Rodents close to extinction?

The latest news in the AIK saga is that the sign up for share options is going slower than expected. In a statement to Aftonbladet, chairman Peter Mellqvist said the club needs to bring in SEK 20 million. At the moment, the club has sold shares for less than half of this sum (9.3 million). The signing up period seems to have been extended by one more week to 31/12, but if the club has not received the sum required by then, the likelyhood of the club surviving is slim.

Players are warned they might not get paid for December. 'I hope we can, but there are no guarantees. We struggle to make our payments every month' says Mellqvist. Apparently, goalie Christopher Heino-Lindberg, have not been receiving payments  into his pensions account, as promised by the club, for the last few months.

The climate for rats are apparently better in Alberta

This of course means things are desperate indeed. It would be a sad day for Swedish ice hockey when [most likely]or if [miracles might happen!] the club hits the wall. Regardless of the short-term outcome, both supporters and the members of the board room will have to accept shared responsibility for the situation the club finds itself in. The marketing/sponsorship chasing part of the club has been non-existent over the last few years. And looking at the economical results they have made over the last few seasons, no measures has been taken to adjust the size of the outgoings. The supposedly 'numerous' supporters have stayed away game after game, even though the club has taken major steps forwards over the past couple of seasons. This combination is of course a perfect recipe for economical disaster. I'm no economist, but I know when my arse is above my head!

It seems supporters are more interested in watching football or floorball rather than ice hockey. Philistines!

I truly hope the club will make it, but the future does look dark for the infamous rats of Solna.

Lihagen's life saved by referee

In the derby between Bofors and Örebro yesterday, Niklas Lihagen fell to the ice after what seemed an innocuous incident. The referee noticed the Örebro forward remaining on the ice after play continued elsewhere and stopped the game immediately. Lihagen was unconcious and had no pulse and would possibly not still be alive, had it not been for referee Wolmer Edqvist, a day time ambulance driver, who started resuscitation immidiately. Ambulance arrived on the ice after a few minutes and Lihagen is now in intensive care, but said to feel fine.

But in all this, Bofors supporters were chanting 'Let him die' and 'Get the corpse off the ice'. This is by no means surprising as their vocal supporters are generally kids who are just finding their first pubic hairs. They had a bad reputation before, but this is taking them to a new low. Sadly enough, inbreeding just got a bad name.

Also, while hockey is the love of my life (along with Mrs LondonMas of course), this really puts things in perspective. I've been known to shout abuse at referees and players alike, but here we have a man who steps up to the plate when needed. All respect to Wolmer Edqvist.

 

This doesn't mean I won't shout abuse at him next time he referees a game I'm watching.

Elitserien to get NHL sized rinks?

The Swedish Hockey League and the directors of the top clubs in Sweden yesterday discussed the possibility of changing the rink size from the current Olympic size (30m x 60m) to NHL sized rinks (26m x 61m). There has been sporadic calls for this for a long time, and they are now taking it up for debate and looking at the costs involved in changing the rinks. They are also keeping the option open of having an in-between sized rink of 28m x 60m that (as far as I'm aware) is used by some teams in Finland.

This is a reaction of the dropping popularity of Elitserien, the top Swedish league (also known as SEL). I assume the hockey league are desperate to get people back into the arenas and have now listened to the people who advocate the NHL sized rink as the solution to all the ills and problems of man-kind. From personal experience I think it is generally the sports fans who prefer to watch hockey from the comfort of their armchair who are the most vocal supporters of this. The have watched a few NHL games and are astonished with the speed in which the games are played. Of course, as armchair supporters that tend to watch the Stanley Cup semis or the final games when teams are giving it their all. Personally I am not a great fan of NHL - mainly due to the style of play which is forced due to the smaller rink. Dump'n'Chase is not my idea of entertainment. Nor is eating popcorn while watching a game.

