Nové švédske pravidlá súťaže ovplyvnia juniorský hokej

In 2022, Sportbladet revealed the million roll with foreign ice hockey youth. 

Now the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation bans the broad imports.

– There will be more uneven leagues, 20-0 results and teams in the country will be forced to shut down, says Flemingsberg’s sports director Fredrik Strandfeldt about the arrangements.

In the Swedish regional J20 series (for players up to 20 years old), last season almost every tenth player had a nationality other than Swedish. In J18 the same figure was just under 8 percent and in U16 just over 3 percent. All according to the site Elite prospects statistics.

Now the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation is pulling the handbrake.

In order to get a sports visa and play ice hockey in Sweden, players of legal age from the 2024/25 season will now have to participate in the national series.

At the same time, players under the age of 18 who cannot prove that they are at the highest national level are completely prohibited from switching to Swedish clubs.

– Today we have over 800 foreign children in Swedish hockey, which we do not think is good for either those who have left their homeland or for Swedish ice hockey in the long term, said competition manager Magnus Mårtensson when the new competition regulations were presented on the federation’s website.

It is a long-awaited decision in many camps of Swedish hockey, and already in connection with the fact that Sportbladet revealed the million roll with foreign import players in Swedish junior hockey two years ago promising the Swedish Ice Hockey federation’s move.

But it is also a change that creates concern for Swedish junior hockey.

It has been two years since we met Fredrik Strandfeldt under the stands in the ice rink in Nyköping, as part of Sportbladet’s attention-grabbing report. Then he had just seen his J18 team from Flemingsberg lose against Nyköping in a match that contained a total of 30 foreign players of varying ages.

In the now just ended season, 2023/24, Flemingsberg had ten import players under the age of 18 in their junior team and another two in the U16.

But Strandfeldt does not agree that the club’s activities are a threat to either the young people or Swedish ice hockey. He describes them rather as a pawn in a battle between the giants and the small clubs in Swedish hockey. Between those who have a national high school education (a total of 27 clubs, of which Djurgården, AIK and Flemingsberg’s local rival Huddinge in the Stockholm area). And those who are without.

„75 boys disappeared in one single age-group” 

Strandfeldt emphasizes that he does not want to be perceived as bitter. The fact that he speaks for the small clubs is also his own choice. 

– I declined an offer to become a coach in an NIU club as recently as a few weeks ago. I think it’s more fun to be in a small club. „No one likes us, but we don’t care“, that mentality suits me.

The NIU clubs dominate in Swedish junior hockey. Because it’s to those associations that the most promising players apply to get the best opportunity to combine their ice hockey with a school education.

– In this team, all players born in 2006 are already ready for Färjestad, AIK, Leksand, Rögle, Växjö… They are all gone until next season. In total, we send 15 players from every age-group to the elite hockey high schools, said Fredrik Strandfeldt when we met in Nyköping 2022.

Now he once again describes the conditions for the associations that are without that type of school.

– 75 boys from Stockholm went out in the country to various NIU schools in the 08 age-group alone. If you were also to assume that the 75 players were pretty good, then you add that Huddinge, Djurgården and AIK choose ten each, you are now up to over 100 players in the 08 age-group alone. After all that, we’ll be selecting players from number 100 in the quality chart. 

Strandfeldt describes that Flemingsbergs primary goal is not to bring in foreign juniors. That it’s difficult to solve everything socially and that both cultural and linguistic barriers constantly make it difficult.

– But we have no choice. We cannot find Swedish players who are prepared to sacrifice what is required to play in these J18 series. To train two sessions a day, six days a week. We do look for them, but it is difficult.

Strandfeldt sighs.

– It is extremely tough for U16 players to go up and play junior hockey. You can’t just laugh it off and think that the 08s who played in the b-series of the Stockholm Cup will solve it. It will be 100-0. No doubt.

Fredrik Strandfeldt clearly speaks for himself; he wants the best for Flemingsberg. But if his predictions come true, it will inevitably affect the whole of Swedish ice hockey.

Because the sports director is convinced that the quality of the Swedish junior series will erode. Simply because there are not enough players left when the big clubs have handpicked their squads.

– I bring this up at every meeting of the Stockholm ice hockey federation and I do it because it is important for Swedish hockey. We are destroying our junior hockey ourselves right now, and it is mainly the big clubs who are doing it.

