Jiri Jakoubek brings up to 40 teams from Czech Republic each year

Gothia Innebandy Cup is important for the floorball in Czech Republic, according to the coach Jiri Jakoubek.

The floorball coach Jiri Jakoubek takes up to 40 teams from Czech Republic to Gothenburg and Gothia Innebandy Cup every tournament.

Jiri Jakoubek first come to Gothia Innebandy Cup in 2010.
– In these years I was a coach of FBŠ Bohemians and we tried to find tournaments to participate. Then next year, in 2011, I put together the first official group from Czech Republic and Slovakia and it was more then 25 teams from seven clubs, he says.
From the beginning, the main goal was two things.
– To play against Swedish teams in the middle of the season and make a nice preparation before our play-offs. Second one and more important was to learn something new from Swedish teams.

What are your best memories from the tournament?
– There are plenty of memories and I know that a lot of Czech players and coaches have plenty of amazing memories too. My personal is year 2018, we (Tatran Střešovice) won the best club in tournament and it was huge success for the club.

Has Gothia Innebandy Cup helped Czech Republic to develop as floorball country in any way?
– I will tell you really nice story. As a head coach of Tatran I would like to participate in Gothia Innebandy Cup, because Czech players play a lot of games against Swedish opponents and then in national level it will be something "normal" for them. In the category B11, we started play with players like Filip Langer, Matěj Havlas, Josef Juha and many others and we participated every year until B18. These guys then were part of our team in Halifax, where we won the first historical World Floorball U-19 Championship for Czech Republic and I was a head coach of this team. So yes, Sweden and Gothia Innebandy Cup helped us really much.

How is the interest in your country for the tournament in January?
– I hope that after pandemic it will start going back to normal. Very probably more then 20 teams will participate again so we are looking for to Gothia Innebandy Cup 2023.

Which players from the senior national teams today has played in Gothia Innebandy Cup back in the days?
– Filip Langer, Matěj Havlas, Dominik Beneš, Marek Beneš, Jakub Boček, Jakub Buršík, Filip Forman, Martin Kisugite, Mikuláš Krbec, Matyáš Krebner, Jonáš Kreysa, Ondřej Němeček, David Šimek, would you like me to continue? Trust me, Gothia Innebandy Cup is something special for the Czech floorball and I really hope that it will still be in the future! says Jiri Jakoubek.