International Ball

My take on Olympic recognition and the Men's World Championships

What a week for floorball on the international stage.

From a Canadian perspective, the most interesting news was the announcement that the International Olympic Committee has given floorball provisional recognition. What huge news for our sport. Finally some respectability for our sport, one that has always struggled for acceptance and legitimacy... even in the countries that helped "invent" it. Huge kudos to the IFF for knowing how to play the "political" side of the sports world so well and achieve the savvy first step in making our game part of the Olympics.

Unfortunately what should have been a media frenzy around this piece of news has gone completely unnoticed in Canada. The IFF's poorly worded press release was sent only to the Federations of each country. Worse yet, I sensed some arrogance in the release as nowhere did the release even explain what floorball is. C'mon guys, even Apple includes a note as to who they are and what they do in each of their press releases...

Worrying me on this side of the pond the lack of a coordinated push to get the mainstream, North American media to pick up on this news? Despite the historic nature of this announcement, a simple press release will not get you anywhere in this continent's competitive media marketplace. Hiring a PR consultant in partnership with the National Federations to coordinate the distribution of this news here would have been money very well spent for the IFF. North America has to "wake up" but waiting for it to do so on its own simply isn't the right way to go...Marketing the game to the masses outside of the "big 4", Germany and parts of Asia still seems like an after thought for the IFF.

Simultaneously with the IOC announcement, the meaningful games of the World Championships got underway. I found myself cheering for Team USA. The US surprised many with their strong effort in the B-Division of the World Championships, losing only two games. One was in the semi-finals against eventual Champs Germany. The US rebounded with a strong effort in the bronze game - with US resident and a close buddy Vince Faso scoring two goals and getting player of the game honors. It's great to see the guys do so well and I know Salming and FloorballPro are pumped to work with you guys for the next four years. Now if you had only managed to win the B-Division we could have made sure Canada AND the USA would be playing in the next World Championships... if you're not in the know the new World Cup style championships will mean only one North American team at the Worlds in 2010. Another marketing opportunity missed.

So how about the main attraction, the A-Division? The hope that this would be any more than a four horse race quickly eroded when one could again see Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and the Czech Republic in a class of their own. Personally being a Finn working with a Swedish company I felt conflicted as always to see Suomi and Sverige go head to head in the World Championship final. Paul Charbonneau, a friend and Floorball Canada board member, invited us all over to his place where he somehow rigged the live internet feed from the World Champs to show up on his big screen. Great idea but unfortunately the feed let us down and our group of hardcore floorball fans saw just snippets of the action. Let's hope the organizers of the next World Champs get their act together so the "fringe" countries like us get a chance to watch! And what's with the game having ended 4 hours ago and the front page of IFF website is still not updated?

Okay enough criticism. So was I happy with the product, the marketing and the result? Great to see 14,200+ in attendance at the final. The organizers camera work and prodcution value was light years ahead of what I saw from TV4 and the Swedish Super League broadcasts. And the game on the court... let me say that despite being a floorball lover through and through, I have often criticized the product on TV as the games just don't get me excited like hockey or basketball. But when you get to see the two best teams in what became a shootout like this year's final, how can you not be on the edge of your seat all the way through? An amazing performace from both sides and I will admit... I am very happy for the Finns to finally take their first World Championship! Enjoy the moment boys. Let's hope before too long there will be more countries to challenge your crown. Maybe even Canada and the USA.

 The photo of Team Finland is copyright Innebandy Magazinet

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