The 2023/24 floorball season begins on Saturday with the start of the Prime League championship. The most important things in five points.
What's new?
The format remains the same, with a 12-team league for men and a 10-team league for women, playoffs in a best-of-7 format from the round of 16 onwards and the super final instead of the playoff finals. The playoffs will start at the beginning of March, with the superfinal taking place for the second time in a row on April 27 at the BCF Arena in Fribourg.
The women of Waldkirch-St. Gallen, the only team to be promoted, and the new coaches and players are therefore the main newcomers. The women from St. Gallen held their own in the NLB last season and won the promotion/relegation play-off against Giffers 3:0 with three narrow victories. The canton of Fribourg thus disappears from the Prime League map again after one season, and the distribution of the 22 Prime League clubs towards the west ends again with Köniz in the canton of Bern.
Who are the defending champions?
Both the men of Zug United and the women of Kloten-Dietlikon go into the new season as double winners of the previous season. The Zug team won their first championship title, led by a top-class quartet of Scandinavian foreigners with the Swedes Albin Sjögren and Robin Nilsberth and the Finns Sami Johansson and Miko Kailiala. In the women's competition, Kloten-Dietlikon prevented Zug's double triumph in the penalty shoot-out of the super final.
Who are the favorites?
After their championship premiere, Zug's men are also among the most frequently named contenders for the title this season, especially as the team from central Switzerland looks even stronger on paper than in 2023/24. The Scandinavian quartet became a quintet with the signing of Tobias Gustafsson, and there were no prominent departures. Goalie Nils Schälin has matured into a national player, and the Finn Jarkko Rantala is still the coach.
Zug's first challenger is once again their super final opponents Wiler-Ersigen. The record champions, who have won 13 championship titles in 19 years and won the Supercup two weeks before the start of the championship, are entering their second season under coach Lukas Schüepp with a few question marks. On the one hand, the team has to make up for the departure of top scorer Michal Dudovic, while on the other, the defense, already considered an Achilles heel, will be weakened until the turn of the year by the loss of national defender Jan Ziehli due to injury.
In the women's competition, Kloten-Dietlikon are the top favorites to win their sixth championship title in a row. Although the Zurich team will have to compensate for the retirement of captain Andrea Gämperli, the bloodletting among their biggest rivals appears to be even greater. Super finalists Zug, for example, will have to make do without international strikers Corin Rüttimann (retirement) and Isabelle Gerig (transfer to Pixbo Wallenstam in Sweden), while cup finalists Emmental Zollbrück will be without former national goalkeeper Helen Bircher, who has retired.
Where are the new attractions?
The clubs from the former floorball stronghold of Graubünden have been fighting for a few years to catch up with the top (Piranha Chur, Malans) or to stay in the league (Chur Unihockey). In the person of Rasmus Enström, however, Malans once again has a major attraction. The 34-year-old Swedish director dominated the sport in his prime together with congenial enforcer Alexander Galante Carlström for several years with both the Falun club and the Swedish national team.
In terms of reputation at least, Enström can be placed in the category of Niklas Jihde and Kim Nilsson, the former world-class mercenaries of Grasshoppers. Malans' last comparably top-class foreigners were Martin Olofsson and Esa Jussila around 20 and 15 years ago. At Rychenberg Winterthur, meanwhile, ex-Köniz national striker Manuel Maurer, who returned to Switzerland from Sweden after three years, is expected to cause a sensation.
What other floorball highlights are there?
Before the Super Final on April 27 in Fribourg and the Cup Final in Bern's Wankdorfhalle on February 22, the 15th Men's World Championship is on the agenda in Malmö (Sweden) in December. Switzerland wants to make up for its disappointing 4th place at the 2022 home World Championships.
In the Champions Cup, the competition between the best European clubs, Zug, Wiler-Ersigen and Kloten-Dietlikon want to prevail against Czech opponents between September and December and shake up the Scandinavian teams that have dominated so far.
SDA
