The IIHF European Cup, also known as the Europa Cup, was a European

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 h ...

club competition for champions of national leagues which was contested between 1965 and 1997, governed by the

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 ...

(IIHF).

History

The competition was originated by

Günther Sabetzki Günther Sabetzki (4 June 1915 in Düsseldorf, German Empire – 21 June 2000) was an executive for several ice hockey leagues and organizations. Sabetzki was one of the founding members of the German Ice Hockey Federation in 1963. He would b ...

, based on the European Cup of

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

(now

UEFA Champions League 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 competi ...

). The tournament encountered problems. Countries had different levels of development in ice hockey, so some teams were weaker than others, resulting in a number of uncompetitive, one-sided games. Organisational difficulties were also posed by the refusal of some

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

teams to play away games in certain places. This resulted in no final being held some years, and more than one final being held in others. The competition was discontinued after 1997. In its place, 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 ...

and the Continental Cup, and later the

IIHF European Champions Cup The IIHF European Champions Cup (ECC) was an annual event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), which took place during a long weekend in early January. The winner was considered the official club champion of Europe by t ...

, were started.

Format

Teams were seeded and drawn into groups of four teams, with the winners of each group progressing to the next round, where they were drawn into groups again. Each round was played over a long weekend (Friday to Sunday) in a single venue, until one final group was left, the winner of which would be considered the champion. After the European Cup was discontinued, the Continental Cup would adopt this format.

Winners

;Knockout, 1965/66–1977/78 ;Group, 1978/79–1989/90 ;Knockout, 1990–1996 Source:

By nation

References

External links