The reigning champions will play Finland, Slovakia and Latvia
The draw of the U19 World Floorball Championships 2021, which took part at the Stará radnice in Brno, decided the shape of each group. The tournament will take place at Městské haly Vodova from April 28th to May 2nd. Czech Republic, the reigning champion, will face in group A Finland, Slovakia and Latvia. Group B will consist of Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and Germany. „Our is similar is to the one we played in back in 2019. We haven’t played Finland during the last two world championships so it is definitely going to be very interesting for us,“ says Jaroslav Berka, head coach of the Czech U19 national team.
Group C will consist of EUR 2, EUR 1, New Zealand and AMER 1. Group D will contain EUR 3, Norway, Japan and Australia.
There is currently twelve countries who have secured their participation. But three places from the European qualification and one place from the American qualification are yet to be filled. That means four places have been drawn „blindly“ based on the final standings of the qualification groups. The remaining qualification games are yet to be played.
You can rewatch the drawing ceremony via YouTube.
U19 WFC Home? It’s Brno!
Brno has been selected as the host city of the tournament. The metropolis of Moravia is going to become a focal point of the floorball world for the first time since 2013. Brno co-hosted the Women World Floorball Championships 2013 in cooperation with Ostrava. „Floorball is one of the most popular sports among the young generation. It’s making me happy we’re going to host such tournament where the best teams will face one another. The people of Brno can already be looking forward for some great sports experiences. I will cheer for the Czech team and I believe the host country can accomplish a medal success,“ says Markéta Vaňková, mayor of Brno.
Selecting Brno as the host city was a clear decision. „We have great experience with Brno from the Women WFC or Euro Floorball Tour Tournament. This event has a huge portion of support from the city of Brno and the South Moravian region and we really appreciate that. I believe we will prepare a high-quality tournament for all the participants from around the world,“ adds Šuman.
Jan Grolich, governor of the South Moravian region, shared some of his memories from his floorball active years. „World junior championship in Brno is not just great news for us who started playing floorball in school gyms equipped with prehistoric sticks. We will hopefully get the opportunity to see the game of floorball in its unique perfect shape. I’m really looking forward to it,“ he says.