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Floorball
 

Floorball is an indoor team sport played using composite sticks with a plastic vented blade where the aim is to put a light plastic ball into the opponent's goal. Floorball is most popular in Sweden, Finland and Switzerland, and is also played in several other countries, such as Norway and the Czech Republic. It is gaining popularity in many other places as well, including some countries outside Europe, such as Singapore, Japan, Australia and the United States.

Floorball is played in a court by six players per side. The objective of the game is to score goals by playing a plastic ball into the opponent's goal net, which is placed at the opposite end of the rink. The players may control and redirect the ball using a stick with a blade that is often curved at one end. Players must not use their hands, arms or head to play the ball on purpose. One may use other body parts. It is also allowed to play (especially stop) the ball once by foot, but not to score goals or pass to teammates.

A floorball team consist of 5 field players and one goalkeeper, whose primary job is to stop the ball from entering the net, and who is permitted unique gear towards that end. The goalkeeper is not permitted a stick. The playing field is 40 x 20 metres and enclosed by a board with rounded corners (50 cm tall). The goal cages are 1.60 x 1.15 m and 65 cm deep. The sticks are made of plastic or carbon and a bit over 1 metre long. The shaft is no longer than 99 cm and a blade of a different kind of plastic is attached to its end. The ball is made of plastic, is 72 mm in diameter, has a maximum weight of 23 grams, and has 26 holes in it.

A world championship tournament is played every two years. The current reigning world champions are Switzerland (women, 2005) and Sweden (men, 2006) (Floorball World Championships).

The game

Floorball as a game comes from northern Europe. It is similar to Bandy, a kind of sport considered the predecessor of ice hockey. Floorball is sometimes likened to ice hockey without the ice skates, but there are considerable differences in the rules. In Switzerland, floorball is commonly considered to be a kind of hockey.

Floorball is a fast and dynamic sport with much of the time played near the goals. The mixture of endurance, power and precision make floorball a popular game in schools, although in that case minor rule changes are not uncommon (such as smaller goals and that the keeper is allowed to use a stick and sometimes even a glove hand thus making his behavior more similar to a hockey keeper).

Floorball is usually played on a standard size court (40 x 20 metres) or on a smaller court measuring 24 x 14 m. On a smaller court a team consists of three players and one goalie. The rules do not differ, except for some adjustions for the smaller court. In the initial years of floorball, the goalkeeper was permitted to use a special kind of stick, but today no stick is used.

On the standard court, the game is played by five players and one goalie on each side. The team consists of a larger number of players which can be substituted at any time. A floorball game is usually played over 3 periods of 20 minutes. Time is stopped in the case of time penalties, goals and timeouts. There is a break of ten minutes between the thirds. If the game is part of a tournament, the time may be shortened to 2 x 20 minutes and the break to 5 minutes. In both cases, the last three minutes the clock is only running when the ball is in play. Each team is allowed a timeout of 30 seconds. There are two referees to oversee the game, each with equal authority. The stick used in floorball is strictly regulated. The shaft may be at most 99 cm long, and the whole stick must not weigh more than 350 grams. Its material is plastic and it is hollow. Generally lighter sticks are preferred. The ball is made of white plastic and hollow. It has a diameter of 72 mm and weighs between 20 and 23 grams. There are 26 holes, each of which measuring 11 mm. The goals are 160 cm wide and 115 cm high; their depth is 65 cm.

The goalie wears special equipment. His trousers are long and padded. The shirt is padded and might be long. The goalie is allowed to wear gloves (though not commonly used), but a mitt is not permitted. The goalie wears a helmet to protect his face. All the equipment worn by the goalie has the purpose to protect the goalkeeper and must not augment the area as covered by the goalie without the protective wear. The goalie does not have a stick. The field players on the other hand only wear shorts, a shirt, socks and indoor sport shoes. They are allowed shin guards.

Compared to ice hockey floorball does not permit the use of the body as much. No checks are allowed, nor is pushing, blocking etc. The purpose of this is to reward dexterity and skill over physical aggression.

If a player commits a foul, a free shot is awarded to the opposing team. There are time penalties of two and five minutes for harder fouls; ten minutes are reserved for unsportsmanlike behaviour. For extreme cases there are match penalties (red card).

