The Ice Hokey EBEL league from today literally stopped and cancelled the season !
The multinational hockey EBEL league has taken a radical step. Due to the spreading coronavirus, the club representatives and the league leadership decided to end the season 2019/20.
"10th March is a sad day for clubs, players, officials and especially for all EBEL hockey fans. We have been working intensively for months and everything has been going to the climax of the season, which is not to come.
We are in an exceptional situation that affects many areas of our lives. Although this decision hurts, we consider it our duty to contribute to bringing everything back to normal as soon as possible.
The leadership of the competition and the clubs decided to cancel the league. Continuing and playing matches in front of empty stands was out of the question, because our sport lives out of emotion and sensational atmosphere in the arenas, ”said the competition director Christian Feichtinger.
There were already the playoffs playing in the league, they even managed to play the first three matches of the quarterfinals series !
In addition to the Austrian teams, in the EBEL also plays one Italian, Czech and Hungarian club. "Especially In Italy, the situation is very serious and the whole country is in quarantine. It would not be possible for HC Bolzano to continue in the playoffs."
So This season will have no EBEL champion.
The quota for the Champions Hockey League was then secured by Red Bull Salzburg as the winner of the regular season and HC Bolzano as the winner of the second round. They will be accompanied by Vienna Capitals, which took third place after the 2nd round.