Extra League Hockey Czech
Trinidad Baltzell
The Czech Ice Hockey Association (CIHA) is a civil society organization, a national governing body of ice hockey in the Czech Republic and one of the founding member associations of the International Ice Hockey Federation, founded in 1908.
The CIHA centrally organizes the following competitions: I. & II. liga (second and third highest senior leagues), U20 Extraliga and liga, U18 Extraliga and liga and the Women's League. Through its regional associations, The CIHA is also the organizer of the U16 Extraliga and liga and other senior, junior, midget and youth competitions. The CIHA sends the Czech national team (including junior, veterans', women's and sledge teams) for international games.
The highest body of the CIHA is so called conference, which takes part every second year. Once in four years, the conference is electoral. Between two conferences, the CIHA is being ruled by the executive committee of 11 members with a president of the CIHA. There are 18 other comissions within the CIHA (arbitrage, goalies, disciplinary, disciplinary comission for the extraliga, economical and marketing, youth, Endowment fund of Ivan Hlinka, referees, para ice hockey, womens ice hockey, medical, national teams, conciliation, sport/technical, methodical, veterans, The Czech Hockey Hall of Fame proposal, players). Supervisory board is the permament member of these comissions.
Clubs as well as individuals can be members of the CIHA. Hockey clubs are associated within 14 regions of the Czech Republic into the 14 regional associations.There are also district executive comittees. CIHA associates around 110 000 registered players, 85 000 of them are men. There are around 2 600 registered women. There are ca. 150 covered rinks and arenas.
Whether you're a current player wanting to know earning potential across hockey leagues in Europe OR you're just curious to know "how much do hockey players make in Europe?", this post will cover hockey league salaries across a ton of leagues for you.
Since it would be impossible to give you an exact number per each individual club, we will instead provide a solid salary range per a variety of leagues based on our knowledge through our network and the highs/lows players have provided us.
For a number of the mid-level leagues above, players can be paid a bit less (unless there is a set league minimum- varies per country). Some players are further compensated beyond import salary in alternative ways such as paid masters programs, added team equipment budgets, housing, free car/gas, and other expenses throughout the duration of the season. To gain more understanding on the various leagues and culture overseas all the way to the skill level and expectations, we covered these in-depth in European Hockey Leagues: The Definitive Guide.
As stated earlier in this post, hockey salary ranges in Europe differ from club to club and can change a bit year to year. This is due to a combination of sponsorship deals, promotion/delegation, and so on.
With that being said, it is important not to take each number too literally. This is an accurate range though. You also need to account for the fact that with import players, clubs have a number of additional costs (ITC, flights, transportation, housing) to keep in mind when bringing an import over.
The world of ice hockey and the world of banking have a lot in common. For example, passion and fervour are very important in both. And so as we look after your finances, coaches look after their players in teams. The result is the determination that drives hockey players to every match and that motivates us to professional care for clients.
We are the proud official partner of Czech para hockey. In 2023, we started to support the national para hockey team and the Czech para hockey league. Para hockey players keep showing us that obstacles are here to be overcome. In para hockey, we see the verve to overcome them every day while proudly representing the Czech Republic at the world championship in Canada and the 2026 Paralympics in Milan, Italy.
We are a Main Partner of the ice hockey extra league, which has recently celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the highest-level Czech competition. The extra league is one of the most popular ice hockey competitions. Almost two million fans visit the arenas to see matches over a single season.
We are a Main Partner of the University Ice Hockey League, which combines university education and elite sport. Inspired by the university competitions overseas, ULLH offers an opportunity for young hockey players to build a dual career: hone their hockey skills while training for a professional life following the end of their hockey career.
The decision was criticized by the clubs HC ZUBR Přerov, VALAŠSK HOKEJOV KLUB, and HC AZ Havřov 2010, which had previously competed in the DHL Extraleague Junior. The clubs argued that even if they won the right to participate in the DHL Extraleague Junior in accordance with the established conditions set before the beginning of the 2018/2019 season, they would not be allowed to participate in the Junior League of Academies in the 2019/2020 season due the absence of CIHA Academy status, a condition introduced by the CIHA for the new league.