History

There are a great number of people that think they have invented floorball. It is commonly considered that the roots of floorball go back to the 1950s in the USA. At the time young people played indoors with plastic sticks and a plastic puck. The game was called floor hockey and the first tournament was organized in 1976 in Michigan. Floor hockey with a puck is still played in North America. In Canada, it is credited to Sam Jacks.

The new sport with the name floorball was first played in Sweden in the early 1970s. It soon gained popularity at schools and in leisure clubs. At that time, the goals were much smaller, but there was no goal keeper.

Floorball soon caught on and in the late 1970s the sport spread across Europe. In the early 1980s many national associations were founded. This created the structures that enabled the young sport to grow faster. At the time of writing (2006) only four countries dominate the international game: Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. The gap to other countries, however, is narrowing year by year.

National associations

The following list shows the year in which a national association was founded.

The International Federation

The International Floorball Federation (IFF) was founded in 1986 in Sweden. Founding nations were Sweden, Finland and Switzerland. In 1994 the first European championship for men took place in Zurich. The following year the first European championship for women was organized. The first world championship for men took place in 1996 in Sweden. The following year the first world championship for women was organized. Since then the world championships for men and women take place in alternating years. As of 2005 there are 36 member countries in the IFF, with over 3,900 clubs and 230,000 registerd players. There is organized floorball in some countries that are not IFF members.

The IFF gained full membership of the GAISF (General Association of International Sports Federations) in 2004. Every year the European Cup is organized. World Championships take place every other year, with even years for men, and odd years for women.

Championships

World championships are played in alternate years

Men's world championships

Year Gold Silver Bronze Venue
1996 Skellefteå/Uppsala/Stockholm
1998 Brno/Prague
2000 Drammen/Oslo/Sarpsborg
2002 Helsinki
2004 Zürich/Kloten
2006 Malmö/Helsingborg/Stockholm
2008 Czech Republic
2010 Finland

Women's world championships

Year Gold Silver Bronze Venue
1997 Godby/Mariehamn
1999 Borlänge
2001 Riga
2003 Berne/Gümligen/Wünnewil
2005 Singapore
2007 Denmark
2009 Sweden

European championship

Before playing world championships, the European championship was held twice. In 1994 Sweden's men were crowned European champions in Finland; in 1995 Finland's men and Sweden's women were victorious in Switzerland.

North American Floorball Championship

The North American Floorball Championship, created by the Ontario Floorball/Unihockey Federation in association with the United States Floorball Association, is contested each year, currently based on an aggreagte scoring system played over two tournaments - East Coast Tournament (Raleigh, NC) and the Canada Cup Floorball Championship (Toronto, Canada).

European Cup

The European Cup is organized every year in order to establish the best team in Europe. The championship was adjusted to the sports year which runs across two calendar years in 2000.

The women's champions so far:

The men's champions so far:

  • 1993 Balrog IK, Sweden (held in Stockholm, Sweden)
  • 1994 Balrog IK, Sweden (held in Chur, Switzerland)
  • 1995 Kista IBK, Sweden (held in Karlstad, Sweden)
  • 1996 Balrog IK, Sweden (held in Stockholm, Sweden)
  • 1997 Fornudden IB, Sweden (held in Stockholm, Sweden)
  • 1998 Warbergs IC-85 *, Sweden (held in Helsinki, Finland)
  • 1999 Warbergs IC-85, Sweden (held in Bern, Sarnen & Zuchwil, Switzerland)
  • 2000–2001 Helsingfors IFK, Finland (held in Gothenburg, Sweden)
  • 2001–2002 Haninge IBK, Sweden (held in Solna & Botkyrka, Sweden)
  • 2002–2003 Haninge IBK, Sweden (held in Prague, Czech Republic)
  • 2003–2004 Pixbo Wallenstam IBK , Sweden (held in Weissenfels, Hohenmölsen, Germany)
  • 2004–2005 SV Wiler-Ersingen *, Switzerland (held in Zurich & Adliswil, Switzerland)
  • 2005–2006 Warbergs IC-85, Sweden (held in Ostrava, Czech Republic)

External links

Federations

Equipment manufacturers

Others

Floorball | Team sports | Indoor sports | Ball games

Unihockey | Florbal | Floorball | Unihockey | Floorball | Saalihoki | Salibandy | Unihockey | Bandý | Floorball | Florbols | Unihockey | Innebandy | Innebandy

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Floorball".

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