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Touchline • Issue 15 • 25
Another reason for the popularity of the sport is how cheap it
is to get the right gear. A few players will buy shin pads and
at junior levels some teams insist on protective eyewear for
children. But for the most part, the highest cost you will incur is
for the stick. This will set you back between $50 and $150. Once
the money is down, you are ready to join a team and play.
Innebandy is hugely popular in Sweden and Finland (where it
is known as Salibandy). It is not hard to see why. Indoor team
games make sense in nations that have subzero temperatures
for long spells of the year and winter nights that last over
twenty hours. Today, over 90,000 Swedes play Innebandy, while
one in twenty Finns play the game.
Like most great ideas, Innebandy is the invention of a thousand
fathers. Sweden has claim to be the birthplace of the sport,
and given its popularity there, their claim should be taken
seriously. In the dedicated website www.freeway.org, it is
claimed that Innebandy was invented by Carl-Ake Ahlqvist or
Christer Gustavsson in the 1970s. Apparently Ahlqvist brought
the plastic sticks from Holland and added them to an existing
game, while Christer formalized the rules and set up the first
proper club.
There is another story that starts the game in America under the
name of Floorhockey. Some bored and inventive factory workers
made the plastic sticks and played a variant of hockey in their
spare time. In 1968, the sticks found their
way to Sweden, where the game took off.
Regardless of its origins, the rise of
Innebandy has been rapid.The International
Floorball Federation was formed in 1986
and formalized the rules and began
overseeing international competitions.
The heavy-weights of the game, Sweden,
Finland and Switzerland, were soon joined
by countries like The Czech Republic,
Hungary and Norway.
Today, countries as far away as Australia,
Canada and Brazil have started to see the
joys of Innebandy. The challenges for these
countries are manifest, as recounted by
Australian captain Greg Mead in 2011: “We
have a lot of challenges to face and need
to work together if we really are going to
grow the sport, we need to focus on junior
programs, getting floorball into schools
and looking at long term planning with
development of schools and clubs. The
future is exciting and limitless.”
In Canada, a country where hockey is a national obsession,
Innebandy is being treated with slow-dawning interest. Maple
Leaf’s player Carl Gunnarsson sees the potential in the sport
coming through its similarity to hockey, and said “I could see
it get bigger in Canada, especially if you allow a little more
contact.”
Others, however, acknowledge how the sport requires great skill,
which then can be transferred over to the ice hockey rink. One
Canadian player, Ryan O’Conner says “(Floorball) takes some
getting used to. You can’t slash your opponent’s stick. You can’t
lift their stick. But you learn. It’s good, because it teaches you to
stay with your guy and not reach and poke with your stick.”
Around the world, the IFF claims to have registered over 4000
clubs and around 300,000 players. Such a large and growing
fan base has been rewarded by the International Olympics
Committee with status as a recognized sport. This could pave the
way to making Innebandy an Olympic sport as soon as 2020.
Innebandy’s popularity can only get bigger. In a world where
school sports are getting ever more regulated, and where parents
start to shy away from some of the more expensive sports,
Innebandy makes sense. And with this grassroots investment,
it is only a matter of time before this particularly Scandinavian
sport has a global presence.
© PTG