Those above excluded clubs decided to initiate the arbitration proceedings. After being unsuccessful in arbitration, the clubs filed a lawsuit in the Czech civil court seeking the annulment of the decision of the CIHA to bar them from the competition.Footnote 1 In addition to initiating civil proceedings, the three excluded clubs also filed a complaint with the Czech National Competition Authority, arguing that the decision of the CIHA, which established the Junior League of Academies, constituted a prohibited decision by an association of competitors distorting competition between hockey clubs.Footnote 2
The litigation involving the CIHA and the excluded clubs was ultimately settled out of court. However, the questions related to the organization and management of sports competitions by governing bodies under EU law still persist. Therefore, this paper offers a reflection on how this litigation might have been resolved, had it not been concluded out of court, not least to shed light on how the looming threat of litigation has the potential to influence the decisions of governing bodies in sport.
In January 2019, CIHA organized a conference on the state of Czech ice hockey with more than 100 invited representatives (including owners, general and sports managers) of the clubs of the three highest ice hockey senior leagues in the Czech Republic, i.e. Tipsport Extraleague, Chance League and 2nd League. One of the main topics was the discussion about the level of youth hockey competitions, especially with regard to the long-term failures of Czech youth representations at international sports events. In this context, the need to modify the system of youth competitions, including the narrowing of the highest junior hockey league, was discussed. However, neither concrete proposals nor a timeframe when changes should be implemented were agreed.Footnote 5
On 14 February 2019, the CIHA decided to reduce the DHL Extraleague Junior from the 24 to 17 clubs from the beginning of 2019/2020 season. That highest junior league was to be closed. The CIHA ruled that participation in the DHL Extraleague Junior would be reserved for clubs with CIHA Academy status. A possible exception to this condition could be obtained by the club EC Redbull Salzburg if it met the conditions set by the CIHA.Footnote 6
The decision was highly critisized by HC ZUBR Přerov, VALAŠSK HOKEJOV KLUB, and HC AZ Havřov 2010 which had already been participating in the DHL Extraleague Junior. The clubs argued that even if they won the right to participate in the DHL Extraleague Junior in accordance with the established conditions set before the beginning of the 2018/2019 season, they would not be allowed to participate in this competition in the 2019/2020 season due the absence of CIHA Academy status, the condition newly required for the participation in the highest junior competition set up by CIHA. Therefore, the clubs initiated the meeting with the representatives of CIHA in order to find an amicable solution.Footnote 7
However, probably quite surprisingly for those three clubs involved, the CIHA Executive Committee determined on 21 March 2019 that the DHL Extraleague Junior will have eighteen members since the 2019/2020 season consisting of 17 clubs with the CIHA Academy status and the club HC Olomouc which received the exception from this condition due to its participation in the highest senior league. It was also decided that the DHL Extraleague Junior will be closed in the 2019/2020 season in order to allow the best young players play in the senior teams as the preparation for the 2020 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships,Footnote 8 which was hosted in the Czech Republic.
In addition, the CIHA Executive Committee decided in its decision from March 2019 to replace the two-stage model of junior hockey competitions (consisting of the DHL Extraleague Junior and the Regional Junior League) by a three-stage model (consisting of the new highest junior league for the clubs with the CIHA Academy status, the DHL Extraleague Junior, and the Regional Junior League) since the season 2019/2020. The new highest junior league should have consisted of 17 clubs with CIHA Academy status and the club HC Olomouc. The DHL Extraleague Junior (newly the second highest junior league) should have included 14 clubs, consisting of the clubs which had not held the CIHA Academy status and had already participated in the DHL Extraleague Junior, and the best clubs of the Regional Junior League according to the sports results from the previous season. In the Regional Junior League (newly the third highest junior league) should have played the remaining junior clubs. Moreover, it was established that all junior competitions would begin in the 2020/2021 season while the right to participate in the highest junior competition will not be conditioned by CIHA Academy status or any other condition.