CEO of the Glasgow Clan ice hockey team, Gareth Chalmers, has told BBC Scotland the decision to void the Elite League season was the ‘100%’ the right call given the circumstances, echoing the thoughts of Rangers amid the Scottish Premiership title debate.
The UK’s premier ice hockey competition was halted last week and with no prospect of fixtures being fulfilled amid the global health crisis, the season was subsequently cancelled.
As well as running the Clan, Chalmers serves on the league’s board and is in no doubt it was the best solution to an unprecedented challenge.
“It’s 100% the correct decision as we didn’t complete the season,” he told BBC Scotland.
“We held an EIHL board of directors conference call last Friday and it was agreed by all 10 clubs that there would be no league or play-off champions.
“No one team deserves the title as we didn’t complete the 54 game schedule.”
Chalmers’ thoughts here echo those of Rangers, who have argued that should the Premiership season fail to restart, awarding Celtic the title would go against principals of sporting integrity [Rangers.co.uk].
It’s a stance that has also been taken by former Gers players Alex Rae and Barry Ferguson [Daily Record].
UEFA said the priority right now is to find ways of completing domestic competitions and have stressed that they have issued no orders to national bodies to declare current standings final should the leagues be unable to restart [Mirror], suggesting that in any such scenario, the call will be in the hands of the Scottish authorities.
Ice hockey has a much smaller profile to football in the UK, but perhaps down the line, the SPFL and SFA can look to the Elite League and apply the same logic to a similar scenario.