He describes how the best players are gathered in a few junior teams, crushing the competition. At the same time, the clubs also constantly move up younger players, who have not yet reached the age, trying to stimulate their individual development.

Something Strandfeldt also thinks is lowering the quality of the game.

– I was at a reading at the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation the other day where they explained how difficult it is to see who has talent when they are 15-16 years old. But in Swedish hockey we still push these players up all the time. It will water down the series even more, and there will be worse games for those who are left. My feeling now is also that it is becoming more and more common for Swedish players to go to the USA instead.

The Swedish Ice Hockey Federation does not see an increase in Swedish junior players in the American leagues, but says they are following the development. In the United States, several ongoing legal disputes are also opening up the possibility for schools to reimburse their athletes financially at the college level.

Something that could have become another tool for American schools to attract Swedish talents across the Atlantic.

– The NCCA (the American college and university leagues) is already a good level, you can go directly to the NHL from there. My feeling is also that more and more Swedes have already stopped caring about the Swedish way. They are not keen to go to Östersund for 2.5 minutes of ice time and miss four days of training, says Strandfeldt.

Shocking increase in the fee

Flemingsberg’s sports manager also believes that the federation handled the new rule changes nonchalantly. That the information broke out in a way that had never been allowed to happen if the change affects the big giants to the same extent.

– This came out of the blue for us. The information came out in the middle of May and it was not sent out, it just appeared suddenly on the federation’s website. You could imagine what trouble it would have been if they instead changed the intake to NIU for the 08s in the middle of May, because they have been ready for 1.5 years already. But we also had our squad ready and now we have to start all over again.

Strandfeldt says that half of Flemingsberg’s J18 squad would’ve consisted of foreign players next year. Now, the first stage, the club must investigate how many of them can conceivably fulfill the federation’s new requirements for national team status.

– I also think that it is quite arbitrary. I know how corrupt the system is in some of these countries, so those with money and connections will have no problem getting those certificates.

How many of your intended players do you think meet the requirements and are still current for you?

– I would say about half. But that is before the financial requirements.

Because at the same time as the opportunities to bring in foreign underage players are decreasing, the fees for this are also increasing dramatically. From SEK 2,500 for a player under the age of 18 to SEK 12,500 for a boy or girl who is 13 or older.

– That increase also happened completely arbitrarily and without warning. There should at least be a debate before this sort of thing changes. We still haven’t found out why they do it.

Fredrik Strandfeldt emphasizes several times that he can sympathize with several potential reasons for the rule changes. What he calls for above all is a debate where these arguments can be weighed against others.

So we test.

Is it reasonable that your assessed current sporting competence determines whether you, as an underage player, have the right to receive a hockey education in Sweden?

– I do not think so. We have been quite okay in the elite now, we beat Södertälje in both matches, played 1-1 against Almtuna and came close to beating AIK. But this means we’ll have a worse team next year, we will get beaten more and it will be a more uneven league. But we still don’t have the worst of it.

Strandfeldt points to rural clubs that have stocked up on foreign players so that their own talents can have a team left to play in.

– They will be forced to shut down their teams and then the Swedish players will have to travel tens of miles to play.

But is it reasonable to stock up on foreign underage players to fill out teams and get more even series?

– I understand the argument, but I think it’s pretty good. Swedish hockey has a slogan that we should have a world-class education and then I think we should also have the best junior leagues.

Is it reasonable to move abroad as a child to play ice hockey?

– That can of course be discussed and therefore I think it would be good if the debate came up. What I can think is damn unfair is that five players born in 2008 can travel from Stockholm to Björklöven in Umeå, one to Modo in Örnsköldsvik and three to Vännäs, but a Dane cannot travel 20 minutes across the bridge from Copenhagen to Malmö.

– Every year we move Swedish players a hundred miles without blinking an eye and without requiring a good man who can take care of them. And not just to big clubs, but to all dens that call themselves a hockey gymnasium. But we never have that debate.

Strandfeldt sighs.

– I don’t know if it is that much worse to move from Riga to Stockholm under orderly circumstances in order to also learn a new language, a new culture and gain a network of contacts in other countries. Is it worse than a 15-year-old moving from Stockholm to Umeå now?

What do you think will be the difference in the series next year?

