2nd World University Floorball Championship
Berne, Switzerland - November 9th to 12th, 2006
More Popular, Day by Day
The covenant between FISU and IFF will enable our two federations to better organize their collaboration for the promotion of floorball
Floorball is a sport that is becoming more popular every day. This is a simple, captivating, creative, fast and very intense game, and the technique has been continually refined since it first began. Finally, this is one of the few team sports that is as suitable for women as for men. The rules are easy to understand. Floorball, also known as Unihoc, is quite similar to ice hockey except that the game is played on a synthetic surface and, of course, without skates. The field measures 40m x 20m and is bounded by a wall so that the ball (not the puck) is never out of bounds, which is what makes the game so dynamic. It appeared in the United States for the first time at the end of the 50s. Young people played what was called ‘floor hockey’ indoors with plastic sticks and a lightweight puck – the first tournament was organized in Michigan in 1976. Europe adopted the sport, exchanging the lightweight puck for a lightweight ball. It first began in Sweden in the 70s and very quickly became quite popular in almost all schools – many young Swedes played it in their free time. At that point, unihockey really took off. By the end of the 70s, it had been adopted here, there and everywhere in Europe. The Swedish Federation of University Sports (SAIF) backed the inclusion of floorball in our championship programmes, and organized the first WUC in the discipline in Göteborg in 2002. Understandably, the tournament was dominated by Sweden and Finland. Eight teams vied for the title, which was a maximum given the organization of the tournament in three days.
This year, the Swiss Federation of University Sports (SHSU) has taken up the banner and will be organizing the second edition in Berne. This is also part of the floorball promotion strategy in Switzerland implemented by the "Swiss Unihockey" federation. After the magnificent success of the Women's World University Floorball Championships (Berne 2003), it was the men's turn to get together in Zürich in 2004. The European Cup was held in the same town the following year. So now, in 2006, students are part of the project too. The International Floorball Federation (IFF) is also very attentive to everything that can help promote the sport throughout the world. The President, Mr. Tomas Ericksson was on the spot in Berne, not just to attend the tournament, but also to sign the convention that now binds his federation with FISU. This agreement, signed in the presence of Mr. Sinisa Jasnic, President of the Technical Committee for FISU for World University Championships, will give our two federations an opportunity to better organize their collaboration to ensure the development of floorball at university level.
Thanks to the support of all the academic authorities in the city of Berne, as well as the President of the Canton Council, Mr. Werner Lüthi, the championship was organized under excellent conditions. SHSU’s experience in the field moreover constitutes a reference and we especially want to thank those who worked towards this total success, and first of all "Swiss Unihockey". All of the best floorball nations vied in this fascinating and suspenseful competition. After the first day, it seemed clear that beating the Swedes and the Finns would be hard to do. These two countries logically moved to the head of their respective groups, fully living up to their roles as favourites. The other teams also played at a very good level. Switzerland and the Czech Republic, for example, showed some very handsome dispositions in the semifinals. The Czechs managed to catch up to Sweden and were very organized tactically speaking. It took Sweden quite some time to succeed in breaking the tie and taking the match. They had to fight for it, to finally overcome in overtime (5-4 in sudden-death).
After the forst period, Sweden was leading by 6 to 1
The second semi-final between Switzerland and Finland was really spectacular. The difference came in the last third, when Finland, in an inspired moment, scored two points one after another, just one minute apart. That was how it got a ticket to the finals with a score of 6-4. The final was a remake of the one in 2002, with Sweden, the current champion, versus Finland, and what the final it was! Sweden scored four goals in nine minutes, immediately dousing the Finnish hopes of victory. Following the lead of their electric captain Johan Anderson, the defending champions controlled the game beautifully; winning 11 goals to 4. In the match for the bronze medal, Switzerland took the day (7-3) over a Czech team that had lost some of its steam in the semi-finals. And so ended this superb tournament in a friendly spirit of sportsmanship on all sides.
We meet again for the next edition in 2008 in Kuortanen-Seinajoki, Finland where a men’s and women's competition will be held simultaneously for the first time.
Organizing Committee
Swiss Unihockey Ostermundigenstrasse 69 CH-3000 Bern 22 Switzerland Tel +41 31 330 24 44 Fax +41 31 330 24 49 email: office@wufc2006.ch URL: www.wufc2006.ch
FISU Technical Chairman
News
Statistics
Participating Countries: 8 Continents: 2 Athletes: 149 (M) Officials: 30 Total Participants: 179
Final Ranking
1. SWE - GOLD 2. FIN - SILVER 3. SUI - BRONZE 4. CZE 5. SVK 6. HUN 7. JPN 8. AUT
