The first booking event in the history of floor bandy men’s F-league was held in Lempäälä. Latvia’s Krisjanis Tiltins was called first.
Two weeks ago, he won the under-19 World Cup gold in Sweden’s shirt Gabriel Kohonen was certainly the most well-known name to the general public when the men’s Floorball League, or F-liiga, held its first booking event in Lempäälä on Wednesday.
Gabriel’s father Mika Kohonen was the best player in the world recently. Kohonen, who currently coaches Storvreta in the Swedish league, played the most in Finland for Happee, but also for one season (2015–2016) in Seinäjoki’s Pelivelj.
– Gabriel has a contract with Storvreta for the next two seasons, but we hope that he will play at least one season in SPV in the near future, said the club’s former head coach Tommy Koponen.
Gabriel Kohonen played in the Finnish under-16 national team, but then decided to represent the Swedish national teams in the future. The family lives in Uppsala.
A total of 36 players were booked
Also Happe’s manager Petri Kauko booked the Swede who celebrated the World Championship gold two weeks ago, Sakarias Ulriksson.
– The top players in the age group are of interest to us. If there is an opportunity to get a top player to Jyväskylä, then we will take it. If 1–2 of the reserved ones play for us sometime, that’s already good, Kauko estimates.
In Lempäälä, 12 clubs reserved three players each, i.e. a total of 36 players. Czechs were booked the most, i.e. 13. There were eight Latvians, of whom FBC Turku booked the opportunity as the first attacker Krisjanis Tiltins. Five Swiss and four Swedes were booked.
Players born in 2001 or later could be booked at the event. Finns could not be booked, because the CEO of the F-league Kimmo Nurminen considers the breeder system to be functional, and it would not make sense for anyone if SPV had reserved the most promising junior in the Classic.
F-league clubs have an agreement on the conditions under which a player can transfer to a club other than the club that booked him. The clubs must be in contact with the players by June 30. The reservation is valid for four years.
At the event held in Classic’s home hall, we saw a few players who will definitely play in the league next season. One of them was the last silver medalist in the adult World Championships in the Czech jersey Adam Hemerkawhich will represent Classic next season.