Zug, Switzerland, 13 September 2011 – Infront Sports & Media decided today that the efforts to launch a new IIHF-sanctioned European ice hockey club tournament, the European Hockey Masters, will be postponed to the 2012/13 season as of some of the six seeded clubs from the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland did not submit the required participation agreements.

Bruno Marty, Infront’s Executive Director Winter Sports, stated: “As there were deadlines approaching in terms of event organization and commercial contracts, we could not afford to wait any longer without putting the successful staging of a 2011/12 event at risk. Nevertheless we will use the experience and relationships developed with the clubs to continue and intensify the discussions to prepare for a launch for the 2012/13 season. We strongly believe that the European Hockey Masters concept we jointly developed with our Russian partner Telesport has all the ingredients to become a success with fans and commercial partners across the continent. The feedback received was generally very positive.”