Floorball is still getting off the ground in Scotland. Fifteen years since the sport was first played in this country, Ross McEwan, who effectively started the ball rolling, concedes the game is still going through peaks and troughs.

Yet there have been enough players to see a Scottish League season take place (“off and on” according to McEwan) since 2001.

The new season, which opens in October, is likely to see seven teams competing with four sides from Fife and one each in Ayr, Aberdeen and Dundee. Some other sports in Scotland would be envious of such a state of affairs.

Floorball seems ideally suited to this country. Similar to indoor hockey, it is played with plastic sticks and a perforated plastic ball with ice-hockey type goals. It is dynamic and fast moving and can be played at all ages and different levels of ability.

The game is big in Scandinavia and many of the Scottish teams include foreign students.

McEwan, a Great Britain international, runs Speedhoc Chapel, the Scottish League champions who are based at the Fife Institute in Glenrothes, and describes himself rather modestly as the club’s “general dogsbody”.

“The sport really took over from Unihoc in this country,” he explains, “It was a popular game but there was really nothing for players after the age of 19.

“I had an approach from someone in England who had heard about the game and it really evolved from there. The Chapel club was established in 1995 and it was good that the universities in Aberdeen and Edinburgh started teams and a lot of foreign students play.

“The game is big in Scandinavia and when students come over from there they don’t expect to see the game played here and they are really enthusiastic.

“But that can also be a problem as teams can become strong for two or three years but then struggle for numbers when the students return home.

“The game is still finding its feet in some ways. There are more people playing the game than there were ten years ago but a lot see it as a recreational sport and don’t want it to become too competitive.

“It’s a second sport for many of the players and they see it as socialising as much as anything else and don’t want it to become too competitive but that’s the nature of league and cup.

“The format of the new season has not been decided yet but there is talk of setting up a less competitive second division. But others feel that the first division needs to become stronger for that to happen and clubs need to be better organised.”

McEwan would love to see the sport take off in Scotland but knows the foundations blocks have to be put in place.

He has been to three World Championships with the Great Britain team (Scotland is not recognised as a separate nation in international competition as there are so few players) and has seen other countries develop quicker.

“The game is semi-professional in Scandinavia and for the league finals they can get five-figure crowds,” he points out.

“It’s competing with handball and ice hockey but still flourishes and you would think that Scotland would have the perfect climate for the sport to thrive here.

“But it’s difficult to get established and we don’t have enough people to work as administrators. We want to get into the schools but schools want you to come in during the day and that’s when we’re all working and, as amateurs, can’t give that commitment.

”The GB team plays in the “B” Division at the World Championships and we’re in with countries like Singapore, Slovenia, Japan and India but the difference is that their governments are throwing a lot of money at their sport. Here, we get nothing as the money all seems to go on football, rugby, tennis and cricket.

“I remember going to Latvia with the British team in 2001 and it was such a poor country. I remember the drive in from the airport and you could see the people were struggling to feed themselves and yet we turned the corner and saw this magnificent sports centre, it was like a mirage.

“Latvia were a similar standard to us but they have evolved quicker.”

RM

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