BOULDER, Colorado -- The ExTe World Cup, the biggest international club competition of the year, starts on Thursday, October 25th in the Swedish city of Ljusdal and will feature six teams from the Russian Bandy League.The four-day tournament includes a 20-team field divided into five qualifying groups. Of the remaining teams, 10 hail from Sweden, and two each from Finland and Norway. Defending champion Dynamo Moscow is perhaps the favorite to win the tournament, and they will be grouped with Swedish sides Bollnas GIF and Vasteras SK. Other Russian clubs competing are Uralsky Trubnik Pervouralsk, Zorky Krasnogorsk, Vodnik Arkhangelsk, Rodina Kirov and AMNGR-Murman Murmansk.
Formerly know as simply the Bandy World Cup, the tournament is one of the longest-running club competitions, beginning as the DAF Cup in 1974. Ljusdal, a town of about 7,500 people, is located about 220 miles north of Stockholm.
Weather conditions in Ljusdal look to be somewhat warm - between 3C and 7C - but it should stay cool enough to keep the outdoor rink frozen throughout the tournament. Uncooperative weather in the past has forced organizers to move games to before sunrise so ice surface would remain frozen. Project manager for the event Per-Arne Weglin has said that the city would like to build an indoor facility to host the tournament. Several representatives from Ljusdal will soon be traveling to Russia to look at rinks similar to the one that they would like to build for themselves.
For complete schedules, results and information about the ExTe World Cup, click here.
Also this week in Sweden, the Entos Cup will be held in Lidkoping. The tournament is an annual four-team club competition between teams in Sweden's top league. This year's competitors are Villa Lidkoping BK, Boltic Gota, IFK Vanersborg and Gripen Trollhattan BK. Although it is only in Swedish, tournament information can be found here.
Photo courtesy of www.zorky.ru.
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