There were special moments in the ice hockey men’s championship series, or the Bandyliiga, on Saturday. JPS from Jyväskylä had to host Porvoo from Akille in the upper secondary series.
The match was scheduled to start at 3 p.m., but due to the circumstances, it was moved to start at 7 p.m.
At 19:00 JPS and the jury were on the field. The visiting team was not seen, and the game was not played. The topic was reported earlier Central Finland.
– The MVP (most valuable player) of the match was the field staff, who got the conditions right, the head coach of JPS Topi Rytkönen carved for the magazine.
According to Rytkönen, JPS did things right. The postponement of the match as well as the approval to play after the renovations were the decisions of the jury. According to Rytkönen, it was clear that, according to the rules, it is a transfer profit for JPS.
Achilles, on the other hand, opened the events in its announcement from his own point of view. Akilles writes that a good hour before the warm-up, when the team was still on the bus on the way, it received information that the field is not in playing condition after Friday’s storm and rain.
– When the team arrived in Jyväskylä, there were no representatives of the match organizers or judges, and the field was in a dangerous looking condition. After investigating the matter, despite several attempts, the team did not receive official guarantees that the match would still be played on Saturday.
According to the release, the team from Porvoo had to return to Porvoo for their last home game of the regular season, which was played on Sunday already at 1 p.m.
JPS team leader Jarkko Lampinen in turn commented on Saturday evening For Central Finnsthat the away team didn’t want to take a risk.
– It is understood that the journey is long and the conditions were uncertain. However, they had been told that the field was fine.
– It is not easy for the ice ball Bandyliiga to be a credible main series. The conditions fought against each other, sometimes even the teams themselves. Tonight, the visiting team in Jyväskylä was not interested in coming to play, wrote the person who took the photo from the spot Toni Laatanahowho has recently worked in the background forces of JPS.
Such information was with the ice ball boss
The matter was also wondered about, for example On the Bandyliiga.fi website, with which it was considered that although the association has approved the transfer to the evening and the judges and the home team have been present, according to the rules, JPS should be awarded a handover win. It is written on the website that, according to the rules, it would lead to the exclusion of the team that gave up from the series.
However, Achilles’ and JPS’s interpretations and statements about the situation differed strongly.
Executive Director of the Ice Hockey Association Tobias Karlsson according to things progressed as follows:
– I have that much information that in the morning in Jyväskylä it was found that the condition of the ice had weakened due to the rains of the night. It has been announced since then that the planned start time of 3 p.m. is not suitable. The visiting team has also been notified.
– The ice has been inspected at 2 p.m. and found that it is still not in good condition at 3 p.m. Then it has been agreed that the next check-in will be at 5 p.m.
According to Karlsson, the matter had been “at least to some extent†discussed between the teams as well. At some point after 3 p.m., Achilles announced that they would not wait.
Akilles criticized that when they arrived at the Viitaniemi field, there were no representatives of the match organizers or judges.
However, Karlsson says that there was a good connection between the match organizer and the visiting team. According to Karlsson, Achilles’ team leader knew that the next ice break is at 5 p.m., but apparently the visiting team made their own conclusions about the danger of the playing field.
– Now we will investigate and think about where the mistake has taken place, and I don’t really have anything to say about that at this moment.
What next?
Akilles beat Narukerä in the last match of the continuation series on Sunday. Akilles is third in the standings regardless of how it goes with the JPS match.
JPS still had a chance to win the next series, but on Sunday JPS lost to Veiterä. Niinpä Veiterä is the winner of the follow-up series and JPS runner-up. The standings in the league table are not important, even if JPS gets a forfeit victory in the Achilles match.
There isn’t really time for a rematch, because the semi-finals already start on Wednesday. Karlsson says that the unplayed match is being processed by the competition committee. There are two options: the match is still set to be played or the final result is set for the match.
The executive director does not give a direct answer to whether Akilles can be excluded from the series.
– I don’t want to speculate, because other bodies here make such decisions. I’m not going to speculate. It seems like a distant option, hopefully we’ll be wiser soon.
What could be done so that such special episodes would not happen in the main series? Karlsson says that all clubs know that the ice hockey season in Finland is short due to the conditions. Every spring there are challenges to finish the season.
– It is time for some reflection. Now we have to make sure that we finish this season and then we have to think about, for example, whether we have opportunities to clarify the rules.
Karlsson comments on things with his tongue in the middle of his mouth, because the case has aroused a lot of opinions. In the final round of the regular season, the matches had to be played at the same time as possible, because the stakes were still high – for example, in terms of home advantage in the playoffs.
– It heats up the emotions here and there. “I hope that a clear decision will be reached that as many people as possible will be satisfied with,” says the executive director.
Correction at 19:31. Toni Laatanaho no longer works as a background person for JPS.