Floorball is a type of floor hockey with five players and a goalkeeper in each team. It is played indoors with 96–115.5 cm-long (37.8–45.5 in) sticks and a 70–72 mm-diameter (2.76–2.83 in) hollow plastic ball with holes. Matches are played in three twenty-minute periods. The sport of bandy also played a role in the game's development.
Tappara is a Finnish professional ice hockey team playing in the SM-liiga. They play at Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland. The team has won 20 Finnish league championships, which makes them the most successful club in Finland. The team continued the traditions of the Tammerfors Bollklub.
The Finnish men's national ice hockey team, nicknamed Leijonat / Lejonen, is governed by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Finland is one of the most successful national ice hockey teams in the world and a member of the so-called "Big Six", the unofficial group of the six strongest men's ice hockey nations, along with Canada, the United States, Czechia, Russia, and Sweden.
The 2006 Men's Floorball Championships were the sixth Men's World Floorball Championship. It was held in May 2006 in Sweden, with the host country defeating Finland in sudden victory in the gold medal game. Sweden thus continued its tradition of winning these championships, but for the first time in their history the team failed to win all games. Switzerland became the first team to accomplish a draw versus Sweden in a world championship game, and later won the bronze medal.
Niklas Jihde is a Swedish former floorball player. Jihde has won the Floorball World Championship with Sweden five times, in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006. He scored 80 goals with the Swedish national floorball team.
The 2004 Men's Floorball Championships were the fifth Men's World Floorball Championship. It was held in May 2004 in Switzerland, and won by Sweden.
Australian rules football in Finland is controlled by the Finland AFL, which formed in 2006 after the creation of Finland's first Australian football club around a year earlier. Domestic matches began in 2007 with two teams, the Helsinki Heatseekers and Salo Juggernauts. A third team, the Espoo Roos was created in 2008 but only lasted one season due to insufficient members. The remaining players joined the Helsinki team, but there are plans to revive Espoo in the future. A third standalone club, the Turku Dockers, was formed in late 2008 by Australian Ex-pats Craig Primmer and Grant Siermans. During the 2010 season, Helsinki players Mika Kupila and Kaj Karlsson who study in Vaasa decided to create a team in the city, the Vaasa Wombats, and they are hoping to join the league in 2011.
Sport is considered a national pastime in Finland and many Finns visit different sporting events regularly. Pesäpallo is the national sport of Finland, although the most popular forms of sport in terms of television viewers and media coverage are ice hockey and Formula One. In spectator attendance, harness racing comes right after ice hockey in popularity.
Swedish Super League is the highest league in the league system of Swedish floorball and comprises the top 14 Swedish floorball teams. The first season began in 1995–96. The season ends with a play-off and a final.
The 2002 Men's World Floorball Championships were the fourth men's Floorball World Championships. It was held from 18–25 May 2002 in Finland. Sweden won the tournament for a fourth time after defeating Finland in the final.
Mika Kohonen is a retired Finnish floorball player and nowadays a floorball coach. He currently coaches Storvreta IBK, a club in the Swedish Super League. He has also played for Balrog IK in SSL and Happee in Salibandyliiga. He also used be a part of Finland's national floorball team for many years both as a player and assistant coach.
The 2008 Men's World Floorball Championships were the seventh men's Floorball World Championships. The tournament was held from 6 to 14 December 2008. The tournament took place in the cities of Prague and Ostrava. All group stage matches were played in Ostrava's ČEZ Aréna, and all playoff matches were played in Prague's O2 Arena, with the exception of the 9th place match, which was played in Prague's Sparta Arena.
The F-liiga is the top men's floorball league in Finland. The league was founded as Salibandyn SM-sarja in 1986 by the Finnish Floorball Federation (SSBL). It was renamed to Salibandyliiga for the 1994–95 season. The Salibandyliiga was operated by the company SSBL Salibandy Oy, a subsidiary of the Finnish Floorball Federation. The current name F-liiga is used since season 2020–21.
MTV Max is a Finnish pay television channel owned and operated by MTV Oy. The channel started broadcasting in November 2006 and was originally dedicated to F1 coverage.
Esport Oilers is a floorball club based in Espoo, Finland, whose men's team competes in F-liiga, the top flight of Finnish floorball.
Tero Tiitu is a Finnish floorball player currently playing for EräViikingit of the F-liiga.
The 2011 IIHF World Championship final was played at the Orange Arena in Bratislava, Slovakia on 15 May between Sweden and Finland. Finland won the match 6–1 and became world champions for the first time since the 1995 tournament, and for the second time in history. This match was Finland's first final since 2007 and Sweden's first final since 2006.
The 2014 Bandy World Championship was held between 26 January and 2 February 2014, in Irkutsk and Shelekhov, Russia. 17 nations participated in the tournament, playing in two divisions partitioned into two subdivisions. A team representing Somalia took part, the first squad from Africa to play in the Bandy World Championship.
Kiekko-Espoo is a Finnish professional ice hockey club founded in 2018 as a continuation of the Kiekko-Espoo team originally founded in 1984. Kiekko-Espoo men's team plays in the Liiga, where they were promoted for the 2024–25 season, and the women's team plays in the Auroraliiga, where they hold the most championships of any club.
Jari Oksanen
Sweden 
Ukraine 
5: World Championships (2008, 2010, 2016, 2018, 2024)
1: European Championships 
