Floorball Champions Cup 2019 - A Preview to Gävle

No floorball competition is changing that frequently like the Champions Cup. While previous season, six men and women teams each battled for the crown of the best European club team, Gävle in Sweden will only host four teams each on a two-day tournament. Flyctory.com will be in Gävle (and combine the visit with some more floorball matches in Sweden). Here is a preview of the tournament, during which I stayed in Scandic Hotel Gävle.

All pictures of the Champions Cup in major quality can be found in the Champions Cup Album.

Floorball Champions Cup 2019 – Playing System

It does feel quite strange to condense the title of the (in fact) world best club team to two days. Even more strange, this will not be a weekend tournament: the matches will be played on Thursday and Friday. The reason is that in parallel Gävle will host the Distriktslags-SM, which is the national Under 16 regional team competition. The arena hosting the event is the Gavlehovshallen, which has a capacity of some 2,000 spectators.

The system is very easy: for men and women, there is a knockout tournament, semifinals are played on Thursday, finals on Friday. The Bronze Medal matches are played. The semifinal matches have been drawn.

Floorball Champions Cup 2019 – The Tournament

In contrast to previous years, only national champions could qualify for Gävle. The tournament has also been limited to the Big 4 Nations. In both tournaments, you would expect a Sweden vs. Finland clash in the finals – any semifinal victory by a Swiss or Czech team would definitely be adverse to the expected.

Men’s Tournament

The four teams which qualified for the Men’s Tournament are:

Storvreta IBK (Sweden)
Classic (Tampere, Finland)
Floorball Köniz (Switzerland)
Technology Florbal MB (Mlada Bolesav, Czech Republic)

Classic is the only team which also played the last edition of the Champions Cup in 2017, which took place in Seinajöki, Finland. Reigning champion is IBF Falun from Sweden.

The Semifinal matches for Thursday, 3rd January 2019, are:

13:00 hrs	Classic vs. Köniz	7 : 1
19:00 hrs	Storvreta vs. Florbal MB	10 : 5

The Placement Matches are played on Friday, 4th January 2019:

13:00 hrs	Place 3 Match: Florbal MB – Köniz	2 : 9
19:00 hrs	Final: Storvreta – Classic	3 : 10

Links to the match reports, if already existing, at the result.

Women’s Tournament

On the Women’s side, IKSU has the opportunity to defend their title. Neither of the other three teams has played the 2017 Champions Cup. The list of teams is:

IKSU (Umea, Sweden)
SB-Pro Nurmijärvi (Finland)
Piranha Chur (Switzerland)
1. SC Tempish Vitkovice (Ostrava, Czech Republic)

The Semifinal matches for Thursday, 3rd January 2019, are:

10:00 hrs	SB-Pro – Vitkovice	4 : 5 SD
16:00 hrs	IKSU – Piranha Chur	11 : 5

The Placement Matches will be held Friday, 4th January 2019, before the corresponding Men’s Matches:

10:00 hrs	Place 3 Match: SB-Pro – Piranha Chur	5 : 3
16:00 hrs	Final: Vitkovice – IKSU	3 : 8

Links to the match reports, if already existing, at the result.

Floorball Champions Cup 2019 – My View

Just having semis and a final each (will anyone really care about the Place 3 match?) – it is hard to imagine that you will really have some “competition feeling” during these too short days in Gävle. The winner will take it all, means the cup and the attention. Of course, I hope SB-Pro to win the womens and maybe dream of a Swiss winner on the men’s side. Realistically, Sweden needs to win both titles on “home soil”. Storvreta and IKSU are obliged to finish their mission.