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Belgium: Korfball flags

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Belgium

Royal Belgian Korfball Union

Flag of KBKB - Image by Ivan Sache, 10 May 2009

Korfball (in Dutch, korfbal; lit. "basket-ball") is a ball sports invented in the Netherlands in 1902 by the teacher Nico Broekhuysen, based on the Swedish game ringboll. As officially defined by the International Korfball Federation (IKF), "korfball is a sport played by hand within a rectangular field of play whereby a team of four female players and four male players tries to shoot a ball into a korf (basket)". Korfball can be played by children older than 5, the height of the pole holding the korf being adapted to the age and expected height of the children.
While 57 countries are registered with IKF, korfball is mostly popular in Belgium (indeed Flanders) and the Netherlands. It was a demonstration sports in the 1920 (Antwerp) and 1928 (Amsterdam) Olympic Games but it has not found its way into the official program since then.

In Belgium, korfball is ruled by the Royal Belgian Korfball Union (Koninklijke Belgische Korfbalbond, KBKB), aka Flemish League (Vlaamse Liga). The clubs are all located in Flanders but one at Anderlecht (Region of Brussels Capital); the korfball stronghold seems to be the Province of Antwerp and, more specifically, the town of Deurne (now a district of Antwerp).

The flag of KBKB is white with the emblem of the federation, a black- yellow-red design probably symbolizing the ball entering the korf, surmonting "KORFBAL" written in black letters. The flag appears on many photos of matches organized by the KBKB, together with clubs' flags, and of events involving the KBKB, for example the Brussels "Olympicnic" 2007.

Ivan Sache, 10 May 2009