Wat (wie) is Bandy - definitie

Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal.

The playing surface, called a bandy field or bandy rink, is a sheet of ice which measures 90–110 meters by 45–65 meters – about the size of a football pitch. The field is considerably larger than the ice rinks commonly used for ice hockey, short-track speed skating, or figure skating.

The sport is considered a form of hockey and has a common background with association football (soccer), ice hockey, shinty and field hockey. Bandy's origins are debatable, but its first rules were organized and published in England in 1882.

Internationally, bandy's strongest nations in both men's and women's competitions at present are Sweden and Russia with both countries having established professional men's bandy leagues. In Russia, it is estimated that more than one million people play bandy. The sport also has organised league play and dedicated fans in other countries, most notably Finland, Norway, and Kazakhstan. The premier international bandy competition for men is the Bandy World Championship and the premier international bandy competition for women is the Women's Bandy World Championship.

From the 1890s until 1955, there was no established international governing body for bandy. The international governing body for bandy today is the Federation of International Bandy (FIB) which formed in February of 1955. In 2001, bandy was recognized as a sport by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Both traditional eleven-a-side bandy and rink bandy (which is played on a smaller rink) are recognized by the IOC. Based on the number of participating athletes, the FIB has claimed bandy is the world's second-most participated winter sport after ice hockey but is not recorded how many of these participants are male and how many are female.