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Three Nations Bandy Tournament 2020

Venue, Friday 24^th of Jan 2020: City of Porvoo, “Pallokenttä”
Venue, Saturday 25^th and 26 th of Jan 2020: City of Lappeenranta, Kisapuisto

The “Three Bandy Nations” Finland, Russia and Sweden will play the Three Nations Bandy Tournament 2020 on Fri-Sun 24.-26.1.2020. This tournament is important mid-season training session for all leading Bandy Nations of the world. Three Nations Bandy Tournament is official FIB (Federation of International Bandy) tournament.

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This time it is a tournament with Finland, Russia and Sweden. Russia won the first tournament in Åby in December by 3 victories. Russia beat Finland 6-1, Sweden 6-2 and Norway 11-0. Finland ended up on second place, Sweden on third and Norway on fourth place.

For few last years, Team Russia has been World Champion in men’s series. Sweden is another superpower in the world of bandy and Finland is a good and strong rebel which is challenging this long lasting position of superpowers. And now, for a long time, pre-WCS tournament will be played in Finland, on rebels own field, in front of its own audience and supporters.

In the all three nations, there has been ongoing the transition of player generation – there are new young players braking trough to the national teams and it is very interesting to see, how the new generation will challenge older players in the international field.

Friday Night in Porvoo

First, the Bandy caravan will stop in Porvoo, that is a picturesque seaside city in Southern Finland. Porvoo is really Bandy maniac town: its A-team, called “Akilles”, did win this season’s “Cup of Finland” few weeks ago and people of Porvoo have taken Akilles to their own. Match between Finland and Sweden will take place on Friday, 24^th of January in Porvoo that is also known as Borgå in its Swedish name. It is sure that Finnish bandy enthusiastic fans will have some comments also to Swedish players in their own language. Match will start on o’clock 19:00 in Pallokenttä (“Ball field”) of Porvoo.

Weekend in Lappeenranta

Bandy caravan will continue to Lappeenranta on Saturday, 25^th of January. On Saturday, the audience of Bandy Capital of Finland will see top-match between Russia and Sweden. Match in Kisapuisto (“Competition park”) will start o’clock 13:00. Lappeenranta, and its A-team Veiterä, has dominated three last years of the Finnish Bandy scene: two Finnish championships (2017, 2018), championship finalist (2019) and Cup-finalist (2017, 2018, 2019) with 2 championship and 1 cup winner, has shown that Veiterä and its sponsors have built a real “Bandy Dynasty of Finland” to Southern Karelia. Even though the facilities for bandy are rather archaic, the audience in Lappeenranta is relatively adept and they can appreciate good performance of all teams.

Schedule of the Three Nations Tournament

Fri 24.1.2020, time: 19:00 Finland – Sweden, Porvoo
Sat 25.1.2020, time 13:00 Sweden – Russia, Lappeenranta
Sun 26.1.2020, time 13:00 Finland – Russia, Lappeenranta
The FIB will set official Jury to all matches based on match venue.

More information: FIB EC-member Leo Segerman, +358 40 015 0589

 

Top bandy players will meet in the Nation Team Tournament in Porvoo and in Lappeenranta:

Veiterä and Akilles to Cup final in Finland

The Cup final in Finland will be played on Friday 3rd of January 2020. The teams of Cup Final in Finland are Akilles from Borgå and Veiterä from Lappeenranta.

Same teams, Veiterä and Akilles, was in Cup final in last year. At that time Akilles did win by numbers 3-2 (1-2). Match was played in Lappeenranta. Year 2020 Cup final will also be played in Lappeenranta. Match day is Friday, 3rd of January.

Cup of Finland was played in two groups. Finnish Bandy League teams were set in groups based on last year success. Akilles from Borgå won A-group that was played in Oulu November 2-3. Veiterä from Lappeenranta won B-group in Varkaus where cup matches were played a week after, November 9-10. Both teams were invincible in their group matches.

Thus, the situation in the final match of Cup of Finland is clear: Akilles wants to defend its Cup championship from last year, and Veiterä will fight for revenge to get Cup back to Lappeenranta.

LiveScore service from website of Finnish Bandy Federation

 

 

Veteran World Cup schedule is published

Bandy club Veiterä from City of Lappeenranta will organize already 9th ”OldBoys” Veteran World Cup in November (21.-23.11.2019).

The schedule of the Veteran World Cup is now published. There will be altogether 10 teams with players from Finland, Sweden, Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. As we all know, the veteran sport is highly appreciated in Russia and there is very strong teams from Krasnoyarsk, Murmansk, Moscow…

Matches will start on Thuerday 21^st of Nov. and group matches are over on Friday. Standing matches and the final match will be played on Saturday, 23^rd of Nov.

Schedule of the Veteran World Cup 2019

Results of the OldBoys can be followed from the LiveScore-page of Finnish Bandy Accociation.

Link to “OldBoys” World Cup 2019 (on FIB www-page)

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FIB and bandysport is now FISU recognised sport!

Federation of International Bandy, FIB, has now been recognized by International University Sports Federation, FISU, as a FISU recognized sport. This opens up new possibilities for FIB and bandysport on it´s way to show great bandysport for the world. FIB is today recognized by IOC, member in ARISF and SportAccord and also recognized sport by FISU.

Gunnar Fast – The Bandy Missionary

The Federation of International Bandy recognizes and honors Gunnar Fast, “The Bandy Missionary” for his supreme contribution to US Bandy and thus to the entire bandy world.

In December 1980 Gunnar was both a Captain in the Swedish Army and a Certified Bandy Instructor. When Gunnar arrived in Minnesota there were only four bandy nations, The Soviet Union, Sweden, Finland and Norway. Gunnar’s mission was to make the US the fifth bandy nation. He was extraordinarily successful. Within one month of arriving in Minnesota Gunnar had converted over 100 hockey players into bandy players, formed a league with seven teams who then competed for the first US bandy championship. Gunnar then organized and coached the first US national team and brought them to Sweden in October 1981.

By the 1984-85 season Gunnar had expanded the US league to 24 teams competing in three divisions. He also continued to bring US teams to Sweden where they annually competed in the World Cup Ljusdal as well as against various Swedish elite teams. Gunnar then led the US National Team as they competed in the World Championships for the first time in Oslo 1985. Gunnar was the architect of US Bandy and was a positive influence on a generation of US bandy players. Not surprisingly, the US Championships, held every year since 1981, is named the Gunnar Cup in his honor. In 2014 Gunnar was among the initial inductees into the US Bandy Hall of Fame. There is no doubt that Gunnar Fast, through his contributions to US Bandy, also changed the bandy world, beginning the growth of bandy to the present number of 27 nations. Gunnar Fast is truly “The Bandy Missionary”.