Conference turris::scandia

I wanna report on a growing sport here in Europe. I'm always wondering if 
it or kind of it is known in other countries. Feel free to comment or ask 
questions about this fast, famous and interesting sport.

What kind of Sport is it ?

Floorball is a kind of indoor hockey. We play in gym's, inside a rink (20x
40 meters (yds)) with boards (1/2 meter) and 5 players and a goalkeeper. 
The sticks are about one meter and are made of fiberglass and/or plastic. 
The ball is also plastic, hollow, with 26 holes in it and it weigh about 
30 gramm (1/15 lb). The goals are 1.8 x 1.2 meter. In shools or in junior-
leagues we also play in smaler rinks (24x14 meters) with 3 players and a 
goalkeeper. A team normaly has two or three formations.  
The roules ar strong but really easy what means that checking, hooking,... 
isn't allowed and it is nearly 'take_a_stick_and_play'. The goalkeeper is 
wearing a helmet or mask, gloves and some covers, because some shots are 
very fast. We once messured shots around 150km/h (93 miles/h).   

How popular is it in Europe ?

The IFF (International Floorball Federation) has actualy 6 members 
(countries). In Sweden (Innebandy) were it comes from, are more Innebandy 
players than Icehockey players: about 25'000 in the championship (male and
female !). In Switzerland we have about 12'000 (Icehockey #2 in Switzerland:
20'000 !). In Switzerland the sport is just 10 years young so you can 
imagine how it is growing.
In spring 1994 we will have the first official European Championship in 
Finnland, 1995 in Switzerland and then all two years another one.   

Unihockey, Floorball, Innebandy ?

Bandy once was the 'predecessor' of Icehockey around 1880 and is still 
played in Sweden. In 1978 they took off the skates and played bandy in a 
gym - Innebandy was born. In 1984 the sport and championships were started 
in Switzerland (Unihockey) and Finnland (Salibandy). In 1988 the three 
nations founded the IFF (International Floorball Federation). Danmark,
Norway, the Czech's and the Russians became member of the IFF. The IFF is 
trying to present the sport in other countries to get the people found a 
national federation, organize a championship in their country. So they will
become member of the IFF. That's pretty hard work. 

But probably YOU or people around YOU are interested. Probably there are 
teams playing sort of "unorganized" (street)hockey for fun who want to get 
material and rules. Let me know !  

andre

The first European Championship will be at Helsinki 9.-15. May 1994. 

Final standings from the 1. European Championship 94 in Helsinki:

        Gold: Sweden
      Silver: Finnland
      Bronze: Switzerland

           4: Norway

            : Russia
              Czech
              Ungaria
              Danmark

Did anyone find some comments in the nordic press ?

andre