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Floorball

Floorball
A floorball game between the Czech Republic and Finland
Highest governing bodyInternational Floorball Federation
Nicknames
  • indoor bandy
  • innebandy
  • salibandy
  • unihockey
  • plastic hockey
First played1960 (1960)
– late 1960s in Gothenburg, Sweden
Clubs4396
Characteristics
ContactYes
Team members6, including goalkeeper
Mixed-sexYes, and separate competitions
TypeIndoor
Equipment
Presence
Country or regionCzech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Singapore
OlympicNo
ParalympicNo
World Games3 (Since in 2017)

Floorball (also known by other names) is a type of floor hockey with five players and a goalkeeper in each team. It is played indoors with 96–115.5 cm-long (37.8–45.5 in) sticks and a 70–72 mm-diameter (2.76–2.83 in) hollow plastic ball with holes. Matches are played in three twenty-minute periods. The sport of bandy also played a role in the game's development.

The game was invented in Sweden in the late 1960s.[1] The basic rules were established in 1979 when the first floorball club in the world, Sala IBK, from Sala, was founded in Sweden.[2] Official rules for matches were first written down in 1981.[3]

The sport is organized internationally by the International Floorball Federation (IFF). As of 2019, there were about 377,000 registered floorball players worldwide,[4] up from around 300,000 in 2014.[5] Events include an annual Champions Cup, EuroFloorball Cup and EuroFloorball Challenge for club teams and the biennial World Floorball Championships with separate divisions for men and women. Men's semi-professional club leagues include Finland's F-liiga, Sweden's Svenska Superligan, Switzerland's Unihockey Prime League, and the Czech Republic's Superliga florbalu. Women's semi-professional leagues from the same countries are F-liiga, Svenska Superligan, Unihockey Prime League and Extraliga žen.

While the IFF contains 80 members, floorball is most popular where it has been developed the longest, such as the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. It is gaining popularity in Australia, New Zealand, India,[6] Canada,[7] Germany,[8] Ireland,[9] Japan,[10] Singapore,[11] Malaysia,[12] the United States,[13] and the United Kingdom.

Floorball was included in the World Games for the first time in 2017 in Wrocław, Poland, where Sweden became the first team to win a gold medal.

  1. ^ "Floorball | IWGA". www.theworldgames.org. Archived from the original on 22 April 2018. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  2. ^ "Innebandyns födelse – Innebandy.se". Innebandy.se (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 8 September 2018. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  3. ^ Houmann, Steen (2006). "Skolernes Floorball" (PDF) (in Danish). Et samarbejde af Dansk Skoleidræt og Dansk Floorball Union. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 7 September 2016. p. 2
  4. ^ "Number of licensed floorball players in 2019". IFF Main Site. 1 October 2020. Archived from the original on 13 May 2021. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference ifftoday was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Floorball Australia > Home". Floorballaustralia.org. Archived from the original on 18 September 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  7. ^ "What is floorball?". Globalnews.ca. Archived from the original on 28 May 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  8. ^ "Floorball Deutschland". Floorball.de (in German). Archived from the original on 3 September 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
  9. ^ "Killarney Vikings". Killarneyvikings.yolasite.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  10. ^ トップページ. Floorball.jp (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 3 September 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  11. ^ "Interview with GK from Singapore!". innebandyplaneten.se. Archived from the original on 18 April 2015. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  12. ^ "Malaysia Floorball Association". Floorballmalaysia.com. Archived from the original on 30 September 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
  13. ^ ""Wayne Gretzky älskar innebandy"". Aftonbladet.se (in Swedish). 18 April 2015. Archived from the original on 26 January 2020. Retrieved 6 September 2016.

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