Austria: Austrian hockey federation on the verge of a split

[Theokritos]

Next week the Austrian Hockey Federation is going to elect a new executive committee. The incumbent president is running for another term, but is facing opposition by allegedly five of the nine regional sub-federations, including Vienna and Carinthia. The opposing candidates want the post of the Sports Manager to be separated from the post of the National Team Coach. So far Roger Bader holds both offices at once. They also want to get more children to play hockey, more lobbying work by the federation to secure better funding, and financial relief for the sports clubs that are affected by the Covid crisis.
As for the EBEL/BAHEL, the opposition group wants to review the conditions of the agreement between the league and the Austrian Hockey Federation once the contract runs out in July 2021. They say that too few of the players developed by the Austrian clubs manage to establish themselves in the league.

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[Theokritos]

Next week the Austrian Hockey Federation is going to elect a new executive committee. The incumbent president is running for another term, but is facing opposition by allegedly five of the nine eight regional sub-federations, including Vienna and Carinthia. The opposing candidates want the post of the Sports Manager to be separated from the post of the National Team Coach. So far Roger Bader holds both offices at once. They also want to get more children to play hockey, more lobbying work by the federation to secure better funding, and financial relief for the sports clubs that are affected by the Covid crisis.
As for the EBEL/BAHEL, the opposition group wants to review the conditions of the agreement between the league and the Austrian Hockey Federation once the contract runs out in July 2021. They say that too few of the players developed by the Austrian clubs manage to establish themselves in the league.

The election today ended with a victory of the opposition. Their candidate Klaus Hartmann was voted new president of the Austrian hockey federation. The incumbent president Gernot Mittendorfer was defeated. He received 121 votes, Hartmann (backed by the regional federations of Carinthia, Vienna, Lower Austria, Salzburg and Vorarlberg) got 133. However, the losing party is allegedly contesting the election.

 

[Theokritos]

The election today ended with a victory of the opposition. Their candidate Klaus Hartmann was voted new president of the Austrian hockey federation. The incumbent president Gernot Mittendorfer was defeated. He received 121 votes, Hartmann (backed by the regional federations of Carinthia, Vienna, Lower Austria, Salzburg and Vorarlberg) got 133. However, the losing party is allegedly contesting the election.

Update: The election is indeed being challenged and the arbitration body is expected to start working in about two weeks. But it could take six or seven months to reach a conclusion. In the meantime the hockey federation's Chief Executive Officer Christian Hartl has resigned. He had refused to grant the newly elected presidium access to documents, arguing that it could be illegal to hand them over if the presidium wasn't elected in conformity with the law.

 

[Theokritos]

The Austrian hockey federation is on the verge of splitting into two rival federations now. The federation's arbitration body has rejected the contest against the election back in June, but the protesting parties refuse to acknowledge the arbitration body as it was appointed by the executive committee whose election is being contested. Members of the old executive committee (the one that lost the election) will form their own arbitration body and they can be expected to reach the opposite verdict. The protesting party includes the professional clubs (ICE Hockey League and Alps Hockey League). The new presidium on its part has the backing of many amateur clubs, but has apparently lost some ground since the election in June.