Finnish Floorball Federation

The interest towards floorball has grown rapidly ever since the activity of the Finnish Floorball Federation (SSBL) started in 1985. In terms of registered players, floorball occupies the third place after football and ice hockey (39 104 lic. players in May 2006). The number of women and junior division players has proportionally grown the most. Floorball is played throughout Finland.

National floorball championships for men and women and Finnish Cup competitions for men and women, are annually organised by the SSBL Floorball Company. Other series are organised by SSBL.
In addition to the national floorball league, there are six floorball divisions for men and three divisions for women. In season 2005-06, over 1 800 teams took part in the national floorball competitions. The junior activities of the SSBL include players from A to G -juniors (19 to 7-year-olds). Men, women, junior boys and girls (under 19 years) compete at international level. The budget for 2006 is 3,5 million euros.

Floorball attracts increasingly different workplace, special interest and other player groups. At present, floorball is the most popular school, youth, club, conscript and workplace sport. SSBL works in close co-operation with the Finnish Athletic Association of the Deaf, the Finnish Association of Sports for the Disabled, the Finnish Muscular Disease Association and the Finnish School Sports Federation.
The supreme decision-making body of the SSBL is the Congress where all members (i.e. registered clubs) of the SSBL are represented by one, two or three vote(s) according to number of lic. players of the club. Congress is held every two years.

Congress will elect the Council and the Board of the SSBL. Council is based on SSBL´s 7 regions (3 representatives/region). Council will do the closing of the accounts and accept annual report of the SSBL.
Board of the SSBL is consisting of nine members, who are elected by club representatives at the Congress in November every two years. The Board´s term of office is two years. The President of the Board is Mr. Matti Ahde. The majority of preparatory work for decisions is prepared by different Committees.

The Office of the Finnish Floorball Federation is situated in Helsinki (Alakiventie 2, FIN-00920 Helsinki). Day-to-day administration is led by the General Secretary. The office has 24 full-time employees. The regional offices are located in Helsinki, Tampere, Joensuu, Oulu, Turku, Seinäjoki and Lappeenranta. The main publication of the SSBL is the Salibandy magazine which is published six times a year.

Short presentation of floorball and "sähly"

What is floorball ?

Floorball is an indoor competition and leisure sport developed from "sähly". There are slight differences between the disciplines, although the equipment and playing ideas are rather similar.
In floorball, five players and one goalkeeper can be on the field at the same time. Each team can have a maximum of 15-20 players. The size of the field is 40 x 20 m and the field is surrounded by a rink that is 50 cm high. The playing surface is usually wood parquet or plastic cover. Each player has a stick approved by the Finnish Floorball Federation which is a maximum of 120 cm long and made of synthetic material such as fibreglass or plastic. The maximum curvature of the blade is 30 mm. The goalkeeper is not allowed to use a stick. The ball is made of plastic, is 72 mm in diameter, has a maximum weight of 23 g and has 26 holes. The goal is 160 cm wide and 115 cm high. The match is supervised by two referees.

Boarding and rough body contact are forbidden and the stick may only be used to hit the ball. For rule violation, a penalty of 2, 5 or 10 minutes is imposed or a free stroke is awarded to the opposing team. A penalty shot is also possible.
Players may be changed when the ball is in play or during time-out; there is no off-side rule in floorball. The time of the match consists of 3 x 20 minutes at men´s and women´s upper levels. The three last minutes of the second period are so-called ´effective playing time´. The match time at lower and junior levels is either 3 x 15 or 2 x 15 minutes.

It all started with "sähly"

Floorball has developed to its present form from game which was first played in Gothenburg, Sweden in the early 1970´s. In Finland the game was named "sähly" according to nature of the game. Sähly, in turn, has been influenced by street hockey, the street version of ice hockey. Sähly was brought to Finland by students, and the first series were played at the Helsinki University in 1974.
Sähly also spread rapidly to the other student cities; Hämeenlinna, Turku, Tampere, Jyväskylä and Joensuu. It established itself as the number one sport among the students and is still today very popular. The sähly generation has become a familiar expression. Sähly has managed to reach all social and age groups within the last twenty years.
The interpretation of sähly rules is more user-friendly and flexible for beginners than floorball rules. It is very difficult to separate sähly from floorball and often also unnecessary. In sähly, 3-4 players can be on the field at one time; there is no goalkeeper and the size of the goal is 90 x 60 cm. The match time is usually 2 x 15 minutes and the field is only half the size of the floorball rink.

