The Champions Hockey League and the IIHF Continental Cup are creating a link between the two competitions. As of 2015, the Continental Cup winner will earn a wildcard for the Champions Hockey League 2015/2016 season.

by Martin Merk

ZURICH/BUDAPEST – Can you imagine Spanish champion CG Puigcerda playing Finnish champion Kärpät Oulu? The Spaniards may not be the favourites to get that far but, at least theoretically, this could become reality as the Continental Cup will allow champions from nations outside of the Champions Hockey League’s six founding national leagues to qualify for Europe’s premiere club competition. The winner of the 2015 IIHF Continental Cup will earn a wildcard for the Champions Hockey League in the 2015/2016 season.

This was announced at the Continental Cup’s Annual Meeting in Budapest, Hungary on Saturday.

“We welcome this cooperation with the Continental Cup, as it truly strengthens the club competition structure in Europe,” said Martin Baumann, CEO of the Champions Hockey League. “This goes very well along the CHL’s tagline 'Where Europe Comes to Play'. From the very outset, our focus has been to develop and expose international club hockey throughout Europe, also to countries beyond our six founding leagues.”

To make the cooperation between the two competitions a seamless one, the Continental Cup structure has gone through some changes. Teams from the CHL’s six founding national leagues (Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland) will not participate in the Continental Cup. Thus, teams from these countries won’t be able to qualify for the Champions Hockey League through the Continental Cup.

Also, second-tier teams from Europe’s top nations will not be invited to participate in the Continental Cup anymore, which will make the Continental Cup a clear “challenger competition” with top teams from other European countries.

“The revised and simplified Continental Cup structure will be great for fans and for the entire European club hockey community, as it will give a clear indication about the progress of leagues and clubs which currently are ranked just below the CHL founding leagues,” said Baumann. “It will also serve as a great incentive for clubs from the challenge leagues to reach the next level in their development.”

Although the cooperation between the Champions Hockey League and the Continental Cup was not officially formalised until now, the CHL Board already extended an invitation to the 2014 Continental Cup winner, Norway's Stavanger Oilers, as one of six wildcard clubs for the inaugural 2014/2015 CHL season.

An exception for the upcoming, transitional Continental Cup season will be granted to Fischtown Pinguins Bremerhaven from the German second-tier league DEL2. The team will be allowed to participate this year’s Continental Cup but will not be eligible to qualify for the CHL through the Continental Cup.

Another change to the Continental Cup format is that no team will be pre-qualified for the CC Super Final, which will be played 9-11 January 2015. In the past, the host and the defending champion were pre-qualified. Since the final tournament will ultimately determine the winner and the team to qualify for the Champions Hockey League season of the following year, all four finalists have to earn their participation through the preliminary rounds.

At the Continental Cup’s Annual Meeting in Budapest on Saturday, the present teams from the 17 participating countries approved the structure and the hosts of the five tournaments in the first three stages.

Bulgarian champion CSKA Sofia will host the first round, to be played 26-28 September. The winner will advance to Group B, which will take place in Bremerhaven, Germany, 17-19 October. The other second-round tournament will be hosted on the same days by Brasov, Romania.

The semi-final tournaments will be staged in Ritten, Italy, and Angers, France, 21-23 November. The best two teams from each of these groups will play in the Super Final that will be hosted by one of the four finalists.

Go to IIHF.com for the 2014/2015 Continental Cup structure, dates and list of participants.