From July 26th to 31st at Budel, in the Netherlands, the European Motoball Championship will be held. The national teams of the Netherlands, Russia, France, Germany, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine will compete for the highest honor in Motoball.
Motoball is a particular discipline, which mixes football and motorcycling and – curiosly – it is going to start shortly after the end of European Football Championship. Differently from the European Football series, which is held every four years, the European Motoball Championship is held every year.
Invented in France in 1930, Motoball then developed towards eastern Europe and as far as Russia which holds by far the largest number of European wins, despite recent successes by Germany.
Currently Motoball is played in Russia, Belarus, Ukraina, Lithuania, France, Netherlands and Germany. The record champion is Russia, but the last two European Championships were won by Germany. (2013 and 2015). In 2014, there was no international tournament cause of the confusions between Ukraine and Russia.
The FIM Europe Motoball Commission is responsible for building the schedule, the training and classification of the Referees and the media coverage for the fans. It consists of 3 persons: the only chairwoman of a commission in the FIM Europe, Mrs Pascale Reschko-Jacquot (France), Dovydas Bonckus (Lithuania) and Thomas Staudt (Germany).
Motoball is the self-proclaimed fastest team sport in the world. A game lasts four times twenty minutes. A team consists of a goalkeeper and four players on a 250ccm motorcycle. There are also substitutes. The aim of the game is to shoot the big ball into the opponent’s goal. In an attack the player can’t go alone with the ball across the midline, he must pass to another player. The goalkeeper has a protected area in front of his goal. No one is allowed to cross this semicircle.
To become a Motoball player it is necessary to become member of one of the motoball-Clubs. The most Clubs are starting education of young motoball Player on a minimum age of 10 years. To play in the dmsj youth Motoball Championship a minimum age of 12 and a maximum age of 18 years is the limit. The motorbikes are usually provided by the Clubs. The players only need to take care about the maintenance. Even the costs for spare parts, tires, oil and patrol are covered by the clubs.
Full information on the webpage of the European Motoball 2016 organizer: www.ekmotoball.nl
Photos @Ray
