Each team has 5 players on court and 1 goalkeeper.
The indoorcourt is 40x20 m. and the border of the court is 60 cm.
high. You play 3x20 minutes and the team that has scored the most
wins.
There are two referees.
The floorball ball has 26 holes and it´s made of plastic, also
the stick is made of plastic.
The sport is not expensive, so most people can afford it.
Floorball is a very fast sport.
Since the end of the 60´s floorball has been played in Sweden,
but it wasn´t until the 80´s that it became really popular.
In the end of the 80´s some friends in Göteborg took some
plastic sticks and balls, many people liked the sport and the interest
started growing. Schools, youth clubs and inter-company clubs started
to buy some equipment. Many teams started using floorball as warm-up
before their ordinary trainings.
The cages were small and the number of players and rules varied.
In 1979 in Sala there was a guy called Christer Gustafsson who thought
the sport would be played on a big court and with big cages and goalkeepers.
September 21, the first team was formed, Sala IBK.
People heard about the sport and the team Sala IBK, other clubs came
there to play training matches.
November 7, 1981 “Svenska Innebandy Förbundet” was
formed and at that time there were 15 clubs present and Christer Gustafsson
was elected head for all clubs.
The sport became very popular and in 1984 there were 100 clubs in
the country. In 1990 the number of clubs passed 1000.
May 18, 1996 the first World Championship Final in floorball was played,
15 106 viewers saw the final in Globen and that is still the record
for viewers in Globen for indoor sport.
Floorball is the biggest indoorsport in Sweden and the second biggest
competitive sport.
25% of the players are women. The season 2004/05 there were 131 425
licenced players in Sweden.
Estimations say that there are over half a million floorball practicians.
Floorball is played in more than 30 countries and the popularity still
increases.
A newly founded floorball nation is Singapore. Floorball was introduced
to Singapore around 1993/04. The interest for floorball grew and the
Singapore Floorball Association (SFA) was formed in 1996.
There are currently 20 teams registered with SFA for the Singapore
Floorball League. There are 12 male´s team and 8 women´s
team
The next big goal for floorball is to reach the Olympics. The way
to get there is still long but definitely shorter than it was 40 years
ago...
