English Ice Hockey’s dilemma
The English Ice Hockey Association (“EIHA”) held a vote on 12 December 2020 to unify the sport’s governing body. The proposed vote would have seen Ice Hockey in the UK dealt with under one (UK) governing body. This is different to the current position, whereby England and Scotland for example, have different governing bodies.
Many were angry about the failed vote (it got 61% but needed 75%) and wanted to know why members voted against. The EIHC encouraged members to vote against unification and we will look at their reasoning here.
Let’s get into it!
The EIHC’s reasons for voting against
Well it seems that the main reason for encouraging members to vote against was, ‘this is not the right time’.
It’s difficult to really describe the reasoning beyond this over-simplified soundbite because there just isn’t enough information provided. The below is deduced from the EIHC blog (of 8 December 2020) and is read in conjunction with Mr Ragan and Lord Wrottesley’s appearance on the British Ice Hockey podcast. The links to both are below.
Lets’ wait it out and we don’t like Mr Ward…
It would appear that the EIHC’s position was:
- Don’t unify now because we need to get the sport back on its feet following Covid-19.
- Resolve the “EIHA issues” (that they have not described nor explained in any real coherent detail).
- We don’t like Mr Ward (recently appointed EIHA director).
The EIHC blog of 8 December 2020 campaigns for members to vote against Mr Travis Ward being voted onto the transition board and seems to try and make some rather odd allegations against Mr Travis Ward’s competency, which appear unfounded.
The blog appears to blame him for issues in the EIHA’s company formation, which was undertaken in 1998. This is despite Mr Ward only being involved in the organisation this year. They also claim that as he is not a UK qualified lawyer (yet) and is only qualified in the US, he is not suitable to be a board member (on the transitional board). Given that no one else proposed to be on the board is a UK lawyer either, this seems an odd argument. Especially given that Mr Ward is a hockey player (NCAA, college level for West Virginia) and a US lawyer, who worked on one of the NFL’s highest profile campaigns. The NFL is the largest sporting organisation in the world FYI.
It is often an inevitability that a US lawyer coming to the UK will obtain UK qualification very quickly as the two legal systems are incredibly similar and so this point seems to be clutching at straws somewhat.
English Ice Hockey ‘issues’
- ‘Bandwith
If you listen to the podcast above, we suggest a little drinking game. Anytime anyone says the word ‘bandwith’ take a drink. Be careful though, you might not survive the episode.
A criticism unmentioned on the blog, appears to be that the EIHA has limited ‘bandwith’. This means that those in charge have limited capacity to deal with running the sport). We have some sympathy with this as an argument, especially as the roles are currently unpaid volunteer roles. Those running the EIHA need to maintain their day jobs. Unless something changes in this regard, this will be an issue.
- Juniors section
There appears to have been some issue with a member of the EIHA juniors section leaving . This is believed to be the head of coaching and education, and the junior national programme. This post has not yet been filled.
Whilst this is a justified issue that requires resolving, we do not understand why this cannot be resolved (and someone recruited) at the same time as undergoing the unification?
- Lack of ‘openness’
This has been an issue with the EIHA for as long as it has been in existence and is indicative of historical issues within the organisation. The EIHA have recently put in place systems that hope to ensure that all aspects of English Ice Hockey are heard but their effectiveness is yet to be be seen.
We don’t want to replace the EIHA…
Both Mr Ragan and Lord Wrottesley both stated on the BIH podcast that they had no intention of taking over the EIHA or creating their own governing body. The creation of a the EIHC website however with its own proposals for how to govern the sport seems oddly in contrast to these statements.
The next part….
So, in an attempt to have an open and honest discussion about the state of English Ice Hockey, we will be inviting EIHC to answer some questions based on the above. We will hopefully bring this to you in part 3 of our unification series.
#growthegame
MIH
Check out part one of our unification series, in case you missed it.
