The International Floorball Federation (IFF) has been accepted as a member of The World Games (TWG) and floorball will be participating in the next TWG in Birmingham. The World Games will be held July 7-17, 2022 in Birmingham, Alabama. The World Games is a multi-sport event featuring sports that are not included in the Olympics.

– Floorball was participating in The World Games as an invitational sport in Lahti, Finland already in 1997, tells Tero Kalsta, IFF Sales Coordinator. As an official medal sport, floorball was participating for the first time in 2017. It is really important that floorball is in this competition as a sport, as TWG is a globally significant multi-sport event. Floorball got involved because last time the halls were successfully filled and social media generated the most discussion specifically around floorball.

Eight teams will be selected for the games. There are two spots for the Americas the host country USA will be automatically qualify, one team will be qualified from Asia and Oceania, and 5 teams from Europe. The rest of the teams are qualified in Men’s World Floorball Championships 2020 in Helsinki.

– Originally, the competition was scheduled to be held this year, but as the Olympics rescheduled from 2020 to 2021, TWG was also postponed by one year. After the 2022 competition, the next one will be held in Chengdu, China in 2025, as TWG will be held every four years like the Olympics, explains Tero Kalsta.