Ice hockey: Four-man system scrapped

THE Elite League are apparently scrapping their plans to bring in a four-man officials' system for the upcoming season.

Some of the less well-off teams apparently baulked at having to fork out an extra £100 per game which amounted to a league-wide sum of around £35,000 a year.

And with such a dearth of officials throughout British ice hockey, the decision to go with two refs and two linesman for every Elite League game meant it would have left the English Premier League having to use juniors controlling games.

The system was tried last weekend in the round of pre-season fixtures and though Panthers game at Manchester went smoothly, the games involving Newcastle and Coventry and Sheffield v Hull weren't without their problems..

It is not thought the system – encouraged by the international federation – will be abandoned outright but it is being shelved for the foreseeable future.