Did you know?
Over 500,000 Swedes play floorball regularly in teams, at work, with friends or at school. There are around 112,000 licensed players and today, floorball is Sweden’s second largest team sport. The sport developed in the late 60s and during the 70s as it was played in schools and recreation centres. In 35 years, the IFF has grown from three founding members to 79 member federations, and over 30 countries participate in World Floorball Championship qualifications.
A sport with sustainability and equality in mind
Floorball is one of three sports (biathlon, athletics) in the EU-funded GAMES project aiming to create decarbonisation strategies for sports. And the Men’s World Floorball Championships 2022 had the goal of being the first ever climate neutral floorball championship event. Furthermore, Equality is a strong IFF value: Code of Conduct, Equality Policy, Equality Officer, organisational gender balance, equal price money for both genders at the Champions Cup, GoGirls! encouragement campaign
“We are very pleased to sign this agreement with the IFF. Floorball as a sport is growing globally, and the IFF together with the national federations has a clear strategy for equality and sustainability. In addition, floorball is a very fast and accessible sport which suits PUMA perfectly.“
Anders Selin – PUMA Teamsales, Sweden
Our new deal secures high quality garments for the IFF officials. The complete referee outfit range will cover match uniforms, warm up clothing and track suits. The material is already in use at the IFF Champions Cup 2023.
The rules
Floorball 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) plastic ball with holes.
🏑Matches are played in three twenty-minute periods.
🏑The game was invented in Sweden in the late 1960s.
🏑 The clock is stopped in the case of penalties, goals, time-outs and any situation where the ball is not considered to be in play. The signal of a timeout is a triple honking sound.
🏑 Each team is allowed one timeout of 30 seconds, which is often used late in matches.
🏑 There are two referees to oversee the game, each with equal authority.
🏑 If a game ends in a tie, teams play ten minutes extra, and the team that scores first wins. If the game is still drawn after extra-time, a penalty shootout similar to ice-hockey decides the winner.
🏑 Controlled shoulder-to-shoulder contact is allowed but ice hockey-like checking is forbidden.
🏑 Passing the ball by foot is allowed, but only once. After that, the ball has to be moved with the stick.
🏑 Passing by hand or head deliberately may result in a two minutes penalty for the offending player.
