“In all my life, I’ve enjoyed the excitement and playfulness in sports as floorball, football, hockey, volleyball and so on. But one day, I felt that the true joy of practising or watching these sports wasn’t there anymore. Everything just seemed to be about winning, at any cost. That pure and spontaneous joy, playfulness and camaraderie in sports all of a sudden seemed miles away.

One night in 2005 I saw some young guys play floorball in a gymnasium. One of them comes running with the ball on the edge, but at my surprise he picks up the ball with the blade, draws a couple of quick strikes through the air and launches the ball right into the goal’s top corner! This unexpected move, along with the joy in the players’ faces, made my whole body tingle. I immediately went in and started talking to these guys. After a long and sincere conversation I understood that talent and long hours of practising were behind all this stunting. My questions received the same answer over and over again: “Just because it’s fun”, and I began to realize that this type of game with a stick and a ball would be something people want to watch, try and experience. I left with a sense of euphoria to my whole body: This I must show the world! As a sports fan, it was like being reincarnated.

In the summer of 2006, myself and a few like-minded people enter a conference room of Mr. Hans Wallenstam to show the sport of the future to him and Jan-Inge Forsberg, one of the founders of floorball and the executive of Renew Sport AB. After a short introduction to the meeting, they’re both aware of that we’re here to show a new sport with a stick and a ball. The two gentlemen are mighty impressed and we decide around the table to move forward with a competition to find young talents from all over Sweden who wants to become ambassadors for FreeBandy.

The response is huge and after trial games in Umeå, Stockholm, Malmö and Gothenburg, the grand finale is held at Pusterviksteatern one Saturday in March. The arrangement is an instant success and 9 talented boys and girls ages 13-17 are selected to be commanded by the team’s already appointed captain Peter Runnestig, one of Sweden’s most famous showmen in floorball.

Together during spring of 2006 we’re step by step experimenting with what would become FreeBandy. We play indoors, we play outdoors. We play in sand, on asphalt and on grass. One on one, three on three, five on five. The whole time with different types of goals. We challenge each other to constantly find new ways of playing. We have fun, and we do not depend on, or are held back by, a bunch of unnecessary rules.

By Claes Forsberg - The Founder of FreeBandy

In January of 2007 the spontaneous sport of FreeBandy is ready to try its wings. The equipment has been developed; the ideas of playing are straight, more or less. It is time to show off the game to a wider audience. During the whole summer a national tour is held where we travel around, make stops at beaches, in parks and in city centres. The tour was more extensive than planned and even brings us over the sound to Denmark and all the way down to Czechia for show-games. We play ourselves and invite other curious watchers to come join us. At the same time the equipment are being sold at sport stores all over Sweden. The summer tour becomes a huge success; thousands of sticks are sold at the sport stores, television, radio and newspapers are showing their interest in “the new sport with a message”.

In October of 2007 we arrange the first official challenger game in the competing form of FreeBandy – the first “Challenge” – in Gothenburg with 20.000 Swedish crowns in price money to the winning team. For the first time ever a wide audience got the chance to experience FreeBandy at its best; a hectic action sport with loads of artistry and joy of the game. It was a given success. When 2007 came to an end, most 8-15 year olds in Sweden had seen or heard of FreeBandy. As a final acknowledgement that we’ve got all of this right, FreeBandy is granted the award of the sporting goods business: “Gear of the Year”.

Already in the beginning of 2008 the trend is obvious: FreeBandy is the fastest growing sport in the country and the response is huge wherever the sport’s main characters show off the game and its values. Not to mention the elementary- and junior high schools of Sweden who are craving for a visit from the ambassadors of this new sport. A special “School Tour” was hastily put together and was fully booked in just a few weeks. In less than two years FreeBandy has gone from vision to reality. That’s what can happen when you take fun and play seriously.”