Hockeyettan is the third tier of
ice hockey in Sweden
Ice hockey in Sweden has a history going back to at least 1912 and is one of the country's most popular sports. The sport was first organized in the country by the Swedish Football Association (SvFF), which was a member of the IIHF in 1912. The i ...
. As of the
2015–16 season, the league consists of 46 teams divided geographically into four groups. Hockeyettan operates a system of
promotion and relegation
In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...
with
HockeyAllsvenskan
HockeyAllsvenskan (previously Allsvenskan and SuperAllsvenskan) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league, and the second-highest league in the Sweden, Swedish ice hockey system (after the Swedish Hockey League, SHL). Since the 2009–10 ...
and
Division 2.
From 1944 to 1975, Division I was the highest league in the Swedish ice hockey system, but with the creation of
Elitserien
Elitserien (literally, "the Elite League") is the name of several Swedish nationwide sport leagues. In many sports, Elitserien is the highest league, with the second highest named Allsvenskan.
Elitserien leagues at present:
* Elitserien (badmint ...
(now the SHL) in 1975, it became the second tier. Division I was further relegated to third-tier status in 1999 as
HockeyAllsvenskan
HockeyAllsvenskan (previously Allsvenskan and SuperAllsvenskan) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league, and the second-highest league in the Sweden, Swedish ice hockey system (after the Swedish Hockey League, SHL). Since the 2009–10 ...
was spun off into a standalone league, but was frequently written as "Division 1" on the Internet, as it was pronounced "Division One". The league was renamed Hockeyettan for the
2014–15 season.
Hockeyettan is the lowest tier to be organized by the
Swedish Ice Hockey Association
The Swedish Ice Hockey Association ( sv, Svenska Ishockeyförbundet (SIF)) in Swedish, is an association of Swedish ice hockey clubs. It was established in Stockholm on 17 November 1922 by representatives from seven clubs. Before then, organized ...
; all men's tiers below Hockeyettan are organized regionally.
Format
As of the 2015–16 season, the league consists of 48 teams divided into four groups of 12 geographically. The clubs meet each other twice, home and away, after which the top four teams from each group form two new groups of eight. Each of these Allettan groups then plays an additional home-and-away series. Meanwhile, the remaining eight teams in each starting group play each other again in a continuation series.
Post-season
The winner of each Allettan group qualifies directly for the 2016 HockeyAllsvenskan qualifiers. Teams 2–5 in the Allettan groups, along with teams 1–2 from the continuation groups, play a playoff to fill the remaining two spots in the HockeyAllsvenskan qualifiers. Teams 7–8 from the continuation groups are forced to requalify for Hockeyettan against teams from Division 2.
Participating teams
History
Division 1 was founded in 1944, replacing
Svenska Serien
Svenska Serien (literally, "The Swedish Series", also Svenska Fotbollserien, "The Swedish Football Series") was the highest league in Swedish football, and was played 1910–1917, 1920–1921, and 1922–1924. It was then replaced by t ...
as the top flight of Swedish ice hockey. From its foundation until the
1954–55 season, the league consisted of twelve teams, with group winners facing off in a best-of-three final, and with two teams from the bottom of each group being relegated. From the
1955–56 season, the best-of-three series was replaced with a double round-robin final round with the top two teams from each group. The league was expanded to two groups of eight for the
1956–57 season. The league would continue to have two groups of eight under a variety of different post-season formats until the
1974–75 season. With
Elitserien
Elitserien (literally, "the Elite League") is the name of several Swedish nationwide sport leagues. In many sports, Elitserien is the highest league, with the second highest named Allsvenskan.
Elitserien leagues at present:
* Elitserien (badmint ...
, a new top flight of Swedish hockey to begin play the following year, this final Division 1 season was played in a single group of 16, with the top 10 teams going on to play in the new Elitserien, and the bottom six remaining in Division 1 in its new status as Sweden's second-tier league.
Division 1 was a much broader league as the second tier, consisting of 49 teams in its inaugural season, eventually being reduced to ca. 40, and then 32 during its final second-tier season in
1998–99. During this entire period, the league was divided into four geographical groups, and operated a system of promotion and relegation with Elitserien and Division 2. Starting in the
1982–83 season, the top teams from each group formed a new group in the spring called Allsvenskan. For the
1999–2000 season, Allsvenskan was spun off into a new second-tier league, resulting in Division 1 becoming the third tier of Swedish hockey.
Division 1's relegation to third-tier status resulted in a massive expansion in the number of teams. 78 teams participated in the
1999–2000 season, though this was reduced over the following seasons. Initially, the league was divided into four regions, all of which were further divided into two groups. By the
2004–05 season, Division 1 had been cut all the way down to 48 teams that were organized into four groups. The league expanded again to 54 teams the following season, and would be numbered in the fifties until 2014.
In 2014, the league was rebranded Hockeyettan, and trimmed down to 48 teams competing in the current format with four starting groups of twelve that are then reorganized into 6 groups of eight in the spring. For the
first season under this format, the
Hockey Association decided to have only 11 teams in Hockeyettan North, giving a total of 47 teams.
Notes
There has been an ice hockey league named Division 1 in Sweden since 1944 when it was the name of the top flight of Swedish hockey. In 1975 with the creation of
Elitserien
Elitserien (literally, "the Elite League") is the name of several Swedish nationwide sport leagues. In many sports, Elitserien is the highest league, with the second highest named Allsvenskan.
Elitserien leagues at present:
* Elitserien (badmint ...
(now the SHL), Division 1 became the second tier. In 1999 with the creation of an independent second-tier
Allsvenskan
Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...
, it became the third tier.
See also
*
List of ice hockey leagues in Sweden
*
Ice hockey in Sweden
Ice hockey in Sweden has a history going back to at least 1912 and is one of the country's most popular sports. The sport was first organized in the country by the Swedish Football Association (SvFF), which was a member of the IIHF in 1912. The i ...
References
External links
Hockeyettan - Official website for Hockeyettan
{{Ice hockey in Sweden
Swe SWE may refer to:
* Sensor Web Enablement, an Open Geospatial Consortium framework for defining a Sensor Web
* Shallow water equations, a set of equations that describe flow below a pressure surface
* Snow water equivalent
* Society of Women Engine ...
Sports leagues established in 1944
1944 establishments in Sweden
Professional ice hockey leagues in Sweden