Our history

It’s hard to trace the beginnings of broomball, as the sport has no precise, documented history. However, recent research points to a cousin of broomball, knattleikr, played in Iceland in the 18th century.

Knattleikr, practiced by the Vikings, was not a sport at all, but a war between villages to impose superiority over territory. In those days, a knattleikr game lasted several days and occasionally resulted in deaths. Writer Hors Grimkellson described a game between the villages of Strand and Botn as follows: “Before dusk, six players from Strand lay on the ground, while none from Botn had suffered such atrocities”.

Broomball in France is still in its infancy. It is the result of a meeting in August 2015 between Emmanuel Elineau (now President of the French Broomball Association) and Marc Desparois, President of the International Broomball Federation (IFBA). From this meeting, on the terrace of a café on rue Sainte Catherine in Montreal, was born the “crazy” idea of creating the French Broomball Association.

Then, from September 2015, everything accelerated. The first French broomball team is built around a core of Anjou ice hockey players. From October onwards, this team takes part in the European Broomball Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland. A unique experience! Although last in the competition, the results were unexpected and in keeping with this crazy project. The president of the international federation himself described them as exceptional.

Since then, the French team has taken part in 3 world championships (Regina – Canada – 2016; Minneapolis – US – 2018; Kingston – Canada – 2022), 4 European championships (Lausanne – Switzerland – 2015; Egna – Italy – 2017; Angers – France – 2019; Lausanne – Switzerland – 2023).