The Finnish national bandy team ( fi, Suomen jääpallomaajoukkue, sv, Finlands herrlandslag i bandy) has taken part in all the Bandy World Championships for men since the competition was launched for the first time in 1957.

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

won the championship title in 2004. They have always finished in the top four, and have won 28 medals in 36 championships. The team is controlled by Finland's Bandy Association.

History

Finland was represented by the club

Polyteknikkojen Urheiluseura Aalto University Sports Club, AaltoUS, (Finnish ''Aalto-yliopiston urheiluseura''), formerly known as ''Polyteknikkojen urheiluseura'' (‘Polytechnics Sports Club’) or PUS, is a Finnish sports club founded in Helsinki in 1903. The club was t ...

(PUS) in the winter games in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

in 1907, but the team was beaten by a team from Sweden. The first international bandy game after Finland became independent was held during the 1919 Finnish Winter Games in Helsinki, which were the first international sporting event organized by the recently independent nation. The national team's roster was dominated by players from Viipurin Sudet and included only three players representing other domestic clubs, Harald Nyström from HIFK, Lars Schybergson from Kiffen, and Niilo Tammisalo from HJK. The national team's match against the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

club IFK Uppsala was held on 23 February at Töölön Pallokenttä before a crowd of 5,000 spectators, including State Regent of Finland C.G.E. Mannerheim. The Finns won the match 4–1 in a victory that was described in the press as “one of the most amazing achievements of Finnish athletes.” In the 1920s and 1930s, Finland regularly played friendly games against Sweden and against

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. Finland, Norway, and Sweden played bandy at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo. After having seen them there, the Soviet Union invited these three countries to a

four nation bandy tournament in 1954 Four nation bandy tournament in 1954 was a tournament of friendlies played in Moscow, Soviet Union, in February 1954, contested by Finland, Norway, the Soviet Union and Sweden. Sweden won the tournament. The Soviet Union invited the other three cou ...

. This was the first time a Soviet national bandy team met other national bandy teams. The four countries used somewhat different rules prior to this tournament, but the rules were adjusted to be the same for the future. The first ever World Championships of bandy were organised in 1957 in association with the 50th anniversary of the Ball Association of Finland, which at the time was the governing body of bandy in Finland. It was played at the

Helsinki Olympic Stadium The Helsinki Olympic Stadium ( fi, Helsingin Olympiastadion; sv, Helsingfors Olympiastadion), located in the Töölö district about from the centre of the Finnish capital Helsinki, is the largest stadium in the country, nowadays mainly used ...

. Finland's Bandy Association was founded in 1972.

World Championship record

Russian Government Cup

Current squad

Finnish squad at the 2014 World Championship in Irkutsk,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, January 26 – February 2, 2014.

References

External links

Finnish Bandy Federation
{{Finland squad 2004 Bandy World Championship National bandy teams Bandy in Finland Bandy Bandy World Championship-winning countries