Another important aspect they forget when considering this is the quality of the players. SEL is in all respects, a reasonable league, but in comparison to any NHL team, they are mediocre at best. Watching mediocre ice hockey on a small rink leaves you with Dump'n'Chase without the Chase. What's the point? Especially as in the Swedish hockey of today, you're hardly allowed to tackle anyone.

For me, it would diminish the important tactical aspects of the game. With the bigger rink size you have an awful lot more space to direct the play, smaller sized rinks mean there will be very few players who can/will be allowed to hold the puck for long enough to create play. NHL today seems to me to be one or possibly two passes before shooting the puck. The initial shot rarely goes in, but if the gods are smiling at you, the 'keeper will leave a rebound which might be converted. Correct me if I'm wrong

Can't do it, Guv. My Zamboni is way too big!

Even more importantly, would the SEL go through with this, it would most certainly put up another obstacle for and team to get promoted from Hockeyallsvenskan (HA). The cost of converting your rink size would not be a small one. Today you have Leksand and possibly Malmö (with the help of Percy Nilsson) who could afford this.

In fact, I believe they are looking in the wrong direction if they want to create more interest in SEL. Extend the league to 14 teams who play eachother four times in a season. One automatic relegation place, SEL 8-13 play with HA 2-5 in Kvalserien. Make every game count and you'll get people back in the seats. Simple!

Crybaby wants new playmates

Malmö Redhawks has somewhat controversially decided to take disciplinary action against their talisman, Carl Söderberg and suspend him for one game. Last year Malmö had severe financial difficulties and had release all players during the season and fill the vacant spots with youth players. Redhawks hence became known as Babyhawks. One of their [supposedly] better players, Carl Söderberg, took the noble decision not to abandon ship (it is however well known the man behind Malmö, the property developer Percy Nilsson, personally guaranteed his wages and gave him a nice little bonus for staying with the team). Söderberg, who has had an open invitation to come over for a try-out at Boston Bruins but has so far preferred to stay at Redhawks, complained about his line-mates on live TV after the loss against Mora. 'I'd happily have new playmates before the end of January'. Surprise surprise, Mr Crybaby got his wish immediately; Wile Redhawks take on AIK, crybaby gets to play all alone in his sandbox. Who, knows, maybe Imaginary-Morgan and Fantasy-Fred can join him.

Muuuaaahhhhwwwww

He's been known to behave like a  spoilt brat before, but he has set himself new standards with this one. If you'd bother passing any of your team mates every once in a while, you might actually get something done on the ice. Doesn't sound likely tho - does it.

For any Bruins fans out there, don't touch this toss-pot with a barge-pole. He might have a little bit of talent, however, his attitude stinks and he's actually not as good as people make him out to be. He tends to want to overdo things in order make himself look all fancy. This is actually so transparent that every defender in the league know what is going to happen once he gets the puck; He'll take it all the way from defensive zone through to goal himself. Nowadays he rarely gets across the red line. When things don't work, he's moaning and winging like there's no tomorrow. If the team wins, you'll know who's the one to stand in front of the cameras polishing his ego. The future of Swedish ice hockey? Another could-have-been more likely.

Nordic Trophy, or how to do sports the Loob way

The little fat guy is at it again. Sticking his dirty little fingers where they don't belong. Now, Håkan Loob has appeared in Umeå, the home of Björklöven, to investigate the possibility of them joining him and his clan of retards in the 'Nordic Trophy' investigation. This is supposedly a future league with teams from Sweden and Finland, a kind of permanent extension of the current Nordic Trophy, possibly [read 'most likely'] as a nordic conference of KHL - oh yes, we must not forget the token teams from Norway and Denmark.

So what has this got to do with the struggling Swedish second tier outfit from Umeå?

Well, apparently they might be thinking about building a new stadium - or 'events facility' as the man from the council proudly said. 

Ok, but surely a new arena does not mean you qualify for this league. There are more than 20 teams in Sweden who are better at the moment.

Ok, here's where the Loob-logic comes in; they want a team from northern Sweden in this league.  

