There is a lot of discussion going on about equipment and what should be allowed in bandy right now. It is about everything from the design of the skate rails and the risk of injury to the goalkeepers’ ambition to stop shots in new ways. A number of innovative novelties have appeared there, such as expanding the surface of the goalkeeper shirt to reshaping face masks for better coverage of shots.
FIB is also now working on what should be allowed and not when it comes to the players’ equipment. That work will result in new instructions for what will be approved in the international bandy.
But it is not only around the equipment that there are new ideas. In Sweden, in the coming pre-season, tests will be done with playing with a black ball. It has never been tested, but many colors have been tested over the years such as green, blue, orange and even different sizes of ball have been tried. But the current one has been considered the best.
Pär Billsmon
Pär Billsmon, chairman of the Referees committee in the Swedish Bandy Federation and also member of the FIB Rules and Referees committee is positive to test a ball in black:
-It could be a flop with a black ball, but I believe in this, absolutely. But at least we try. It is important that everyone gets to try out, from seniors to youth teams, both for men and women. The athletes themselves will be a decisive factor, at the same time it is also important to bring the audience into the picture to check how it is experienced from the stands, says Pär Billsmon to the Swedish website “Bandypuls”.