Международная федерация роллер-дерби на роликах (WFTDA)

International governing body for the sport of women's flat track roller derby

The Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) is the international governing body for the sport of women's flat track roller derby. It sets the international standards for rankings, rules, and competition in the sport, and provides guidance and resources to aid development of roller derby. The organization was founded in April 2004 as the United Leagues Coalition (ULC), but was renamed in November 2005. It is registered in Raleigh, North Carolina as a 501(c)(6) Business League organization, a type of nonprofit organization.

In 2004, the United Leagues Coalition (ULC) was an informal electronic message board through which established leagues compared notes in order to prepare for interleague play, and exchanged information to help developing leagues. By early 2006, the organization had grown to 30 leagues, a cap decided upon at the July 2005 meeting. Around this time, induction of new member leagues was put on hold until processes could be discussed at the second annual meeting, held in St. Paul, Minnesota in July 2006. At this meeting the membership application process, membership requirements and policies, rules, rankings and plans for tournaments were finalized. The WFTDA opened its doors to new members in September 2006, again capped at 30. This limit was reached by September 2008. From its inception, membership of the WFTDA was only open to the US, but was opened up to leagues from Canada in February 2008. In January 2009 Montreal Roller Derby became the WFTDA's 66th member league and the first Canadian league admitted as a member and was placed in the East region. That same month, the WFTDA announced it would stop accepting applications for new membership from February until July, so that it could concentrate on internal restructuring in order to, among other things, "grow the scope" of the organization. In May 2009, the first sanctioned international WFTDA game was played between Montreal Roller Derby and Harrisburg Area Roller Derby at the Olympic Skating Center in Enola, Pennsylvania. Shortly thereafter, in November 2009, the WFTDA opened for worldwide membership and the London Rollergirls became the first league outside North America to join as Apprentice members. In March 2012, Bear City Roller Derby from Berlin, Germany became the WFTDA's first full member league in continental Europe. In June 2013 the Rock n Roller Queens of Bogota, Colombia became the first full member South American league. The Tokyo Roller Girls and Kokeshi Roller Dolls became the first full member leagues in Asia.

The WFTDA governs and promotes the sport of flat track roller derby and revolutionizes the role of women in sports through the collective voice of its member leagues around the world.

In November 2015, WFTDA issued a statement broadening its discrimination protections for gender identity to include transgender women, intersex women, and gender expansive participants.

A statement was issued by the Board of Directors on 17 June 2020, committing the WFTDA to becoming an actively anti racist organization, and setting the same expectation of all its partners and member leagues. This is an ongoing work plan under the auspices of the newly developed Anti Racism Team (ART).

The WFTDA in its current incarnation began as a group of 22 leagues in November 2005, born out of the United Leagues Coalition (ULC). and reached the target of 60 by September 2008. In July 2017, the WFTDA surpassed over 400 member leagues and as of March 2023, there were 443 member leagues on six continents.

Leadership of the organization is via an annually elected voluntary Board of Directors, consisting of a President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and four General Board Members. The Board appoints an Officer for each of the six Pillars: Games, Membership, Marketing, Regulatory, Technology, and Officiating. These Pillars are represented by Committees made up of WFTDA League Representatives. WFTDA employs several staff members in the organization, as well as in its for profit subsidiary, WFTDA Insurance (WFTDI) and its broadcast company Quad Media.

On 15 August 2007, the WFTDA announced it had struck a deal with the MAVTV network to record, edit and broadcast the 2007 Eastern Regional Tournament as a weekly series of 12 one hour episodes (one episode per bout). In December 2019, an announcement was made that the WFTDA had established Quad Media, Inc. to further their goals to promote the sport of roller derby, reducing barriers to watching games and achieving excellence in the way the sport is presented.

In September 2007, the WFTDA was admitted to USA Roller Sports (USARS) as a Class V member — a national amateur roller skating organization — and a WFTDA delegate joined the USARS Board of Directors. USARS has since developed its own separate set of rules, though WFTDA leagues can play against USARS leagues and there is an insurance reciprocity agreement between the organizations.

During the COVID 19 pandemic the WFTDA, in consultation with epidemiologists, formed a tiered activity "ladder" in order to keep the league operating during the crisis. The plan was hailed as "the best COVID 19 plan in sports". Restrictions on gameplay and cancellation of the annual season placed significant financial pressure on member leagues, so in July 2021 the WFTDA COVID 19 Recovery Fund was announced. This fund provides microgrants to leagues or other roller derby organizations to aid recovery from the pandemic's impact.

WFTDA charter teams compete for mathematically calculated rankings, and at the end of the Competitive Season (February 1 – June 30) are seeded into postseason tournaments (WFTDA Continental Cups and International WFTDA Playoffs & Championships) based on those rankings.

Each year a series of playoffs are held, based on the June 30 rankings. While the top four teams as of June 30 get an immediate bye to Championships, the next 24 teams are seeded into two Playoff Tournaments, historically termed as Division 1, with the top three finishers at each advancing to Championships. This was down from the top 36 teams competing in three Division 1 Playoffs in 2017, when the top four finishers from each tournament advanced to Championships without any bye teams. The Hydra Trophy is awarded annually to the top ranked team determined by the International WFTDA Championships tournament. The 2020 Intentional Playoffs and Championships were cancelled due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

Charter teams ranked below the cutoff for playoffs are seeded into geographically based Continental Cups, replacing the former Division 2 system, which in 2017 saw the next 16 eligible teams compete in a single Playoff Tournament, with the winner crowned Division 2 champion. The 2018 announcement described the model for Continental Cups as "scalable", such that event numbers and sizes may change over time based on needs. The Division structure has now been replaced. In 2013 WFTDA changed ranking systems from a regional, poll based format released quarterly to a system based on the competitive ranking of teams using game results. When the organization did so, WFTDA introduced competitive divisions and expanded the playoff tournament structure. After the November 30 rankings release of each year, each league was placed within a competitive division for the next 12 months based on their charter team's rank. The leagues remained in their division for 12 months, no matter what their rank was in subsequent rankings releases. Through 2016, the top 40 leagues from the November 30 rankings were placed in Division 1, the leagues ranked 41 100 (from 2015, those ranked 41 60) were put in Division 2, and through 2014 all other member leagues were grouped in Division 3. Each region had a tournament scheduled, followed by a national championship.

The Rules of Flat Track Roller Derby is the ruleset developed and published by the WFTDA, discussed and agreed by the WFTDA Rules Committee which features both WFTDA and Junior Roller Derby Association (JRDA) members. Updates are published each January. The WFTDA ruleset is used by all WFTDA leagues, as well as MRDA and JRDA leagues. MRDA and WFTDA have worked together on developing the rules since 2014, and since 2017 have worked on a modified version of the rules for junior leagues. JRDA leagues use the WFTDA ruleset with addenda and a full set of updated JRDA rules is now published annually. The first agreed ruleset and track design was developed in 2005 by member representatives of 20 leagues of the WFTDA predecessor, the United Leagues Coalition (ULC), and published in 2005.

as of 2020, the Rules are published in five languages: German, English, French, Spanish, and Chinese.