Turku-based hockey club Tuto Hockey will not play in the League next year. The club’s license application has been rejected.
Aleksi Hakala,
Yrjö Hjelt
The league’s license committee has rejected Tuto Hockey Oy’s license application for the 2024–25 season. Tuto from Turku will not play in the League next year. The news was received bitterly at the club’s office.
– We can appeal the decision to the sports legal protection board, and this will certainly be done, says the chairman of the board of Tuto Hockey Oy Tuomas Haanpää.
Tuto discussed the Liiga’s decision right away at the board meeting on Wednesday afternoon. At this stage, Haanpää is still talking about the “first conclusions” that were made at the meeting.
– We are probably not a very popular club in the League. It may be that it carries some weight in this case. Let’s see how this goes from here.
What kind of taste did you get from this selection process?
– It leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It won’t get you anywhere. That’s how it usually goes, that when a competition is organized, whoever comes last might have a bit of a bad taste in their mouth.
The league announced the new league licenses on Wednesday
Every Liiga organization has to apply for a license again every year, for each starting season.
About a month ago, the League announced that the application of Tuto, who applied for a place in the main league, has been rejected. After this, the club was still given the opportunity to respond to the required additional explanations. Even after these, the Liiga’s license committee did not have the conditions to support the license, the Liiga says in its press release.
– Tuto worked a lot on their application, and I believe that as a result of the process they now have a good road map for what it takes to play in the League, chairman of the license committee Jaakko Luumi says.
– Unfortunately, the club’s financial situation did not yet meet the League’s license criteria, and for this reason the committee had no choice but to reject the application.
The release states that the sporting criteria required by the agreement between the League and the Finnish Ice Hockey Federation were also not met for Tuto Hockey.
– According to these criteria, the club applying for a place in the League must have been successful in sports in Mestis before submitting the license application.
The league does not elaborate on the reasons for which the application was rejected. The league points out that the club has the opportunity to appeal the decision to the Sports Legal Protection Board.