Fine, but surely Skellefteå, MoDo, Timrå or Luleå would be the more obvious contenders - they are at least in the top league in Sweden.  

Yeah, you would think so, but according to the Loob-logic, this is irrelevant. It's all depending on the size of the town, its infrastructure and the fact that Umeå has a 'different economic climate' than the rest of the region.  

Aha...

That's hockey the Loob way; it doesn't fucking matter what goes on on the ice, all that matters is that they can have fat prawn sandwiches with beluga caviare and a 1972 Chateau Lafite Rothschild to swallow it all down with in the board room. And, of course, an infrastructured heli-pad so they can get home in time for CSI.

Good game!

Are people really so blind that can't see what this man and his cronies are up to? Personally, I am shitting myself.

Don't take me wrong, I am not against some kind of Nordic Trophy. Sweden and Finland has a long standing rivalry in sports and this could be an idea. However, when Loob claims the TV money will be around SEK 60.000.000 (compared to 29.000.000 currently in Elitserien and a meagre 1.500.000 in Allsvenskan), he has clearly not understood the market. Sweden is by far the biggest market for hockey out of the four nations considered. In Norway and Denmark, hockey is a marginal sport at the best. Finland has a market, but economically it is much smaller than it's western neighbour. To double the money I think is a very optimistic calculation - at least if he gets his wish through for a closed league without relegation etc.

But that won't matter for most of us. We either won't have the 'economic climate' or 'infrastructure' to be part of the chosen ones. No one has informed us that putting the puck in the back of the net no longer matters. Maybe I'm just a bit conservative, but I say we continue with this old way of doing sports for the time being.

In the case of my beloved Leksand, I don't think we have the 'economic climate' suitable for the new league. The infrastructure is most certainly below the worthiness of the big shots, not to mention the size of the town (has anyone told Loob size doesn't matter - it is what you do with it that counts...He, if anyone, should  know that...). And it seems we're not the only ones with these problems - apparently any team outside a big city is not qualified for having a decent ice hockey team. But in Europe we have this weird tradition, a team belongs where it is, not that franchise crap that NHL has established. Now, can't we all stand up and hold hands and sing... We Shall Not Be Moved.

But seriously, can someone please stop this man before he causes any permanent damage?

I told you so...

Following the home defeat against Troja. Björklöven has decided to make some changes in the back room - Kari Eloranta steps down to assistant coach, and his former assistant, Peter Andersson, has been told to operate the coffe machine and spread butter on the toast. Taking over as main coach is Jocke Fagerwall. Yes, it is the same man they sacked 377 days ago. Inspired move by the board room!

It's going to look different this time around, sir!

I am not questioning his appointment as he most certainly will scrape up more pints than his predecessor. However, it does seem our friends from Umeå are lacking vision and money. Is this not a prefect time to get someone in who can actually take the club forward - under Fagerwall, they struggled to qualify for the play-offs. Surely a club of Björklövens statue wants more than this.

What the fuck is going on???

So the latest news regarding the Russian take-over of Swedish/European ice hockey has now broken: Malmö and Leksand has been approached by KHL as well - not a concrete offer to join as such, but looking into fan-base, arenas and other infrastructure. Bertil Daniels, chairman of Leksand, is leaving his options open. 'We'll follow what happens and take it from there'.

Don't let them cross the Dnepr!

This stinks of KHL's desperation to broaden it's catchment area. And it also shows that the Swedish hockey association has failed completely over the last few years. They have let themselves been controlled by the 'big' teams, led by Färjestad and Hakan Loob who has had no other interests at heart but their own. In essence the top league has all but been closed for promotion/relegation, money is not filtered down through the system and top clubs can freely 'steal' any promising youngsters from teams below without having to pay any/much compensation.

Had the system been working in Sweden, the KHL would not be an option (and should really still not be), but it seems frustration with the current set up is luring clubs to look elsewhere. Hopefully this can act as a wake-up call for the association to get their thumb out of their arse and do something about the situation.

