Floorball moves towards becoming an Olympic Sport

The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided in its meeting on Thursday the 11th of December 2008, to grant the International Floorball Federation (IFF) the provisional IOC recognition.

“The Recognition of the IOC, that we have received today, is a very important milestone for Floorball, opening doors for Floorball in a number of countries, where it before has been hard to enter into the sports community. This however is just the start of a long journey and will help us further to develop our sport, aiming to fulfil all the criteria’s stipulated by the IOC, to one day have a product which is equal in both quantity and quality to the sports of the Olympic Games,” says Mr. Tomas Eriksson, IFF President.

The IFF General Assembly decided in its meeting held on the 26th of May 2006 in Stockholm, Sweden, that one of the major goals of the IFF in the next two years is to receive the IOC recognition in 2008.

Since the International Floorball was founded in 1986 by the Swedish, Finnish and Swiss Association, the development of the sport has been amazing and Floorball is today one of the fastest growing sport in a number of countries, due to the easiness to start playing and the speed of the game.

The number of member countries in the International Floorball Federation have continuously increased, the latest member being Sierra Leone, the first Member Association from the African continent. Also the number of Floorball players and Floorball clubs in the world has continued to increase in 2008. Floorball has nearly 300,000 licensed players and a total of 1, 9 million recreational players in the world. Floorball also meets the requirements of attracting the youth, being a well organised sport and attracting equally men and women.

The Central Board of the IFF is very thankful towards the entire Floorball community, for the great effort they have done, enabling us to receive this recognition.