Italian hockey wants to become Elite

The Italian clubs want a new concept of elite hockey and set up an ambitious five-years plan to turn domestic hockey into a core brand through new economic and marketing actions.

"We decided to prepare the ground for the future of the movement - says the Italian League (LIHG) President Tommaso Teofoli - and now we await the answers of the Federation on the proposals. Our hope is to establish by the end of June the structure of the next season"

These the main features of new plan:

A new name: Serie A changes name: from the next season the official name of Italian first league will be Eliteliga Serie A, 

Less imports: Every team can sign five import players in the next two seasons and just four from 2015-16 season. "Less imports doesn't mean a weaker show - said Teofoli - in last seasons the number of foreign players decreased, but I do not think the level has declined"

No more promotions/relegations: Following the format of many European Leagues, the Eliteliga Serie A will be locked and any possible new entrance will be analyzed very carefully in the eyes of financial requirement and stability. Currently all 10 Serie A teams in principle have the sports requirements to join the new league, but if the issue is the financial health, some can have problems: Aquile Pontebba ans SHC Fassa were plagued by economic problems during the last season and should be out from the new project for this very reason. The deadline to apply for next Eliteliga will be the end of June. At this date the framework should be clearer.

Financial Fair-Play: Overspend will no longer be allowed: if a team has debts, can't create more and if hasn't, can't fall into debt. The principle is very simple and if a team has debts with the Federation or a player/staff will be expelled from the League. A team of accountants from the Federation will examine every year teams' balance sheet.

New rules for farm-teams system: The farm-teams system will be regulated in order to have clear rules - today the procedure is very incomplete and fragmented - to switch players from Serie A to A2 and Serie C and to foster more ice-time for young players.

The project doesn't say a word about the future of Serie A2. Immediately after the end of season, clubs announced the idea to migrate in a body to Austrian-Slovenian Inter-National League and talks are underway despite Italian Federation still doesn't give green light to the project. Probably the absence of a "Serie A2 dossier" in the project is more then a clue about the purpose to have a trans-national second division

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