason is because we don't get bids.

"We are happy, in most cases, to get one bid.

"We know it is difficult to get bids, sometimes we get two bids.

"We feel that a lot of countries are scared of the scope of tournaments and don't consider making a bid.

"If you have any inkling, I would implore you to get in touch with our events team."

Gisel has urged potential host cities to seek Government support to be able to secure a venue suitable to host a major WFDF event.

"The sport is still bouncing back from COVID," said Gisel.

"As we get further away from it, more events are coming back and we are hoping to get more bids too.

"It’s always a struggle to find people.

"Our sport always needs a lot of field space and that’s not always readily available in all places. 

"What we are finding is happening a lot is that ultimate groups are partnering with tourism boards or Governments more and more.

"Having that support gets you access to fields that you can play on.

"We would encourage a lot of countries to look at that as a solution.

"It’s a big tourism boost as our bigger events bring 1,500 to 2,000 people to a location for 10 days."

The official bidding process for events in 2025 and 2026 started last month.

Among the tournaments seeking hosts in 2025 include the World Beach Ultimate Championships, the World Wheelchair Ultimate Championship and the World Under-24 Ultimate Championship.

The World Overall Flying Disc Championship and World Ultimate Club Championships are two of the four events that have yet to find a location to go ahead in 2026.

"We would rather like to go to different countries and continents which is exciting for our athletes as they can visit different places," said Gisel.

"The WFDF can take off the burden for hosts as much as possible.

"We have got templates on how to make it easier for the Local Organising Committee.

"Overall, it’s a bit easier than people think.

"It’s not easy but you are not in it alone, it’s a partnership and we walk down the road with all our Local Organising Committees to make sure we get to a destination that we are all happy with."

WFDF President Robert Rauch says he hopes that COVID-19 is in the "rear view mirror" after it impacted several events last year.

"It feels like we are mostly out of the woods," added Rauch.

"But there is still some impact from the pandemic on what has been going on.

"It's harder to get to the participation levels.

"There was the financial impact too so we are hoping to get back to the growth that we are seeing."