Bandy Playing Rules

Bandy Playing Rules is the name of the rule book for bandy, edited by the Federation of International Bandy. The rule book is available online. The current book was adopted in September 2013.

The rule book and the rules are overseen by the Rules and Referee Committee.

History

The first rules for bandy was developed and written down in the late 19th Century in England and in Russia. The two rule books had some differences but were similar enough that the game can be seen as being the same. At the time, the rules of ice hockey were also more similar with the bandy rules than they are today. The English rules of bandy were adopted in Sweden, Finland and Norway, where bandy survived while it died out in England and continental Europe in the early 20th Century. In the 1930s, Sweden, Finland and Norway started to cooperate on the development of the rules, so they would be the same in all three countries. In the 1950s, the Soviet Union joined in and the Federation of International Bandy was created, which since then has been the governing body for the sport.