Heikki Hiltunen took the “chairman’s leave” in front of the media on Friday.
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The challenge of the SM league and Mestis clubs has been how to increase the importance of a single regular season match. When there has been no fear of qualification, the clubs at the tail end of the SM league have started clearance sales. The public has voted with their feet.
The threat of being in the qualifiers returns the bet to the tail end of the League. No unequivocally perfect series model, the president of the SM league Heikki at Hiltus or the chairman of the Finnish Ice Hockey Association Heikki Hietase is not.
If Kiekko-Espoo is accepted into the SM league next season and none of the current 15 league clubs throw down their gloves, 16 teams will play in the main league next season. There is still a long way to go from that to the A and B league model, which has been circulated in cabinets and coffee tables at gas stations.
– It is not easy to build the equation of twenty fully professional clubs, Hiltunen underlined.
He knows what he’s talking about. Hiltunen was the chairman of Vaasan Sport already when Sport was building its semi-professional organization in Mestis into a full professional organization and towards promotion to the SM league.
Hiltunen threw himself into a frenzy on Friday and underlined the next example as “the dismissal of the chairman”.
– How about a series of 16 teams, which is divided after the autumn into an upper series of eight teams and a lower series of eight teams, Hiltunen began.
– The top four from the upper follow-on series qualify for the quarter-finals, the next four play with the best four from the lower follow-on series for the quarter-finals. The next four in the lower secondary series play for a league place, he summed up the main features.
It is certain that there will not be a solution that completely satisfies all parties and viewers. The SM League’s October decision to restore the qualifiers even received a harsh reception, at least compared to expectations.
– We have four million followers, and everyone has an opinion, Hiltunen said.
The president of the Ice Hockey Federation, Hietanen, was also surprised by the reception of the long-awaited news. Some of the hockey fans wanted wider qualifiers. Among the clubs, Helsinki Jokerit announced that it will not apply for a league place under the current conditions.
– It (restoring the qualifiers) was good news for one day, Hietanen regretted.