Ice hockey, Milan ready for the big leap: the Federation's announcement
On the sidelines of the presentation of the project to build the Milan Ice Fiera Arena, a 4,000-seat facility intended to host ice sports in the Fieramilano district, FISG President Andrea Gios confirmed negotiations to bring top-level ice hockey back to the Lombard capital. The stated goal is to be part of the ICE Hockey League, the Austrian league that has now become supranational thanks to the presence of other Italian clubs (Val Pusteria and Bolzano), as well as Hungarians and Slovenians.
“Milan in the past has been one of the capitals of Italian field hockey and has been able to maintain a relevant role in figure skating even in recent times: we want to bring back a level of excellence to the city,” Gios stressed. For field hockey, negotiations and formal steps are proceeding in order to offer Milan a high-level team: it will be called Hockey Club Milano and it will not only take care of the high level with a senior lineup but will also take care of the growth of the youth sector, the women’s sector and para ice hockey.”
“The birth and formation of this club is proceeding at its best: I can confirm the commitments by a group of Italian entrepreneurs among whom there is Christof Leitner in addition to the North Americans of House of Doge. All the steps for admission to the ICE Hockey League are proceeding in a serious manner, now we await the vote by the league for admission to the next season but we are optimistic because there is great interest in having a city like Milan in a tournament that already includes European capitals such as Vienna, Ljubljana and Budapest.”
Founded in 1965, the Österreichische Eishockey-Liga (now the ICE Hockey League) has included since 2006, the year of the substantial reform of the tournament, the presence of teams from across the border. One of these, Hockey Club Bolzano, has also won the title twice, in 2014 and 2018. For Milan, the entry of the tournament would mark the return of top-level field hockey after the epic of the 1990s (marked by the rivalry between Devils and Saima), the early-millennium championships of HC Milano Saima, and the subsequent years of anonymity.
