History |
The story of the Bandy World Cup started in a train compartment 30 years ago. Björn Swartswe had just been elected to the PR committee of the Swedish Bandy Association and was on his way down to Stockholm for his first meeting. Björn, who was usually good at thinking up new ideas, had nothing new to say and felt a bit panicky sitting in the train compartment, staring into space. Then it happened. “In my mind’s eye I saw a well-known sports commentator called Sven “Plex” Pettersson commentating on the 100km orienteering competition from behind a bush on the Uppsala plain. And then ‘orienteering day and night’ turned into ‘bandy day and night’,”says Björn. Björn used the little time he had left before the meeting with the other PR people to think about how the idea might work. He sounded so convincing and well-prepared in his presentation that no one dared steal the idea. His PR colleagues supported him by saying it was “a pretty good” idea, but that was that. So he presented the idea at home in Ljusdal Bandy Club and was given the go-ahead. The first tournament, the DAF Cup, was played at the end of October 1974. For this first event, Björn Swartswe actually had problems getting enough teams together: 16 in total. Caution was the hallmark of the first tournaments. Bandy leaders throughout Sweden found it difficult to see the point of playing bandy in the middle of the night. But they took their teams to Ljusdal. Attitudes varied: some took the Cup very seriously and saw it as a great opportunity to get their teams playing as an effective unit on a full-sized pitch, while others took it less seriously and thought it was a fun break in the preparations for the serious business of playing league matches. Now there are no problems at all in attracting competitors, because a lot more than 16 teams want to take part. On several occasions a B tournament has been organised for the new Bandy nations such as the US, Canada, Hungary and the Netherlands. This has made Ljusdal a kind of bandy Mecca. People increasingly came to realise over the years that the Bandy Cup in Ljusdal was a really big event. Living together for a few intensive days, and being forced to get up in the middle of the night, fostered team morale and team spirit. These surprising insights swept all doubt and light-hearted attitudes away: teams started coming to Ljusdal wanting to win. The Cup has changed its name and structure over the years. It was first the DAF Cup, became the DEX Cup in 1976 and was named the DEX WORLD CUP in 1980. In 1984, the event became the WORLD CUP LJUSDAL, and in 1986 when Swedish Railways – SJ – became the main sponsor, it was renamed the SJ WORLD CUP. Between 1999 and 2004 the cup lacked a main sponsor and was known as the BANDY WORLD CUP. In 2005 Polar was the event’s main sponsor and it became the POLAR BANDY WORLD CUP. A new sponsorship agreement has been signed for this year’s event with the local company ExTe. The company is the new main sponsor and the event has without further ado changed its name again, and is now the EXTE WORLD CUP BANDY. The tournament has been extended from three to four days, and this year also from four to five groups for the qualifiers. Despite all the changes in structure and name, the people of Ljusdal have never doubted the importance of the bandy cup. Proof of this? A couple of thousand people fill the stands year after year when their home team goes out onto the pitch to play – at 2 am. In the first few years of the event, people came in high heels and evening dresses, smart shoes and suits. Taxis queued outside the entrance to drop people off who came directly from their Saturday night out dancing. Watching bandy in the Idrottsparken arena was just the next stage of the party. What did it matter that the arena and goals were obscured by thick fog? Idrottsparken was the place to be. Nowadays, spectators come in more weatherproof clothes and footwear, but they are just as enthusiastic as when the tournament started years ago. The spectators bring colour to the event. Home-team supporters try not to be outdone by supporter groups from Bollnäs, Edsbyn, Sandviken, Västerås and Hammarby. This adds to the exciting atmosphere in the stands. The whole area is a real hive of activity during the Cup days. Local politicians and companies welcome the fact that all the visiting bandy supporters boost sales and that the municipality is scoring PR goals. Ljusdal is mentioned on the radio, in the press, on TV and other media who are all on site, covering the cup and reporting on what happens in and around Idrottsparken in Ljusdal. |
| 1974 | DAF-CUPEN | ||
| Winner: Sandviken Runner-up: Broberg |
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| 1975 | DAF-CUPEN | ||
| Winner: Broberg Runner-up: Sandviken |
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| 1976 | DEX-CUPEN | ||
| Winner: Uleåborg Runner-up: Västerås |
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| 1977 | DEX-CUPEN | ||
| Winner: Broberg Runner-up: Sirius |
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| 1978 | DEX-CUPEN | ||
| Winner: Broberg Runner-up: Ljusdal |
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| 1979 | DEX-CUPEN | ||
| Winner: Edsbyn Runner-up: Örebro |
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| 1980 | DEX WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Boltic Runner-up: Edsbyn |
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| 1981 | DEX WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Boltic Runner-up: Broberg |
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| 1982 | DEX WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Jenisej Runner-up: Boltic |
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| 1983 | DEX WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Broberg Runner-up: Jenisej |
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| 1984 | WORLD CUP LJUSDAL | ||
| Winner: Jenisej Runner-up: Ljusdal |
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| 1985 | WORLD CUP LJUSDAL | ||
| Winner: Boltic Runner-up: Jenisej |
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| 1986 | SJ WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Boltic Runner-up: Vetlanda |
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| 1987 | SJ WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Västerås Runner-up: Selånger |
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| 1988 | SJ WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Vetlanda Runner-up: Selånger |
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| 1989 | SJ WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Västerås Runner-up: Sandviken |
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| 1990 | SJ WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Zorkij Runner-up: Vetlanda |
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| 1991 | SJ WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Edsbyn Runner-up: Sandviken |
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| 1992 | SJ WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Sirius Runner-up: Sandviken |
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| 1993 | SJ WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Vetlanda Runner-up: Ljusdal |
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| 1994 | SJ WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Västerås Runner-up: Sandviken |
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| 1995 | SJ WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Boltic Runner-up: Västerås |
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| 1996 | SJ WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Boltic Runner-up: Falun |
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| 1997 | SJ WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Västerås Runner-up: Ljusdal |
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| 1998 | SJ WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Falun Runner-up: Västerås |
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| 1999 | LJUSDAL WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Hammarby Runner-up: Ljusdal |
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| 2000 | LJUSDAL WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Västerås Runner-up: Jenisej |
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| 2001 | LJUSDAL WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Hammarby Runner-up: Sandviken |
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| 2002 | BANDY WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Sandviken Runner-up: Vodnik |
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| 2003 | BANDY WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Vodnik Runner-up: Sandviken |
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| 2004 | BANDY WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Vodnik Runner-up: Sandviken |
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| 2005 | BANDY WORLD CUP | ||
| Winner: Bollnäs Runner-up: Edsbyn |
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| 2006 | ExTe World Cup | ||
| Winner: Dynamo Moskva Runner-up: Zorkij |
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