Being away from the carnage

by Elliott Stanley

Being away from the daily grind and therefore also being somewhat removed from the day to day goings on in ice hockey world is not always such a bad thing, especially when you’ve swapped the seemingly annual winter carnage in the UK for the thirty degree, sun drenched Malaysian coastline.

That’s not say I’ve abstained from the hockey fix, merely taken the time to absorb it in a different manner; finally finishing my copy of Tony Hand’s recount of his life in British ice hockey, thoroughly enjoying Ray Scapinello’s tales from his amazing career as an NHL official and, at present, working my way through Mark Messier’s biography. I thoroughly recommend all three.

It’s interesting to watch the current fall out over events in Coventry on Saturday, and perhaps a few other hot topics currently doing the rounds, from afar, so to speak. Doing that sometimes gives you a chance to think a little longer before reacting to a debate or situation and in turn that perhaps elicits a slightly more rounded, balanced view.

With that said, even being 6400 miles away, I’d say my current view of ‘the bench clearance’ and, perhaps more accurately, the latest piece of inept governance by the EIHL is still too raw to discuss with a completely open mind. I’m not entirely sure what I consider worse at the moment; the downright corrupt nature of FIFA or the shambolic and ever oscillating manner in which the EIHL run the league.

Probably enough on that, a raw subject as you can no doubt sense. Something that I have been considering at length the past couple of weeks is the current state, and future, of ice hockey in the UK. Now this is where objectivity is an asset which is absolutely critical. I think what I’m going to write about will probably stretch to two or three blog postings as there are so many facets to consider, we’ll see how it pans out.

So, the state of UK hockey, is it good, bad, better than ever, worse than ever?

As a Panthers fan it’s easy to look around the garden and see the flourishing plants and answer that things are great. No doubt as a business the indicators are great for Panthers, in fact they are absolutely superb; a very well run, liquid, stable organisation. I don’t include that statement in order to gloat, rather to first call out something that can easily taint your answer to the previous question if you are a follower of the Black and Gold. To really understand how hockey is doing you have to forget what’s in front of your eyes and look a little wider. Statistical mathematics would say you remove the two polar opposites and then consider what’s left. Maybe that’s the best way to go here, ignore the rich kids and ignore the poor relations, instead concentrate on the middle ground?

Although I hate answering questions in such a ‘political’ manner I would answer the question by saying this: I think British Ice Hockey is at a crossroads and can, with the right decisions, attitudes and backing grow into a sport that, as a whole, has the stability we all crave. Unfortunately there is another route that will, at best, see a continuation of the instability we currently have to live with or worse. The ‘worse’ is not something I would personally want to contemplate for too long but I would honestly say, hand on heart, that it is certainly possible that some very dark times lay ahead if egos, personal battles and sheer pig headedness are not put to one side for the good of the game.

I want to look at several areas of the debate, starting with the league itself, what its role is and how it can support a stable and prosperous future. Regular readers of this blog will know I have little time or respect for the current administration and I make no apologies for the fact they will not be cut any slack on this occasion either.

What the Elite League needs, first and foremost, is strong, independent and (this is the key one) transparent governance. The limited company that the EIHL is run under take a significant ‘bond’ from each club for participation in the league each season. They take a cut of Challenge Cup ticket income. They take the profits from the Play Off Finals weekend, including the auctioning off of game worn shirts and other memorabilia. I think the least we could ask for in return is a proper set of rules, fully customised for our league, not a hashed together set of fighting rules with references and links to IIHF rules that then throw up multiple contradictions with what is explicitly stated on the EIHL’s own website.

Obviously a hot topic at the moment is the application of supplementary discipline. This is something that, again, needs to have a set of rules, or more accurately, processes, set in stone. If a player is going to be assessed supplementary discipline for an incident he, or rather his club, should be afforded the option to defend that charge at a hearing (should they feel they have evidence and justification to do so).

This process should be documented and explicitly set out on the league’s website and should not simply constitute a GM sending a letter/e-mail setting out a ‘view’ in response to an incident. It needs to be a two way thing, a conversation, an opportunity for a debate. It should also be something dealt with by an independent and mixed panel, possibly a panel of ‘x’ number of people chosen from a pool of individuals so as to avoid conflicts of interest in certain cases (e.g. Tony Hand would be ideal to pass judgement on many incidents but it would perhaps be best to keep him clear of cases involving Edinburgh!). This is something that is not uncommon for many sporting leagues to adopt and is essential in creating a professional image, one that promotes the good order of the sport and indeed encourages involvement from people likely to take the sport forward.

What about the league’s involvement in the off ice affairs of the teams that constitute the league? Should that be something they get involved in? My belief is it’s something they should govern, something they should be involved in to the extent of setting the rules and boundaries within which teams should operate. It is my firm belief that teams need to live within their means and the practical application of that as a rule means a cap on the amount teams can spend on wages which is linked to turnover. We have to take steps to ensuring teams stop overspending on players. The impact of leaving behind huge trails of debt and the resultant, lingering, bad blood with local businesses is about the worst possible outcome for what should be a sport that pulls its local community together.

Now don’t get me wrong, I do understand how hard it must be running an EIHL club on a shoestring but I also know how masking that by keeping failing businesses afloat is only going to make things worse in the long run. I agree with what Mick Holland recently wrote in the Nottingham Evening Post; the EIHL have to make tough choices. Some of those choices may cause a few moderately traumatic, but isolated, incidents to occur however, in the long run, the continual application of apathy and the sidestepping of those tough decisions will result in an almighty explosion at some point in the future. The results of that could be devastating for British Ice Hockey.

I’ve got plenty more to get through and next time I’m going to muse over the state of the British game on the ice, the quality of player we attract and the perennial question over the import limits.

And finally......

A couple of things to finish up with this time around. Firstly I learned this week that Doug Messier, father of legend Mark, spent a season icing in Nottingham in the late 1950’s. Amazingly this is something I never knew and it was quite a shock to read about my very own Panthers a few pages into Messier junior’s biography. Small world, eh?

Secondly, while finishing Tony Hand’s autobiography, I was reminded that the Braehead Clan’s inaugural season is something that has actually been at least 7 odd years in the making as it was about that length of time ago that Neil Black approached Hand about coaching a team that would play out of Braehead; something which ultimately did not come to fruition, until now. I’ve no idea what wasn’t ‘right’ at the time that is now, maybe just financial support, maybe something else however infrastructure and the lack of it in the UK, is something I’ll come onto in a later blog.

That’s all for now, until next time.

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Cardiff	0-3	Basingstoke
12th March 2006 19:00
Coventry	5-3	Sheffield
12th March 2006 19:00
Edinburgh	4-5	Belfast
12th March 2006 19:00
Newcastle	1-4	Nottingham
12th March 2006 19:00
Basingstoke	4-4	Cardiff
11th March 2006 19:00
Newcastle	2-4	Coventry
11th March 2006 19:00

	Club	GP	W	L	OL	GF	GA	Pts

Chelmsford	5-8	Telford
19th March 2006 19:00
Hull	5-1	Wightlink
19th March 2006 19:00
Romford	4-1	Milton Keynes
19th March 2006 19:00
Slough	5-2	Swindon
19th March 2006 19:00
Solihull	3-7	Bracknell
19th March 2006 19:00
Sheffield	1-1	Guildford
19th March 2006 19:00

	Club	GP	W	L	OL	GF	GA	Pts

	Club	GP	W	L	OL	GF	GA	Pts

	Club	GP	W	L	OL	GF	GA	Pts

	Club	GP	W	L	OL	GF	GA	Pts

	Club	GP	W	L	OL	GF	GA	Pts

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