The Great Britain national bandy team represents the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in international bandy for men since 2019. There used to be a team England in international bandy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but when Britain eventually came back to the sport, it was decided to do it under the name Great Britain.

Early days: 1890s to 1910s

An England national bandy team was formed in the years around 1900. It was a natural consequence of England being the birthplace of bandy in the 19th century, bandy often being seen as the winter equivalent to either

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

. Early international games were played against the Netherlands, Germany and France. The bandy team represented

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in the 1913 European Bandy Championships in Davos, Switzerland. It was credited with winning the eight-nation tournament. At the time, bandy in England was administrated through the National Bandy Association. The societal upheavals due to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

then ended the interest for bandy in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

Present time: 2010s and 2020s

After almost a hundred years, a new national federation for bandy was formed. The ''Bandy Federation of England'' joined 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 2010 and England aimed to play in the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

in the coming years. Debuting in 2018 was the goal. The federation changed names to England Bandy Federation in January 2017 and to Great Britain Bandy Association in September 2017. The Great Britain national bandy team made its debut at the

2019 Bandy World Championship 2019 Bandy World Championship was held in Vänersborg, Sweden, between men's national teams among bandy playing nations. It was the XXXIXth Bandy World Championship. Host selection The tournament was supposed to be held in Irkutsk in Russia. How ...

in Sweden and managed to become runners-up in the B Division in its début championship tournament, but could not attend the 2020 World Championship in Russia due to problems getting visas for the players. The early 2020s has since seen a hiatus in international play due to the

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References

National bandy teams Bandy Bandy in the United Kingdom {{bandy-team-stub