Finland's Bandy Association (Finnish: ''Suomen Jääpalloliitto'', Swedish: ''Finlands Bandyförbund'') is the governing body for the sport of

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The international governing body for bandy is ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. Bandy was one of the sports for which the Ball Association of Finland, founded in 1907, was created. The present Finnish Bandy Association was founded on 18 March 1972, to take over bandy from the Ball Association of Finland, which from then on concentrated on association football only.

History

Bandy came to Finland from St. Petersburg in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

in the 1890s. The first club was Viborgs Skridskoklubb in

Vyborg Vyborg (; rus, Вы́борг, links=1, r=Výborg, p=ˈvɨbərk; fi, Viipuri ; sv, Viborg ; german: Wiborg ) is a town in, and the administrative center of, Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus ne ...

, which was Finnish back then. At the Nordic Games held in Sweden in 1901 (a predecessor of the

Winter Olympic Games The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were he ...

), bandy was included in the programme and in 1907, similar winter games were held in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

and bandy was again included. Finland was represented by the club Polyteknikkojen Urheiluseura (PUS) at the 1907 games, but the winner of the competition was a combined team from Sweden, which defeated PUS as well as the team from St. Petersburg. The first Finnish Championships were played in 1908; in the finals, PUS beat Helsingin IFK 8-3. Bandy was the first team sport, for which a Finnish championship was created. Finland became independent in 1918 and

's first international as an independent country was against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

in 1919, which Finland won 4-1. The first game between two ladies' teams known to have been played in Finland was in March 1916, Åbo Simklubb vs Helsingfors Damhockeyklubb, 3-1. Finland was one of the founding members of the

Federation of International Bandy The Federation of International Bandy (FIB; french: Fédération internationale de bandy, russian: Международная федерация хоккея с мячом, sv, Internationella Bandyförbundet) is the international governing bo ...

in 1955 and in 1957 the very first

Bandy World Championship The Bandy World Championship is a competition between bandy-playing nations' men's teams. The tournament is administrated by the Federation of International Bandy. It is distinct from the Bandy World Cup, a club competition, and from the Wome ...

was held at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. In 2008 the Finnish bandy league,

Bandyliiga The Bandyliiga (; 'Bandy League') is the top level of men's bandy in Finland. The league was founded in 1908 as the Jääpallon SM-sarja ('Bandy Finnish Championship Series') and the present name has been used since the 1991–92 season. Bandyl ...

, celebrated its 100th anniversary.

Presidents

* Erik Berner, 1972–1978 *

Pentti Seppälä Pentti is a Finnish male given name and surname, a form of Bengt (Swedish for Benedict). Pentti name is also used in fiction and music. Given name A–J * Pentti Aalto (1917–1998), Finnish linguist * Pentti Alonen (1925–2017), Finnish alpine ...

, 1978–1983 * Mauno Forsman, 1983–1987 *

Carl Gerhard Fogelberg Carl may refer to: *Carl, Georgia, city in USA *Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community *Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name *Carl², a TV series * "Carl", an episode of tel ...

, 1987–1992 *

Michael Sandbacka Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...

, 1992–1996 *

Risto Suves Risto ( sr, Ристо) is a masculine given name, found in Finnish, Estonian and South Slavic. In South Slavic, it is a hypocorism derived from '' Hristofor'' or ''Hristivoje''. It may refer to: Estonia * Risto Järv (born 1971), folklorist ...

, 1996–1998 *

Juha Hilmola Juha is a masculine given name of Finnish origin derived from Johannes (or John in English language contexts). Notable people with the name include: * Juha Alén * Juha Gustafsson * Juha Hakola * Juha Harju * Juha Haukkala * Juha Hautamäki * Juha ...

, 1998–2008 * Topiantti Äikäs, 2008–

Domestic play

Finnish Championship

The Finnish bandy championship has been played annually since 1908. The winning team of the

play-off is named champion. There is also a Finnish Championship for women's teams.

Finnish Cup

The Bandy Association also arranges the Finnish Cup. The first Finnish Cup was played in 1960.

National teams

* Men's team *

Women's team A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardle ...

References

External links

Finnish Bandy Federation
Federation of International Bandy members Bandy governing bodies Bandy in Finland

Bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The international governing body for bandy is ...

{{Finland-sport-stub