Bandy was imported to Sweden from England by count Clarence von Rosen in 1895. The first bandy game was played between teams from Uppsala and Stockholm in 1901, and the same teams met a second time the same year in the Nordic Games (left). The Swedish Championhsips started in 1907. Bandy sorted under other federations ("ballgame" and "football") until 1925 when the Swedish Bandy Federation was formed. Teams from Uppsala and Stockholm dominated during the first decades, but the sport has since spread and now also has strongholds in Hälsingland (Bollnäs, Edsbyn, Ljusdal, Broberg), Småland (Nässjö, Vetlanda, Tranås), Värmland (Boltic, Karlstad-Göta, Lesjöfors, Slottsbron), but the most successful club is without doubt Västerås SK, with 16 Championships and 14 second placings.
The Swedish league is currently the world's strongest, with many of the best players from Russia, Finland and Norway playing semi-professionally.
Sweden played their first international game against Finland (1919) and Norway (1926). The Nordic countries had almost identical rules while the Soviet Union had slightly different rules so it wasn't until 1955 that a set of compromise rules was agreed on and the first game between Sweden and the Soviet Union was played. Sweden has participated in all World Championships along with Finland and Russia (Soviet Union) and Sweden have won the world crown six out of 22 times (Russia/Soviet Union winning the others).