Federation of International Bandy

Bandy as we know it today has been played since the later half of the 19th Century. Rules were set up in the 1890s by the National Bandy Association in England and by the corresponding body in Russia. The Ligue International de Hockey sur Glace (LIHG) was founded on 15 May 1908 at 34 Rue de Provence in Paris, France,[1] at a time when bandy and ice hockey were seen as variants of the same game. The founders of the federation were representatives from Belgium, France, Great Britain, Switzerland and Bohemia (now Czech republic). However, as ice hockey became an Olympic sport while bandy did not, bandy only survived in some of the Nordic countries and the Soviet Union. LIHG is now the International Ice Hockey Federation.

In the 1940s, the Nordic countries Finland, Norway and Sweden set up a joint rules committee. In the early 1950s, the Soviet Union decided to break out of its isolation in international sport and started a friendly exchange with said Nordic countries.

The federation was formed on 12 February 1955 at Hotell Malmen in Stockholm, Sweden,[2] by representatives from Finland, Norway, the Soviet Union and Sweden. The federation has had its base in Sweden since 1979. Stein Pedersen is the current President of the FIB and Áttila Ádámfi its acting General Secretary.[3]

When FIB was formed in 1955, it introduced the same rules for bandy all over the world. Especially in Russia and other Soviet Republics, different rules had been used prior to this. Bandy World Championships have been organized for men since 1957 and for women since 2004.

The federation was named the International Bandy Federation (IBF) between 1957 and 2001. The current name was adopted at a request from the International Olympic Committee when the IOC made bandy a "recognized sport", since the acronym IBF at the time was already in use by the International Badminton Federation (in 2006, the International Badminton Federation changed names to Badminton World Federation and now uses the acronym BWF). In 2004, FIB was accepted by IOC.[4]

FIB is a member of Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations as well as Global Association of International Sports Federations.[5]

The number of bandy playing nations have grown considerably in the last decades. There were 27 national members of the federation as of 2017 [6][7] and Slovakia applied for membership.[8]

After the International Olympic Committee's recommendations following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Federation of International Bandy excluded Russia from participating in the 2022 Women's Bandy World Championship.[9] The men's 2020 Bandy World Championship had already been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was to be held in 2022, but was finally cancelled on 1 March 2022, after Finland, Sweden, Norway, and the United States announced that they would not take part in the competition in Russia due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[10][11][12][13]

In 2011, FIB formulated its purposes as being the following.

FIB vows to completely share the principles and articles of the Olympic Charter in its activities, including the policy with regard to anti-doping controls.

FIB wants to promote the development of the sports of bandy and rink bandy in the member countries and wants to carry on propaganda for the importance and advantages of these sports. FIB also works for bandy to become an Olympic sport.

FIB declares itself to be an "independent autonomic mainsports organization which mainly is governing bandy activities all over the world".

FIB leads and supervises bandy and rink bandy around the world. FIB also sees as its job to settle the rules for the games.

One national member association should be entrusted by FIB with arranging an official world championship. FIB means that at least four nations must participate for it to be worth an event.

FIB also wants to promote the introduction and the membership of new nations to the organisation.[14]

The rules of bandy is set in the Bandy Playing Rules. It is overseen by the Rules and Referee Committee.

FIB has an agreement with the International Skating Union to use the same arenas. The cooperation between the two federations is increasing, since both have an interest in more indoor venues with large ice surfaces being built.[15]

The following persons have been presidents of FIB:[16]

• Bandy World Championship
• Women's Bandy World Championship
• Youth Bandy World Championship (one class for girls and four classes for boys and young men)
• Bandy World Cup
• Bandy World Cup Women
• Bandy World Cup Girls Y17
• European Bandy Championships
• Bandy at the Asian Winter Games
• Bandy at the 2019 Winter Universiade

The federation was founded by the national bandy associations in Finland, Norway, the Soviet Union and Sweden on 12 February 1955.[17]

The Soviet membership was taken over by Russia in early 1992, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. For two months, the former Soviet Union national bandy team appeared as Commonwealth of Independent States, but the CIS was never formally a member of the FIB.

The member associations are divided in geographical zones. There are 27 associations in 4 zones (as of 25 March 2022):[18] Furthermore, on 26 September 2023, Italy was granted provisional membership.[19]

Current members

Association	Founded	FIB affiliation	External link	National teams	Top division
Afghanistan		2012		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Armenia	1999	2008
Belarus		1999		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Canada		1983		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
China		2010		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Colombia		2017
Czech Republic		2014		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Estonia		2002		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Finland		1955		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17	Bandyliiga (men) Naisten Bandyliiga (women)
Germany		2013		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Great Britain		2010		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Hungary		1989		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
India		2002		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Japan		2011		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Kazakhstan		1993		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Latvia		2006		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Lithuania		2008
Mongolia		2002		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Netherlands		1973		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Norway	1920	1955		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17	Premier League (men)
Russia	1898	1992[lower-alpha 1]		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17	Super League (men)
Slovakia		2017		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Somalia		2013		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Sweden	1925	1955		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17	Elitserien (men) Elitserien (women)
Switzerland		2006		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Ukraine		2008		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
United States		1981		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17

1. 1955 as Soviet Union

Former members

• Soviet Union 1955–1991: When the international federation was founded in 1955, the Soviet Union was one of its founding members. The Soviet national federation was called the Federation of bandy and field hockey USSR (Федерация хоккея с мячом и хоккея на траве СССР). The Soviet Union had a national bandy team for men and a national bandy team for women. When the Soviet Union was dissolved in December 1991, the national team came to represent the Commonwealth of Independent States for some months. In 1992, Russia took over its place in FIB.

• West Germany/Germany 1990–1991: Before the present German Bandy Association was founded in 2013, there had been an earlier, short-lived German federation, which was a member of FIB from 29 January 1990 until March 1991, when it voluntarily choose to leave.[20][21] In its short life span, it still overlived the German reunification in October 1990.

A world map showing all the member countries before the defunct associations were taken from the membership list of FIB.

A number of national federations have been admitted as members during the years[22] but then for different reasons not survived, often because of a lack of interest in the sport in their countries. In early 2017, seven federations were removed from the member list of FIB and in the summer of 2018 one more.[23] These defunct national federations were:

Association	Founded	FIB affiliation	FIB leave	National teams
Argentina		2008		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Australia		2006		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Denmark		2014		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Ireland		2006		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Italy		2003		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Kyrgyzstan		2005		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Poland		2006		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17
Serbia		2006		Men's U21 U19 U17 Women's W U21 W U17

• Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations

• Official website