| Federation of International Bandy | |
| Size: | 180px |
| Type: | Sports federation |
| Formation: | 12 February 1955 |
| Headquarters: | Simrishamn Municipality, Sweden |
| Membership: | 27 members |
| Leader Title: | President |
| Leader Name: | Stein Pedersen |
| Language: | English, Swedish, Russian |
| Website: | worldbandy.com |
The Federation of International Bandy (FIB; French: Fédération internationale de bandy, Russian: Международная федерация хоккея с мячом, Swedish: Internationella Bandyförbundet) is the international governing body for the sport of bandy, including the variant called rink bandy. The federation is headquartered in Simrishamn Municipality, Sweden.
Bandy as known 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 are 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]
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 :[18] Furthermore, on 26 September 2023, Italy was granted provisional membership.[19]
| Number | Region | Countries | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | ||
| 2 | Asia (Asian Bandy Federation) | 6 | |
| 3 | 17 | ||
| 4 | 3 | ||
| Total | World | 27 |
Kyrgyzstan 2004-2018: The Bandy Federation of Kyrgyzstan became a FIB member in 2004 and the national team took part at the 2011 Asian Winter Games[22] and at the 2012 World Championship[23] but did not take part in any more tournaments after that. In 2018, the federation had become effectively defunct and was removed from the FIB member list.A number of national federations have been admitted as members during the years[24] 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.[25] None of them had ever sent a team to any international competition. These defunct national federations were:
| Association | Founded | FIB affiliation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | |||
| 2006 | |||
| 2014 | 2014 | ||
| 2006 | 2006 | ||
| 2003 | 2003 | ||
| 2006 | |||
| 2006 |
Italy has since rejoined in 2024 through a new national federation.
Some of the Asian countries in FIB, and also the former member Kyrgyzstan, have founded the Asian Bandy Association, which has its headquarters in Astana (most recently known as Nur-Sultan), Kazakhstan.[26] [27] This helps organize the bandy competition at the Asian Winter Games and works to spread the knowledge of bandy in Asia.
Members: