Tuto Hockey, which is aiming for a spot in the Ice Hockey Championship league for the coming season, says that its league license application has not been rejected.
Yesterday, Monday, the Ice Hockey Championship League announced that its license committee had rejected the league license application of Tuto Hockey from Turku. Tuto, who plays in Mesti, has applied for a league license for the upcoming season 2024–25.
Now, however, the application process has taken a new turn. Tuto Hockey tells today Tuesday in its published announcement the chairman of the Liiga Licensing Committee Jarkko from Luum information that the application has not been rejected.
Instead, Tuto has 14 days, i.e. until December 12, to respond to the additional clarifications requested by the SM league’s license committee regarding the application.
Tuto Hockey Oy submitted its league license application at the beginning of November.
Yesterday, the license committee said in the press release published by the SM League that it had confirmed its decision to reject Tuto’s application yesterday, Monday, November 27.
– As a result of our overall review, the license committee has decided that it will not support Tuto Hockey Oy’s license application. Tuto has been sent a detailed decision related to the matter with reasons, Luumi, chairman of the license committee, said in the press release.
Just yesterday, according to the SM League, the license committee conducts a “detailed review” of each hockey club applying for a league license, where the applicant club’s financial situation and athletic and environmental requirements are examined. These are examined on the basis of the materials submitted by the applicant clubs to the license committee of the SM League.
– Decisions about each club’s license eligibility are always made based on an overall review. The triggering of an individual rejection criterion does not automatically mean that the club in question will not be granted a league license, says Luumi.
Chairman of Tuto Hockey’s board Tuomas Haanpää did not want to give Urheilu a position yet on whether Tuto Hockey Oy plans to appeal the SM league license committee’s decision.
– I’m not going to speculate on that yet. We have seven days to file a complaint with the Sports Safety Board if we think there is a reason to do so. But I’m not saying that’s what we’re doing now.
In addition to chairman Luum, the members of the license committee include a board member of Jääkiekon SM-Liiga Oy Lasse Aho and a lawyer Robert Bützow. The general meeting of Jääkiekon SM-liiga Oy decides on the final approval or rejection of license applications from outside the league. In it, the shareholders are represented by the chairmen of the boards of the clubs.