– It will be more uneven. The NIU clubs will get better and the small clubs that try to compete will get worse. No one will be happier than me if we get more Swedish J18 players with us, but we have to have a group that wants to, otherwise nothing will happen. Now the federation will get 20-0 results.

What do you want to happen now?

– My proposal is that perhaps all SHL clubs should not have a hockey gymnasium. Today, all the top players from the TV puck end up in Djurgården. The 09 intake they are doing now (15 year olds) is absolutely crazy, I don’t understand how everyone will fit in their U16 team but some of them will have to play in their fourth line.

– If you instead spread those players between different teams, you would have had more even matches, more competition, it would not have been predetermined which teams would make it to the U16–SM and the players would have gotten used to better matches with greater role orientation. But it would’ve cracked all the NHL millions.

Strandfeldt points to how the compensation when a Swedish player later signs for an NHL club is shared between the clubs where the player in question has been for the previous four seasons. If it is the same club all four years, that association receives the entire amount (a total of around SEK 4 million, of which 5-10 percent, however, goes to the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation).

– So just as football has started to look at strategic solutions around a high squad value, the hockey associations have adopted that the more good players they can have under their flag early on, the more opportunities they have to bring in NHL money.

“The key is that Swedish players get their share”

The Swedish Ice Hockey Federation’s response to the criticism

Is it worse to bring in a Danish 15-year-old from the other side of the bridge than to move a Swedish child 100 miles? 

Now the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation is responding to the criticism surrounding the rule change for foreign youth.

„Today we have world-class training in our associations and see it as a key factor that our Swedish players get to take part in it,“ writes competition manager Magnus Mårtensson.

Imports of foreign players to Swedish youth and junior hockey have been a hot topic of discussion for several years. Now the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation has pulled the handbrake and stopped all players who are not part of the national team from the Swedish leagues.

A decision which in turn is now also receiving criticism.

Flemingsberg’s sports director Fredrik Strandfeldt, who next season hoped to have half of his J18 team consist of foreign players, warns, among other things, that the competition will erode and the environment of the competition will deteriorate.

Via e-mail, the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation’s competition manager Magnus Mårtensson and development manager Anders Wahlström address the concerns.

„An increase on the youth side“

Mårtensson believes that the reason for the change is that the association „today has world-class training in our associations and sees it as a key factor that our Swedish players get to take part in that training in order to reach the goal of becoming the best in the world.“

He also describes how the number of foreign players on both the women’s and men’s side has increased more and more.

„The biggest increase has taken place in our regional series and we are now seeing an increase on the youth side as well. We have therefore chosen to regulate the intake of foreign players under the age of 18 where stricter requirements are set to ensure a good environment for the children.“

Mårtensson also rejects Flemingsberg’s outrage over the lack of information during the process and believes that the union followed its policy „to communicate when decisions have been made and to have ongoing dialogue with the parties involved during the ongoing process in a democratic spirit, so everyone gets their say“.

“We require a certificate”

Flemingsberg’s Fredrik Strandfeldt, also warns that the change (where, according to the new rules, foreign players must be able to prove that they are „at the highest level/currently active in the national team in their home country“ before they are welcomed to Sweden) is set up for corruption.

„We require a certificate from the player which we verify with the relevant country’s ice hockey federation“, writes Magnus Mårtensson.

How is “highest level” defined?

„It is defined by each country’s ice hockey federation in dialogue with us.“

Who decides who is “national team relevant”?

„Several country’s ice hockey federations.“

How do you ensure that this will go smoothly (that places and certificates are issued fairly)?

„We check with the ice hockey federation of the departing country.“

However, the federation agrees with Strandfeldt that the long moves for Swedish players within the country is also a problem. But a problem they find diminishing.

„Basically, we know that it is preferable for a player of this age to have a maximum of one hour to the parental home. Proximity to parental support is important. Over time, we have seen that the number of long-term moves within Sweden has decreased,“ writes development manager Anders Wahlström.

Are there enough motivated Swedish J18 players to fill the void that now arises?

„Yes, we see a very good growth of well-educated players in Swedish hockey“, writes Wahlström.

How do you feel about the situation with Swedes who choose to play college hockey in North America?

„Looking at the last few seasons, the situation is more or less unchanged in terms of the number of players who leave. Here we follow the development closely with ongoing follow-up,“ writes Magnus Mårtensson.