Floorball

Floorball

Men's international game between Sweden (yellow) and Finland (white)
Highest governing body	International Floorball Federation
Nicknames	indoor bandy, innebandy, salibandy, unihockey
First played	early 1970s in Gothenburg, Sweden
Clubs	4396
Characteristics
Contact	Yes
Team members	6, including goalkeeper
Mixed gender	Yes, separate competitions
Type	Indoor
Presence
Country or region	Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland
Olympic	No
Paralympic	No

Floorball is a type of floor hockey with five field players and a goalkeeper in each team. Men and women play indoors with 96–115.5 cm-long (37.8–45.5 in) sticks and a 22–23 cm-circumference (8.7–9.1 in) plastic ball with holes. Matches are played in three twenty-minute periods.

Developed in the 1960s and 1970s in Sweden, floorball is most popular where it has been developed the longest, such as the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. It is gaining popularity in Australia,Canada,Germany,Ireland,Japan,Singapore,Malaysia, and the United States. As of 2014, there are over 300,133 registered floorball players worldwide. Professional leagues include Finland's Salibandyliiga and Sweden's Svenska Superligan.

The sport is organized internationally by the International Floorball Federation (IFF). Events include an annual Euro Floorball Cup for club teams and the biennial World Floorball Championships with separate divisions for men and women. While the IFF contains 58 members, Norway, the Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland have consistently placed 1st, 2nd, or 3rd at the World Floorball Championships.

The sport is relatively new and therefore evolving. The basic rules were established in 1979 when the first floorball club in the world, Sala IBK, was founded in Sweden. Official rules for matches were first written down in 1981.