Women's European Club Championship Under Discussion

The Alliance of European Hockey Clubs, along with the SDHL and IIHF are discussing a new women's club championship...and eventually more international competition.

As long as there have been semi-professional leagues, there have been international competitions from the European Cup to the European Hockey League to the European Champions Cup to the Super Cup to the Nordic Trophy to the Champions Hockey League.

And to the European Women's Champions Cup, a tournament that started in 2004 and ran for eleven seasons.

The basic format is simple and compelling. The champs of the best leagues take on each other to see who the champ of the champs is.

The Alliance of European Hockey Clubs – an umbrella organization that “looks after, protects and safeguards the interests of the professional clubs in Europe in relations with other hockey and sports authorities or organizations” – recently invited the top actors in the women’s game to a preliminary meeting to lay the groundwork for a similar champions’ tournament for women.

Represented in the meeting were the IIHF, THE SDHL, the Swedish and Finnish hockey federations, the European Women’s Hockey League (with teams from Austria, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, and Slovakia), and Luleå, Brynäs, and Frölunda from Sweden, as well as the Alliance.

While it was simply the first meeting and the work is just getting started, there’s reason for optimism. First of all, all the major players were present and there seems to be genuine will to make the tournament, not only a reality, but a success.

It was agreed the first such new event will take place next season, in a Final Four round robin format. Luleå, the reigning Swedish champion and a major force in European women’s hockey will likely host the event in December, together with the SDHL.

“The ultimate goal is that this project will lead to an annual World Women's Summit where the European champion will play the North American champion,” says Szymon Szemberg, CEO of the Alliance of European Hockey Clubs.