Singapore men’s floorball team recover from SEA Games setback to clinch world c’ship spot

SINGAPORE – Gathered in front of a live stream at the lounge area of the Scots College in Wellington, New Zealand, the Singapore men’s floorball squad counted down the last 10 seconds of the Philippines’ World Floorball Championship (WFC) qualifier with New Zealand on Jan 17.

Then pandemonium erupted as the match ended 5-5, confirming Singapore’s place at the top of their five-team group in the Asia-Oceania qualifiers – ahead of the Filipinos – which sealed a spot at the 2026 WFC in Tampere, Finland.

Singapore won three matches and drew one in the group stage of the Jan 13-19 Asia-Oceania qualifying tournament at the Akau Tangi Sports Centre to finish with seven points, with the Philippines a point behind in second after two draws and two wins.

In the other five-team group, Thailand edged out Japan for top spot.

Singapore, who are 17th in the world rankings, will meet 13th-ranked Thailand in the final on Jan 19.

The scene in the Singapore team’s dormitory was a far cry from the disappointment they endured at the SEA Games in Thailand a month ago.

They had to settle for a joint-bronze with Malaysia as the Philippines took silver and the hosts clinched gold in Chonburi.

Singapore vice-captain Keanen Poon, who was part of the side that missed out on the 2024 WFC in Sweden after a 4-3 loss to Australia during the qualifiers’ third-place play-off, said they used the Chonburi debacle as fuel.

“We didn’t really think about it (missing out on the 2024 WFC), but the SEA Games was the main driver and motivation for us,” said Poon, a 24-year-old defender.

“It helped us to really push ourselves as a team to achieve more because we only got third in the SEA Games and we wanted to show here that we were better than that.”

Captain Kumaresa Pasupathy, who missed the previous qualification tournament as he was recovering from knee surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament, said the team had gone to Thailand aiming to improve on the bronze from the 2023 Games.

The 29-year-old added: “We were hoping to at least get a silver and so it was a bit hard for us to accept the bronze medal because I think we came really close to Thailand and the Philippines. But we were probably not as clinical in our finishing and maybe lacked a little bit of maturity in some areas of our play.

“I think that definitely helped us in a way here. The memory was fresh, we addressed some of the issues, like being very clinical, defensively sharp, and also, I think having the maturity as a team. So I think the SEA Games was critical for us in these qualifications and we ended up being able to get automatic qualification for the world championship.”

While Singapore lost 6-4 to the Philippines at the Games, they held the world No. 12 to a 7-7 draw this time around. In their last group-stage match on Jan 17, the Republic recorded an emphatic 31-3 win against the Solomon Islands, adding to their 16-0 and 6-4 wins against China and New Zealand respectively.

Singapore coach Pasi Rosti, who was appointed in June 2025, said that he was satisfied with the team applying the learning lessons from the Games, but added that they could do more.

The Finn, who listed the team’s speed, intensity level, physicality and tactical understanding as aspects that have improved, added: “Personally, the draw against the Philippines is not good enough. We expected more.

“In general, our game has developed quite a lot during the time that I’ve been here, but there’s still a lot of things that we need to improve, and we have a long way to go before we are ready to face the teams in Europe.”

The team’s assistant coach Syazni Ramlee is targeting a top-12 berth for Singapore at the Dec 4-13 WFC.

The Republic had finished 16th out of as many teams at the 2022 edition in Switzerland.

Syazni said preparation will be key and the team will be looking to compete in high-intensity matches before heading to Finland.

He said: “We want to have more training camps in the lead-up because we won’t have any competitions from now until the world champs.

“So I think it’s very, very important for the boys to have more intensive and physical games because we know that the Europeans are bigger, faster and the game speed is higher.

“That is why the strength and conditioning, the physical training, the intensity of the training, must improve to a higher level to compete with those teams.”