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) 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.
Toni Kukoč is a Croatian-American former professional basketball player who serves as Special Advisor to Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of the Chicago Bulls. After a highly successful period in European basketball, he was one of the first established European stars to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Kukoč played for four NBA teams between 1993 and 2006, winning the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award in 1996. He is a three-time NBA champion, having won championships with the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls in 1996, 1997 and 1998.
Jari Olavi Litmanen is a Finnish former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or a second striker. He was the first-choice captain of the Finland national team between 1996 and 2008 in an international career that ran from 1989 to 2010. Litmanen is widely considered to be Finland's greatest football player of all time. He was chosen as the best Finnish player of the last 50 years by the Football Association of Finland in the UEFA Jubilee Awards in November 2003. He also finished 42nd in the 100 Greatest Finns voting in 2004. The Association of Football Statisticians' compendium of 'Greatest Ever Footballers' listed Litmanen as the 53rd best footballer ever.
Milan Rapaić is a Croatian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He primary played as an attacking midfielder or winger.
Limoges Cercle Saint-Pierre, commonly referred to as Limoges CSP or CSP, is a French professional basketball club based in the city of Limoges.
Anghel Iordănescu, is a Romanian former footballer and former manager, who played as a forward.
Želimir "Željko" Obradović (Serbian Cyrillic: Желимир "Жељко" Обрадовић, pronounced[ʒɛ̌limiːrʒêːʎkoobrǎːdoʋitɕ]; is a Serbian professional basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach for Partizan of the Basketball League of Serbia, the ABA League and the EuroLeague.
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.
Panathinaikos B.C., also known simply as Panathinaikos, currently also known as Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens for sponsorship reasons, is the professional basketball team of the major Athens-based multi-sport club Panathinaikos A.O. It is owned by the billionaire Giannakopoulos family.
The Korisliiga is the top-tier professional basketball league in Finland, comprising the top 12 teams of the country. In its current format, each team plays all other teams two times in the regular season, once at home and once away, for a total of 22 regular season games. The top six teams advances continues to upper stage and the bottom six teams plays lower stage after 22 games, 5 games at home and 5 games at away versus all other teams in stage. The best two teams from lower group joins to playoffs with upper group teams. Playoffs are played best of seven format, except the quarter-finals which are played best of 5 format. Pantterit holds the record for the most league titles won, with 14. The top level Finnish league for women is the Naisten Korisliiga.
Sport Lisboa e Benfica, commonly known as Benfica, is a professional basketball team based in Lisbon, Portugal, that plays in the Liga Portuguesa de Basquetebol (LPB), where they are the current champions. Founded in 1927, it is the senior representative side of the basketball section of multi-sports club S.L. Benfica.
Sports play a significant part in the life of many Czechs who are generally loyal supporters of their favourite teams or individuals.
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.
Galatasaray is the professional women's basketball section of Galatasaray S.K., a major sports club in Istanbul, Turkey. Galatasaray women's basketball team play matches in Ahmet Cömert Sport Hall which has a seating capacity for 2,200 spectators.
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.
The Champions Cup is floorball tournament organized by the International Floorball Federation for the best clubs from the top four countries according to IFF World Ranking. Since 2019, those are Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, both for men and women. The tournament culminates every year in January both for men's and women's teams, that won in the previous season in their national league and cup competitions. The leagues are Finnish F-liiga, Swedish Svenska Superligan, Czech men's Superliga florbalu and women's Extraliga žen ve florbale and Swiss Unihockey Prime League. That means, there are eight men's and either women's teams in the tournament in total.
Tapanilan Erä is a Finnish sports club that was founded in 1933, with various teams in different disciplines. It is one of Finland's largest sporting clubs.
Finland Men's National Floorball Team is the national floorball team of Finland. The national team was founded in 1985 and they played their first official game against Sweden in 1985. Finland has won four World Championships and 1 European Championships (1995). Finland has appeared in every World and European Championships tournament organised by the IFF and is the only team with Sweden to have won such a tournament.
Basketballin Greece erupted with the win of the Greece men's national basketball team at the 1987 EuroBasket in Athens, which caused a general basketball euphoria in the country. Since then, the Greece men's national teams have achieved consistent international success, leading Greece to join Russia, Serbia, Croatia, Italy, Spain, France, and Lithuania in the circle of European basketball powers. In addition to the Greece national team's triumph in 1987, they won the gold medal at the 2005 EuroBasket, silver medals at the 1989 EuroBasket, and the 2006 FIBA World Cup, and the bronze medal at the 2009 EuroBasket.
F-liiga is the highest-tier of floorball for women in Finland. The league was founded as Salibandyn naisten SM-sarja in 1988 by the Finnish Floorball Federation (SSBL). The former name, Naisten Salibandyliiga, was introduced for the 2000–01 season. The F-liiga is operated by SSBL Salibandy Oy, a limited corporation owned entirely by the Finnish Floorball Federation.
Mika Ahonen 
