The Unification Vote for English Ice Hockey
As a quick reminder, the English Ice Hockey Association (“EIHA”) is the governing body for Ice Hockey in England. The EIHA looks after administration across the whole sport. It is responsible for obtaining outside funding (including from government), setting up and running leagues and everything in between. The EIHA held a vote on 12 December 2020, in relation to unifying the various national governing bodies, into one UK governing body.
The vote failed, only getting 61%, when it needed 75% to pass. This caused massive consternation amongst the community. Many have asked why, and for those that voted against to be named and explain their reasons.
So who did vote against?
Firstly, everyone has the right to vote whichever way they desire. We do not believe in ‘calling members out’ in this regard. They are free to make their decision and at the end of the day, we are all part of the Ice Hockey community and are one big team.
However. Those encouraging people to vote against and campaigning against the vote, should explain why they were doing so, when many (and the majority felt that unification was the right thing to do).
So without further ado, we introduce you to the English Ice Hockey Community.
So who are the English Ice Hockey Community?
The English Ice Hockey Community (“EIHC”) was the main organisation encouraging members to vote against unification.
First of all, its not easy to tell, who runs the EIHC. The website (link below) doesn’t exactly explain who is behind the English Ice Hockey Community (EIHC). This is odd. How can members trust a new organisation with the running of virtually every aspect of our sport, when they don’t know who is proposing it and why?
We also note that the website makes some very bold claims of a professional nature, which again seems dubious (we will deal with these aspects in a later post).
Despite this, the people behind EIHC are not secret and they have actually undertaken some media in relation to unification.
Therefore, if you didn’t already know, we can reveal for you that the following people are the key members of the EIHC…
Mr Paul Ragan; and
Clifton Hugh Lancelot de Verdon Wrottesley, the 14th Baronet and 6th Baron Wrottesley.
So who are these two individuals and what is their Ice Hockey background.
Paul Ragan
Paul Ragan is an established business man, who earned his personal wealth by starting his own insurance brokerage, which he then sold for a significant sum of money. Mr Ragan appears to have a penchant for the limelight however and has been on Channel 4’s the secret millionaire.
Mr Ragan’s involvement in English Ice Hockey has been interesting to say the least and has had mixed results. He is a previous owner of both the Sheffield Steelers (boo) and the Cardiff Devils.
Mr Ragan riled a number of the fans of both clubs, but particularly those of the Cardiff Devils. He is alleged to have made a number of unpleasant comments regarding his own fan base, when they showed their lack of appreciation for a number of unpopular personnel and business decisions in running the club.
Lord Wrottesley
Eton educated, previous member of the House of Lords, Lord Wrottesley is the other key member of the EIHC.
Lord Wrottesley is a bit more of an unknown than Mr Ragan in terms of his involvement in English Ice Hockey. He came 4th in the skeleton competition of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City (competing for Ireland). Lord Wrottesley was also involved in the Skeleton governing body (which amalgamated with the Bobsleigh governing body) and is also an accomplished Cresta Run rider.
Both Mr Ragan and Lord Wrottseley have kids in the English Junior Ice Hockey programmes (Hockey parents) hence their continued interest in the sport.
We’ll get into the EIHC website and the reasons for not unifying in a future post coming soon! We’ll also be looking asking Mr Ragan and Lord Wrotteseley for their side of the story! Keep your eyes open.
#growthegame
Yak
