The Continental Cup is a second-level

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

tournament for European clubs (behind Champions Hockey League), begun in 1997 after the discontinuing of the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

. It was intended for teams from countries without representatives in the

European Hockey League The European Hockey League was a European ice hockey club competition which ran between the years 1996 and 2000. History It was established in 1996 by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and commercial partner CWL Telesport and first con ...

, with participating teams chosen by the countries' respective ice hockey associations.

Hans Dobida Hans Dobida (born 13 May 1929) is an Austrian former ice hockey and roller in-line hockey administrator. He was involved with ATSE Graz for almost 40 years, and served as president of the Austrian Ice Hockey Association from 1977 to 1996. He he ...

served as chairman of the Continental Cup until 2018.

Format

The competition began in 1997–98 with 42 clubs from 26 countries, which expanded to 48 teams for the next two years. The tournament was played in seeded rounds of qualifying groups. There were three rounds of qualifying groups, with winners of qualifying groups progressing to the next round. The three winners of the third round groups entered the semifinals, along with the host club. The first round was held in September, the second in October, the third in November and the finals in December. In the 2000–01 season, with the European Hockey League on hiatus, the Continental Cup became the

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

European club championship. The format remained the same, with 36 teams from 27 countries. With the beginning of the IIHF European Champions Cup from 2004 to 2005, participants included national champions of countries not in the Super Six (the top six European nations according to the

IIHF World Ranking The IIHF World Ranking is a ranking of the performance of the national ice hockey teams of member countries of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). It is based on a formula giving points for each team's placings at IIHF-sanctioned tour ...

), as well as teams from Super Six leagues, which included HC Dynamo Moscow and HKm Zvolen.

Winners

Medals (1997-2023)

IIHF Federation Cup

The Federation Cup was an official European ice hockey club competition created in 1995. It was the second European competition for club teams, intended for those teams who could not qualify for the European Cup, especially for those from Eastern European countries. It was the direct predecessor of the IIHF Continental Cup, which was played two seasons later.

Format

In the first year of competition, 13 Eastern European teams from twelve countries participated in the tournament. In a KO-system with three qualifying groups, which qualifies the four participants in the finals. The following year was played in the same mode. Due to the increased number of participants (some Western European clubs had registered for the competition), an additional qualifying round was introduced.

Federation Cup winners

References

External links

Continental Cup at Eurohockey.com
{{European sport club competitions International Ice Hockey Federation tournaments Ice hockey tournaments in Europe Multi-national professional sports leagues

Format

Winners

Medals (1997-2023)

IIHF Federation Cup

Format

Federation Cup winners

See also

References

External links