History

There are a great number of people who think they have invented floorball. It is commonly considered that the roots of floorball go back to the 1950s in the USA. At the time young people played indoors with plastic sticks and a plastic puck. The game was called floor hockey and the first tournament was organised in 1976 in Michigan.

When floor hockey reached Europe the puck was soon dropped in favour of a light plastic ball. The new sport with the name floorball was first played in Sweden in the early 1970s. It soon gained popularity at schools and in leisure clubs. At that time, the goals were much smaller, but there was no goal keeper.

Floorball soon caught on and in the late 1970s the sport spread across Europe. In the early 1980s many national associations were founded. This created the structures that enabled the young sport to grow faster. At the time of writing, only four countries dominate the international game: Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and Czech Republic. The gap to other countries, however, is narrowing year by year.