When French petrol station manager Gilles Paniez came up with a new form of football in his garage in Lyon in 1987, he probably didn’t foresee the impact his newly invented game would eventually have.

For the first three years, Paniez and his friends would be the only people to play jorkyball – a high-intensity version of the beautiful game – when, rather unexpectedly, the sport was exported to Italy, thanks to its inclusion as an exhibition sport at the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

Leonardo Giangreco Biancheri, an Italian convert to jorkyball who had met Paniez, struck a deal to have the sport featured in the fanzone outside the Stadio Olimpico in Rome – the main venue for the event.

As a result, the sport spread rapidly in Italy, and by the end of 1999, the number of jorkyball courts had reached 100.

It grew in France too, with jorkyball clubs popping up in around 35 locations.

For more than two decades, jorkyball enjoyed a reputation as a popular underground sport in both countries, remaining so largely due to having no centralised organisation to develop it.

NEW BEGINNINGS
However, there’s now a new push to spread jorkyball globally – a drive orchestrated by the same man who first took the sport to Italy – Leonardo Giangreco Biancheri.

After introducing jorkyball to Italy in those early days, Biancheri left for London where he enjoyed a successful and lucrative career in banking.

More than 20 years later, he’s is back in Italy and in 2014 – with capital raised during his banking career – he set up a company, 3bble, with the aim of introducing jorkyball to new markets.

3bble is the official supplier of jorkyball courts and balls and works closely with the newly established Jorkyball International Federation (JIF) – the sport’s world governing body. Thanks to Biancheri’s efforts in the past 18 months, the sport is going global and JIF currently has 12 countries affiliated to it.

HOW TO PLAY
The rules for jorkyball are simple and help make it a fast-paced sport. Each match is played inside a “caged” court between teams of two players – consisting of one forward and one defender. The roles are appointed before the match and have to be reversed for each set, the forward becomes the defender and vice versa.

The forward is allowed to move around the entire court, while the defender is not allowed to cross into the opposition half. The walled court measures 9.80m x 4.80 m – so is slightly smaller than a squash court. Matches are based on a best of three sets format, with each set being won by the team to first score seven goals.

“This is a sport for everyone,” says Alessio Di Maio, president of JIF. “It’s great for children, due to the small dimensions of the court, and perfect for adults who are looking for an intensive sport which will give them a fitness workout. As it’s basically football in a small space, the rules are easy to learn and there are no specialist equipment needs.”

Biancheri adds that jorkyball is a great way to keep fit – for all ages. “Jorkyball is intense,” he says. “Playing 50 minutes is equal to playing around three hours of 11-a-side football. There’s no let up.”

The small space needed also means that a jorkyball court can be fitted pretty much anywhere – and this is where Biancheri sees a great opportunity for the sport to grow. “As well as the core market of sports clubs, it’s perfect for urban spaces in city centres, as well as fitness clubs and hotels,” says Biancheri. “Jorkyball can also be used as a great fan engagement tool at events and big football matches. Having a jorkyball court at a fanzone attracts people around it to have a look – so it works perfectly for sponsors who want to create interest at events.”

PROFIT-A-BALL
The fact that a 50sq m jorkyball court can be squeezed into a tight space also means that the courts can be a very profitable investment for sports clubs and fitness/leisure operators wanting to expand their offering. According to Biancheri, the profitability aspect is one that has convinced many clubs to install jorkyball courts at their centres.

“You can fit up to 16 jorkyball courts in the space needed for one five-a-side football pitch,” he says. “As each jorkyball court takes four players, by doing the maths, you quickly realise that you can fit more than five times as many players in.”

In reality, most jorkyball clubs have between one and three courts and in some cases they have been installed to replace underused squash courts.

Biancheri adds that health and fitness clubs have shown particular interest in adding jorkyball courts – not only because clubs often have limited space, but because the sport offers a high intensity workout in a very different way from traditional fitness activities. “From a fitness point of view, what gives it an edge over most other intensive workouts is that it’s not just a fitness activity – it’s competitive sport,” he says. “The more you play, the better you become and you can challenge people and get fit without even noticing!”

MAKING IT WORK
As part of plans to secure more sites for jorkyball in Italy – and to help clubs with the initial cost of installing courts – Biancheri has struck a financing deal with one of the country’s national banks. “If a club wants to buy a court – which costs around €20,000 – through a three-year financing deal, the monthly payments are only around €370 a month,” says Biancheri.

“This means that – with a recommended cost of €8 per person per hour for a jorkyball session – the club only needs to get four bookings a week to break even. Any more bookings than that and the club starts making a profit.”

To help each club that buys a court, 3bble also provides support and training in marketing and setting up a loyal user base. Biancheri says that creating an active group of users is beneficial for both the sport and the owner of the court. His aim is to help create local, loyal user groups and add them to the “global community” of players.

“We don’t just want to sell courts – we want to make sure that the client is successful in renting the court out and filling it with players,” he says. “We don’t want to provide courts that stay empty.

“That’s why we stress to the clubs which buy our courts that it is not enough to simply install a court and assume people will play – because jorkyball will be something completely new to most users.

“It’s important that clubs appoint somebody to look after the court. They need to be on hand to explain the rules, to make sure people play with the right rules, and they also need to organise tournaments and be the contact for both JIF and their own private league online.”

COMMUNITY MATTERS
To help clubs create a community, 3bble also provides a free software package which enables clubs to organise tournaments and leagues which can be managed and viewed by players and teams online. “It’s all created automatically,” says Biancheri. “The software has an algorithm which provides points for each game and automatically creates league tables.

“Using the online service, a club can create a circuit which allows players to gain points and track their progress. The points are weighted depending on the importance and size of the tournament or league and players can also earn points by challenging other teams to “friendly” games, which encourages usage of the courts. So in essence, players are able to organise and schedule their own games.

“Players automatically get added to our World Ranking Challenge too – so those who take it seriously can end up playing at the World Masters at the end of each year.”

One of the existing jorkyball clubs is Tuttomondi in Chiusi, a town in Tuscany, Italy. The club has two courts and is managed by Giuseppe Daniele, a trained fitness instructor, who decided two years ago to become an entrepreneur and set up his own jorkyball-only club. The club’s two courts are fully booked during weekends and weekday evenings up until 10pm.

The club recently hosted the Italian Jorkyball Cup for clubs and the very first U-13 Jorkyball Cup. Daniele says he is particularly keen to get children to play and recently took on the role of youth coordinator within JIF.

FUTURE PLANS
In Biancheri jorkyball has a dedicated ambassador and it’s clear the sport will continue to spread in Europe and elsewhere. New countries are joining the jorkyball family at an increasing rate and Biancheri says he is constantly looking to provide the courts to new territories.

“We recently signed a distribution deal with a Japanese company,” he says. “They have already set up a national federation and affiliated themselves to JIF, so everything is in place. There are advanced talks with a number of other countries too, so the family is growing.”