The Continental Cup is a second-level ice hockey tournament for European clubs (behind Champions Hockey League ), begun in 1997 after the discontinuing of the European Cup . It was intended for teams from countries without representatives in the European Hockey League , with participating teams chosen by the countries' respective ice hockey associations. Hans Dobida served as chairman of the Continental Cup until 2018.
6-583: 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. In the first year of competition, 13 Eastern European teams from twelve countries participated in
12-690: A number of uncompetitive, one-sided games. Organisational difficulties were also posed by the refusal of some Soviet Union 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 and the Continental Cup , and later the IIHF European Champions Cup , were started. Teams were seeded and drawn into groups of four teams, with
18-677: The Europa Cup , was a European ice hockey club competition for champions of national leagues which was contested between 1965 and 1997, governed by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). The competition was originated by Günther Sabetzki , based on the European Cup of association football (now UEFA Champions League ). The tournament encountered problems. Countries had different levels of development in ice hockey, so some teams were weaker than others, resulting in
24-940: The 2000–01 season, with the European Hockey League on hiatus, the Continental Cup became the de facto 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 ), as well as teams from Super Six leagues, which included HC Dynamo Moscow and HKm Zvolen . Note: Great Britain's medal total includes three teams from England , one from Northern Ireland , and one from Wales . IIHF European Cup The IIHF European Cup , also known as
30-610: 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
36-417: 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. The competition began in 1997–98 with 42 clubs from 26 countries, which expanded to 48 teams for
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