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A
Brief History of FFI |
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Great sports enthusiastic,
Prof. Dr. Mohammed Seraj ANSARI registered
FFI already in 2001 under the agies of the International
Floorball Federation-IFF (www.floorball.org).
The beginning wasn't so easy. There were no equipments
and no supporters. Little by little he started to
buid up the network of state level associations to
be ready when ever the sport is ready to take off.
Floorball enthusiast, Mr. Jarkko Harkonen (Finland)
arrived in India in November, 2002 to work as an intern
for The Times of India -newspaper. The very first
contact between Prof. Dr. Mohammed Seraj ANSARI and Mr. Harkonen
took place in Mumbai, March 2003. They met because
of mutual interest towards introducing floorball in
India. With help of Mr. Harkonen's Finnish contacts
they managed to import around 30 sticks and 10 balls
in India. FFI is forever grateful to the following
persons/organizations: Janne Aho (Coach for
Finnish Floorball Club, TPS Floorball), Floorball
Club TPS (Turku, Finland), Exel Ltd. (Finnish Floorball
Equipment Manufacturer).
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When
the parcel of equipments finally arrived in India from
Finland, the city of Yavatmal (Maharashtra), the Maharashtra
Floorball Association has got the honour of being the
first city where 1st National Floorball Championship
(men & women) was ever played in India. The venue
was Dr. Nandurkar's College Sports Hall, Yavatmal,
Maharashtra. The first hectic 5 days National
Training Camp in India collected over 200 interested
players/official around India. The longest trip was
done by Girls & Boys Team from Manipur, 6 days!
The Men Uttar Team Pradesh became National Championship
and Women Team of Delhi became National championship. |
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After
the camp there was The First National Tournament of
Floorball of India. It took three days to find out
the champion of women and men's category. The first
champions were Team Delhi (Women) and Uttar Pradesh
(Men). The next training camp was held in Lucknow,
in City Montessori School-CMS
(in picture). The camp got a group of children while
players in Yavatmal were mostly seniors. The children
were full of joy and excitement after the first 10
minutes of play. Floorball won the hearts of all the
participants and after every practising session it
was hard to give the promotion stick back for waiting
the next morning. Around 50 children came every morning
at 6 am to start their school day little bit differently
than before. Because of limited possibilities of using
the facilities of CMS the camp lasted only 6 am to
8 am. Both camps were coached by Mr. Harkonen (Coach-Finlamd)
who is also the Vice Chairman of Technical Committee
of FFI.
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It
was time to travel back to Finland for Mr. Harkonen,
but he promised to come back. After long negotiations
between Exel Ltd. sport unit, Prof. Dr. Mohammed Seraj ANSARI
and Mr. Harkonen, the agreement was ready: Mr. Harkonen
will be sponsored to promote floorball in various training
camps around India. He arrived in India in June, 2004.
After the second camp in Lucknow, City Montessori
School-CMS, the results are:
CMS adapted the game to be one of the
school sports, first local league in India (Avandh
Floorball League) will start in August 2004,
players are registered in FFI and they are insured againts
floorball injuries, Uttar Pradesh has accepted floorball
to the list of officially regognized sports. |
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After
successfully completion of five years of the Floorball
Federation of India - FFI (www.floorballindia.org)
under the affiliation of International Floorball Federation
- IFF, the FFI's Founder & National President
Prof. Dr. Mohammed Seraj ANSARI, the FFI has got tremendous
reputation and the FFI has already been continuesly
organising national seminars, states seminars, and
participation into International Seminars, Singapore
, and participation into Asia
Pacific Floorball Championship-2005,
Singapore, where India Men Team
has experienced with International Floorball Skills
and floorball techniques, there was a any chances
to played world top floorball teams.
Meraj
Distributors (Lucknow) is importing the first shipment
of floorball equipment for the markets of India. Prof. Dr. Mohammed Seraj ANSARI is projecting floorball to be the
second in popularity in India after 5 years. The 1st
Asian Pacific Continental Championships in 2005
is a major step for the Asian Pacific Floorball Confideration
(APAC), but in terms of registered members. we can expect
around 2 lacs (200,000) players in India in next 5 years,
which is a major step for the whole sport internationally.
Written by FFI, July 2004 |
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