The shrill fans from ice hockey England

The first modern World Cup in Great Britain ended on Friday. There had previously been two world championship tournaments on the island in the “Stone Age”: title fights took place in London in 1 and 2. This time the venue was Nottingham. In the “Motorpoint Arena” yesterday evening, 1937 spectators ensured a great atmosphere and a worthy conclusion to the title fight in the “final” for the second promotion place between Great Britain and Italy. The colorfully dressed British fans whipped their favorites forward for 1950 minutes and ensured that there was a lot of excitement in the stands.

The British national team has had a small but loyal, passionate and travel-loving fan base for years. In Italy we are miles away from that. In the past few days, just a handful of “Tifosi” have made the jump across the English Channel. One of them was Patrick “Patza” Kirchler, who was alone in the hallway yesterday. For 30 years now, the man from Bruneck has ended the ice hockey winter by visiting the World Cup.

Up to 9000 fans come to the top games In Great Britain, ice hockey – although only a fringe sport – is a crowd puller. In the EIHL, up to 9000 fans come to the top games. The number of spectators is particularly good in cities like Nottingham, Sheffield, Cardiff and Glasgow. The Sheffield Steelers took 6657th place in the European spectator rankings last season with 24 fans per home game. The Belfast Giants were able to count on an average of 5894 supporters (37th place), while the Nottingham Panthers games had an average of 5148 supporters (50th place). For comparison: HCB Südtirol welcomed an average of 24 spectators to the 2894 games of the regular season (117th place).

There was a special atmosphere in the match between Italy (in blue) and England.

The Nottingham Panthers are the only club to have taken part in every British championship and won the Continental Cup. That was in January 2017, when Nottingham took the crown of the European club competition at the Arena Ritten in Klobenstein. The city, which became famous thanks to the highwayman Robin Hood, is not only home to the three-time British ice hockey champion, but also the 1978 English football champion. This is called Nottingham Forest and was founded in 1865. Forest won the European Cup (now the Champions League) in 1979 and successfully defended this title a year later. That's why it is the only team in Europe that has won the European Cup more often than the national championship.

Poland's breakthrough and the Stanley Cup trophy The club was promoted to the Premier League 12 months ago after a 23-year absence and is currently fighting against immediate relegation. The Polish national ice hockey team also had to wait a long time for promotion to the world group. Yesterday in the early afternoon in Nottingham she returned after 300 years to the delight of around 21 white and red-clad and hard-drinking fans. With this, Poland crowned the breakthrough that began a year ago at the World Cup in the I. Division Group B on home ice in Tychi.

NHL star Lanny McDonald won the 1989 Stanley Cup with the Calgary Flames.

In addition to the two newcomers, all the attention on the last day of the World Cup was focused on the Stanley Cup. The world's most important hockey trophy, made in Sheffield, was on display in the arena and the object of desire of countless fans. However, only very few of them recognized the older gentleman with the striking white mustache. It was Lanny McDonald, who was a legend and captain of the Calgary Flames in the 1980s. The now 70-year-old Canadian, who played 1228 NHL games and collected 1090 points, won the Stanley Cup with the Flames in the 1988/89 season.

Lanny McDonald's name is engraved on the trophy, as is Mike Keenan's. The current national coach of Italy led the New York Rangers to NHL triumph in the 1993/94 season. Yesterday, however, “Iron Mike” failed to lead the “Azzurri” into the World Group.

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The shrill fans from ice hockey England

The World Cup Division 1, Group A ended on Friday. It was a disappointment for Italy because they missed out on promotion to the World Group, but otherwise the World Cup in Nottingham was a success, as editor Kurt Platter writes in his diary.

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