One of the secrets of sähly´s success is its great variability. It can be played almost everywhere, even on an asphalt surface. It is also easy to get started: no specific skills are needed and the rules are quite simple. Sähly is primarily a fitness sport where equality between the sexes is well realized. Mixed sähly has been played since the early stages of the sport. In addition to schoolchildren and students, today many workplace and special interest groups have also taken up uni hockey, and the so called inter-company matches have come to stay.

The rapid growth of floorball

The Finnish Floorball Federation membership statistics are part of Finnish sports history. Number of lic. players increased many years by an annual rate of 30-40 %. Hardly any other sport can claim as high a growth rate over such a short time period. Nowadays there are over 37 000 lic. players.
There are several interpretations put forth for the popularity of floorball. One explanation tendered is that the economic recession drove players of more costly sports to a convenient and less expensive alternative. However, the growth of floorball has continued far longer, ever since, in fact, the foundation of the Finnish Floorball Federation.
During the years of economic depression, the scarcity of sports facilities had been significantly reduced by the reconstruction of unused industrial warehouses into floorball arenas. In addition to alleviating the lack of facilities, the activity had led to a new entrepreneurship and brought several permanent jobs to the sports sector.
The popularity of floorball may perhaps be better explained by the latitude or freedom of action that the sport offers. Practically everyone has the opportunity to play uni hockey or floorball - if not within a sports club, then in an unofficial group. Another important feature is related to the sport itself: the threshold to begin playing floorball is low both so far as financial investments and skills are concerned. National league and team matches are offered to more skilful players. The national floorball league is not merely a second choice for ball players, but a vigorous, elite sport requiring a great deal of practice.

Many floorball clubs were initially established by the players themselves and had no external links. It was also characteristic of floorball that the players switched from another ball sport to floorball, because floorball offered a more tempting alternative, or because the other sport was not able to guarantee sufficient practice opportunity. This was generally known as the "drop out phenomenon".
Today, floorball is the number one sport for many top players. The club activity is more organised than before, which can be seen in the rapid growth of the junior division. The big clubs have also shown interest towards floorball and have chosen to include it in their competition programmes.

The popularity of floorball has brought many challenges to the Finnish Floorball Federation. The explosive growth has resulted in the creation of many new employment opportunities and the channelling of the national league activity to the regions and districts. One of the greatest problems, especially in southern Finland, is the lack of floorball facilities. The municipalities and provinces deciding on the use of the municipal sports facilities and the construction of new facilities must be encouraged to  take part in the strategic planning and development of floorball.
No nationally significant sport can afford to operate outside the municipal sports activities. The Finnish Floorball Federation also increases its cooperation with company and other fitness sports.

International development

Floorball´s international head organisation is the International Floorball Federation (IFF), founded on April 12, 1986. The founding member countries were Sweden, Finland and Switzerland. The International Floorball Federation is an ordinary member of the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF).

There are over 150 000 floorball players who take part in international competitions and more than one million players overall. At present, there are 37 member nations in the IFF.
The decision-making body of the IFF is the nine-member Executive Board. Responsibilities are divided amongst several committees, all of which have a strong Finnish representation. One ongoing important IFF project includes the acquisition of coaching knowledge and material and its transference to new member countries. Finland has lent particularly strong support to the floorball federations in the Baltic countries and Australia.
The men´s first international game was played in Sollentuna, Sweden on August 29, 1985. At that time, the Finnish Floorball Federation was only six days old. The women´s first international game, between Sweden and Norway, took place in Örebro, Sweden on May 8, 1993. The first official international games for men under 19 were played in Helsinki, Finland on November 8-10, 1996 between Finland, Sweden and Switzerland. The first World Championships for women under 19 took place in Tampere, Finland on 10-14^th  of November 2004.

The men´s European Championships commenced in Helsinki in the spring of 1994. In the following year, the European Championships were organised in Switzerland at which time women also participated. The first World Championships were played in Sweden in the spring of 1996. The final between Sweden and Finland attracted 15 106 spectators to the Globe Arena in Stockholm.
The women´s first World Championships were played in the Åland Islands on May 3-10, 1997, where Finland won the silver medal. The World Championships are organised in alternate years for men and women.