Legend retires

As many people had feared, veteran defender Janne Huokko, 35, has been forced to retire due to ongoing knee problems. As a modern legend in Leksand, having played no less than 522 games in Elitserien, 151 in Allsvenskan as well as international games, he will be thoroughly missed by hockey-lovers. With a solid CV (including a WC bronze in 1999), he still holds the all time Elitserien records of goals in a season for a defender (21) as well as most goals scored in a game by a defender (4) .

Thanks for everything and hope to see you around in Ejendals Arena.

AIK goes KHL?

The news has today revealed that AIK has been approached by KHL to join the league. AIK with a very precarious economic situation is of course interested. So what does KHL want with a team from the second Swedish division? Well the answer is very simple; KHL is desperate to expand its borders and AIK is a well supported team from the Swedish capital (even though they are supposed to be a Solna club, they are actually playing in Stockholm). Sporting-wise they should obviously look towards HV71 and Färjestad - even though I am not excluding these teams from potentially joining (I rather expect it following the faux invstigation currently spear-headed by Färjestad's Håkan Loob regarding the future of Swedish ice hockey - kindly sponsored by KHL), I imagine Medvedev is hoping for the big cities in order to up the profile of the league in the rest of Europe. I imagine Malmö has already been approached.

АИК?

What I do not understand is why people expect their teams to somehow gain both sporting and economical profits from this move. Let's start with the budgets. Before the 2008/09 season, Dinamo Riga published the budgets for the KHL teams on their website. These were the figures;

1. AK Bars Kazan - $55 mill.
2. Salvat Ulaev Ufa, SKA St. Petersburg, Avangard Omsk - $50 mill.
5. Metallurg Magnitogorsk - $45 mill.
6. Lokomotiv Yaroslavl - $40 mill.
7. Atlant Moscow - $35 mill.
8. Dinamo Maskava, Sibir Novosibirsk - $25 mill.
10. CSKA Moscow - $22 mill.
11. HK MVD Balashikha, Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod - $20 mill.
13. Spartak Moscow - $18 mill.
14. Amur Khabarovsk - $17 mill.
15. Dinamo Minsk - $16 mill.
16. Severstal Cherepovets, Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk- $15 mill.
18. Metallurg Novokuznetsk, Vityaz Chekhov - $13 mill.
20. Lada Togliatti - $12 mill.
21. Dinamo Rīga, Traktor Chelyabinsk - $11 mill.
23. Barys Astana, Khimik Voskresensk - $10 mill.
source: http://www.dinamoriga.eu/en/news/view/season-budgets-of-khl-clubs-revealed

Looking at Swedish teams we have a slightly different situation. The top Swedish teams would be in the bottom half of this table.

So how are these figures supported by income. Again we'll look at some figures.

The average attendance in KHL and Sweden (as comparison) has over the last few years been as follows;

             KHL       Sweden (Elitserien)
2009     5.142         6.260
2008     5.325         6.288
2007     4.815         6.315
Source: http://www.hockeyarenas.net/

Of course there are major disparities between teams, but it still works well as an income indicator. In the NHL,  roughly half of the income is through ticket sales. This is obviously impossible in the case of KHL looking at the figures above. Or are we expected to pay more than our monthly wages to see AIK v Dinamo Riga? On top of this of course you have merchandising, TV money etc. I have not been able to find figures for any of this in regards to KHL, but suffice to say I very much doubt the income in any of the clubs even remotely equals the costs. I doubt it would even cover the players' salaries. Of course there is the Gazprom money. But to throw yourself into any venture that is unsustainable on its own feet is an obvious recipe for disaster. Something AIK is no stranger to. But in essence, KHL is not a viable business - with or without teams from Sweden. And what happens when the oligarchs get fed up with their expensive toy?

LOOBotomized?

