February 22nd, 2009

The difference between Estonia and the top teams ist not too big

On this weekend Estonian defender Roman Pass played a match in the Swiss Mobiliar League with his club HC Rychenberg Winterthur. They were beaten by Alligator Malans 3-6. Roman Pass was very unhappy about this result. But there was actually nothing to win or to loose for both teams. Switzerland is the only top floorball nation, where only four teams can participate in the play offs. To extend the championships the best six teams play a masterround of five matches. This year the masterround is extremely boring because SV Wiler-Ersigen, Floorball Köniz, Tigers Langnau and Alligator Malans were already out of reach for Grasshoppers and Rychenberg at the vey beginning. Even in other years when there was still a fight for the play off positions the number of spectators was bellow what they were during the regular season. A lot of floorball fans - led by the floorball magazine unihockey.ch - expect this to change as soon as possible. When will swissunihockey understand that play offs for eight teams would bring many more people to the matches? But now let’s go back to Roman Pass. In the interview with worldfloorballnews he says plenty of interesting things about the future of floorball in his home country Estonia.

wfn: Where did you play before you came to Switzerland?
Roman Pass: I played in Sweden’s 1. Divison for Finspang IBK. I never played for an Estonian club team. I only play for the national team.

wfn: Why did you come to Winterthur?
Roman Pass: Because my Finnish friend Heikki Rantala played for HC Rychenberg.

wfn: What can you say about the development of floorball in Estonia?
Roman Pass: The Estonian league is not really good. But it’s getting better and the sport is getting more and more popular.

wfn: Do children play floorball at school?
Roman Pass: Yes, they do. In Estonian schools floorball is gaining popularity as well.

wfn: How many licensed floorball players will there be in Estonia in the future?
Roman Pass: I can’t say a number. I hope many. My hope is that in 20 years there will be 100′000 players in Estonia.

wfn: A large number for a country of this size.
Roman Pass: Yes, but I hope this will come true.

wfn: What do you say about the achievement of the Estonian team during WFC in Ostrava and Prague?
Roman Pass: We had ups and downs. Against World Champion Finland we received only seven goals. When we were beaten 6-7 by the Swiss we were extremely close to the surprise of the whole tournament. We also defeated Denmark. But on the other hand we didn’t accomplish our goal. Our aim was the seventh position and the direct qualification for WFC 2010. But our performance against Russia in the match for the seventh rank was weak.

wfn: When will Estonia be able to keep up with the top four nations?
Roman Pass: During Tallinn Cup in 2008 we were beaten by the Czech only 5-8. The difference between Estonia and the top nations is not too big. In the national team we have men playing in the leagues of Finnland, Switzerland and Finland. Our U19 juniors play on a good level. It won’t take too long until we can hold the top nation’s pace.

wfn: How many years does it take until floorball will be an Olympic sport?
Roman Pass: From my point of view 2020 is reasonable.

Roman Pass

Photograph Matthias Dudli
Interview Matthias Dudli