GB, France, Belgium and Serbia will challenge the favourites in the WFC Qualification Europe 1.
Great Britain has the highest ranking as GB was placed 10th in the B-division in 2008 (overall ranking 20th). France and Serbia played a tight match for the 5th place in the World Championships C-division in 2008, France winning with an over time goal (overall ranking 25th & 26th). Belgium is back in the WFC after an exclusion from the WFC context due to their wihdrawal from the Men´s WFC 2006 C-division. Great Britain & Belgium will play in the group A and France & Serbia in the group B in the WFC Q Europe 1.
The GB team consists of a heathy mix of experienced and young promising players from UK and from the Swiss and Swedish series. The experienced Jens Stanfield # 7 (pictured) from was the top scorer of the GB team in the WFC 2008 B-division with 5+2 and will be an offensive weapon. Stanfield has played in all WFC´s since 2002. The youngest player is the 17 year old forward Ryan Baker, who will play in the WFC context for the first time.
France has played in all the plyed WFC C-divisions (2004, 2006 & 2008) and the final placement has been 5th in all tournaments.
Most of the players in the French team have gained their floorball knowledge from Switzerland such as the defender from Zug United Jérome Andrematt # 21 (pictured), who collected 3+1 in the C-division 2008.
Also the tall captain of the Finnish top League team Tapanilan Erä, Simon Riihelä # 12, will represent France in the WFC Qualifications. Riihelä, who usually is seen as a defender in Finland has been added as a forward into the French roster. He is a technical player and his soft hands can cause trouble for the opponents.
Serbia played their first ever World Championships in the 2008 C-division and have the possibility to turn the tables against France that defeated the Serbian team with an over time goal in 2008.
The Serbian team is strengthened with quite many Swedish players and one of them is Toni Valle # 8 (pictured), who was the best scorer of the Serbian team in 2008 with 5+5 in five matches. Valle plays for the club team KFUM Malmö in Sweden. The youngest player is the 16-year old Aleksa Stojkovic # 98 from Olofström IBK in Sweden.
Belgium will play with many new young players with the aim to win every match in the WFC Qualifications.
The most experienced player is the defender Steven Michiels # 11 who played already in the World Championships B-division in 2002. The youngest player is Nathan Goddefroy # 19, who will play his first international match in the WFC Q group A opening match against Great Britain on February 3rd.