Even if a Swedish team does decide to join in the Russian fun,  what can you expect? Well, for starters, income tax is 13% in Russia. That's right. In Sweden you'd really have to double the wages they pay in Russia to cover taxes, social fees etc. Sweating yet Loob? So this is the simplest reason we will not see Zetterberg returning home earning as much or more that he would in the NHL. I can't really see the teams being able to afford different players than they can today. KHL is not the gold-mine some people seem to imagine. There is talk of Gazprom injecting 5 million Euro into any Swedish team that joins. As if that will help. Actually, it would help AIK - they need to get their hands on 1.8 million Euro or they will hit the wall.

Then what?

It's not like they'd actually survive for long in the Russian winter anyway. Just ask the last guy from Stockholm who tried...

Yeah, they're still shitting on you!

Boork hints at Västerås

In an internet fans-forum, Leif Boork has hinted he'd be interested in taking over as head-coach in Västerås IK. The former coach/tv-expert/knowitall has not had a job since the HockeyAllsvenska broadcasts from TV4 was taken over by Viasat at the end of last season. He says he's doubtful they'd contact him and I admit I'd also be very surprised if they did. He hasn't had a proper job in ice hockey for quite some time (TV work does not count in this respect, sorry) but according to what he said at the end of last season ago when Leksand was looking for someone to rescue their qualification the top tier after getting rid of Kempe/Jonsson, he said he was way too expensive for them. As VIK is know to have a much more restricive enconomy than LIF, it's hard to see how they could possibly afford him even if they did want him. However, I don't think he's the type for VIK, even though he might actually be the right man for the job. He's made his name as a fantastic team-builder with an old-school authoritarian management style. Not forgetting he's a bit of a live wire...

The Boork

VIK could do with someone to shape the team they currently have, and for Boork it is a club in a perfect situation; capable players that are currently getting the basics wrong on the ice. We've seen Boork come in to do rescue missions before (Brynäs IF was the last example), a bigger challenge would however be to in principle set up an entirely new team and work for a promotion rather than to come in as a fireman to rescue the situation. However, I don't think VIK will ask him as the board so far have seemed to prefer a younger 'new' style coach in the team. Although Boork could actually be more of the type they need. But then again, the TV sofa is more comfortable than the bench.

AIK - Cause for concerns?

The financial plight of AIK has been well documented with savings of SEK 18M needed to get the club back into a position where they can clear their debts. One of the debtors is Solna municipality where they have rented training rinks from the council. According to the municipality, they have not paid their rent for the last couple of years and they have now kicked AIK out. Sadly this 'only' affects their youth set up as the men's team is playing and training at Johanneshov in Stockholm.

No black's allowed

The club is keeping stumm about the economical situation and what is done to sort it out. However, if this is anything to go by, they seem pretty shafted. To let unpaid rents kill off their youth set-up is surely ensuring a slow death of the club as a whole. Let's hope they don't end up joining their local rivals Bajen Fans Hockey (ex Hammarby) who had to establish a new club following bankruptcy.

I wish them well, but this is not looking good from where I'm standing.

No trotters in Ejendals

The infamous Swedish tabloid, Aftonbladet, has successfully dug up another pulitzer-prize winning story; Leksand's ice hockey team has recieved flu-jabs.

That's right folks. That's a story and a half.

In all fairness it's apparently the fact that through the team doctor, they have managed to secure the flu jabs, whereas other people will have to queue up at the local GPs or hospital. Some people are outraged that they have been able to get these before pregnant women, the elderly and otherwise more vulnerable people. It might be worth adding that there is no shortage of the jabs whatsoever, and the team has as far as I can understand not received state-subsidised medication.

In the UK, you can just pop into your local supermarkets or pharmacies and get the bloody thing for under a tenner. It should hardly need to be more complicated than that. But don't let Aftonbladet know!

If I'm going to pay for anything being injected into me, it wouldn't be something as boring as that. I'm open to any suggestions...

Verdict: Half of the team will be bed ridden for a few days after taking the jabs, and the other half will get what Desiree Jennings got and start skating backwards. This will possibly be an improvement of the performace of the team of late.