My first time watching floorball – or how 200 people raise the roof of a sports hall

In northwestern Switzerland, the thing with sports, or more precisely, with team sports, is there’s only one team that gets all the attention from media and sponsors – FC Basel. All other clubs are very much overshadowed and overlooked. This goes for ice hockey, handball, basketball, volleyball and floorball, i.e. unihockey.

This season, however, FC Basel is faltering. Frankly, let’s face it, they’re heading for relegation. As bad as that is for FC Basel, it sure is convenient for some clubs in the region. I started to be interested in other sports a while back and today, I’m watching my first floorball game of Switzerland’s top division, Lidl Unihockey Prime League, live. It’s a dual between Unihockey Basel Regio (UBR) and GC Unihockey.

Floorball live – so much better than on TV

What strikes me right from the start is the speed and physicality of this sport. Neither come across when you’re watching a game on the telly. I’m gobsmacked. It’s one of those stop-and-go sports that, if I played it, I’d probably black out and have to be hooked up to oxygen in no time – or I’d provoke a red card in the heat of the moment. It’s up and down the field from the first second, with GC seeming to dominate the game. At least that’s what it looks like to me, as there’s a lot going on in front of the Basel keeper, who’ll end up being awarded the best player of his team. Nevertheless, UBR leads 2-1 at the first intermission.

Exciting final minutes

The second period has barely started when, after eight seconds, GC scores the equaliser – 2:2. And the Zurich team continues to dominate the game. But the scoreboard doesn’t change. After the second intermission, the last third continues in the same way. The Zurich team dominates the game and takes the lead after a penalty.

By the way, as in ice hockey, a floorball game is played over three periods lasting 20 minutes each. There’s a fifteen-minute intermission between each period. As the game gets into its final ten minutes, it doesn’t look as if the players in red will find that equalising score.

And suddenly, it’s 3:3. Out of nowhere, a Basel player scores the equaliser practically from the halfway line. The hall goes wild. 234 fans came to watch on this sunny Sunday afternoon. As I said, floorball’s a minority sport. This doesn’t spoil the mood here in the hall. Quite the opposite in fact – the atmosphere is heating up. Restart, face-off, shot, goal. Basel takes the lead. Not even ice hockey is this fast. Now, the hall goes even wilder.

It almost seems like the two teams agreed to offer me as much drama as possible for my first live floorball game. Down a goalkeeper, but with an extra field player, GC equalises with 42 seconds left in the game. The game goes into extra time.

In the end, the momentum’s once again on the home team’s side. After exactly 30 seconds of extra time, the Basel team scores the deciding goal and wins 5:4.

Conclusion: why’s it always football?

The whole world watches football. Why? I’ve now seen baseball, handball and floorball games live. Each of these sports has its appeal and fascinates me in a way football doesn’t any more. But that’s just me. And it’s not only because FC Basel’s playing so badly at the moment. Football’s just too much about making money instead of the actual sport.

It’s different with floorball. I can sense the players’ passion and the fans’ commitment. It’s impressive how much noise 200 people can make. Goosebumps guaranteed. I can definitely say floorball’s an awesome sport.

Immerse yourself in a new (sporting) world

Get out of your bubble and open up to some new experiences. Is Alpine wrestling old-fashioned, baseball boring and boxing more show than sport? Every now and then, I try to get to the bottom of questions like these. You can see what I’ve previously written about below: