League Regulations
The DEL is an independently run league, fully owned and operated by its 14 member teams. Each team must fulfill the DEL's basic requirements to remain in the league:
- A written application for membership;
- "On ice qualification" for new teams (championship in the 2nd Bundesliga);
- A stadium that meets DEL standards;
- Financial qualification;
- Formation of an ordinary company (the DEL consists of franchises);
- Development program for young players; and
- Purchase of a license (currently, the licensing fee is set at € 800,000.00)
The DEL can only admit one 2nd Bundesliga team per season to the league, unless the league strength falls below fourteen, in which case two clubs can be admitted. Since the 2006–07 season, no DEL team can be automatically relegated, a team can only lose its league status through non-compliance with the leagues regulations (see above).
From the 2008–09 season on, each DEL club will only be allowed to have ten non-EEC players under contract.
The ESBG guarantees to admit any DEL team wishing to step down to the lower 2nd Bundesliga or Oberliga. The team, however, has to purchase a license (licensing fees for the 2nd Bundesliga are currently set at € 100,000.00).
To regulate the relationship between the DEL, the DEB and the ESBG (2nd Bundesliga), a so called Kooperationsvertrag exists. This cooperation contract was signed in December 2005., and is valid until 2011. This contract ended years of dispute between the three organizations over competencies and financial issues.
In November 2007, the DEL announced another change in policy. The league expanded to allow 16 teams beginning in the 2008–09 season, resulting in direct promotion for the 2nd Bundesliga league champions, should they fulfill all requirements and be interested in joining the DEL. Should this not be the case, or a current DEL team resigns from the league, a selection process would determine the club, or clubs, who would be eligible to join in order required to archive 16 teams. (Note: Füchse Duisburg resigned before the 2009-2010 season and was not replaced until the following season.)
Additionally, a new format for the game schedule will limit the number of regular season games to 52 for each team. This is achieved by each team playing four games against eleven others and two games against the remaining four. To determine which teams play which, the final standings of the previous season are used.
The DEL would also reintroduce promotion once more. The first- and second-lowest ranked teams will play a best-of-seven series to determine which team faces the 2nd Bundesliga champion for a place in the league. There is, however, an ongoing dispute about those games as second division teams may only have five foreign players on contract, and therefore face a handicap in comparison to the DEL teams with twelve import players each. For now, the ESBG has declared that no team from the 2nd Bundesliga would take part in these matches and therefore no promotion/relegation with the DEL will take place.
Read more about this topic: Deutsche Eishockey Liga
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