What is the British Ice Hockey Fans Association (BIHFA):

BIHFA is an organisation which launched on 11th June 2007 to represent its members in discussions between governing bodies and key stakeholders within British Ice Hockey.

So how did this organisation get started?:

Well let us simply explain. There are two strands to the story of where we are today – firstly, a group of hockey fans crusade to make a difference, and secondly the publicised case of two former players who felt that they were inadequately insured.

How it all began:

Back in January 2007, Ice Hockey fan of 25 years Dave Cunningham started a debate on several British ice hockey forums about what fans could do to help bring some unity to the sport. There was an overwhelmingly positive response to the debate from fellow fans. Inspired by this he made contact with some of the “movers and shakers” within the sport in order to discover the real issues and problems and ascertain where fans could make a positive contribution.

The Early Days of BIHFA:

Dave talked to a variety of stakeholders within the game from those directly involved with running the sport – administrators and owners etc, to those indirectly involved – journalists, players and fans. It was at this time that several like-minded volunteers got in touch to offer their support, and the idea of BIHFA was born.

A real coup came when a meeting with the then Chancellor, and Dave’s local MP at the time, Gordon Brown was arranged and took place in early February. Gordon Brown was aware of some of the issues facing the sport due to internal government briefings and his local knowledge, and agreed to pass on a presentation produced by the team to the Minister for Sport, Rt Hon Richard Caborn at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

The Position Paper:

It was at this time that we were contacted by Marc Twaite and Paul Berrington who had both suffered from career ending injuries and felt that they were not adequately insured for either their injuries or the subsequent loss of income. Having failed to reach agreement with the owners of the clubs involved, they had also brought the matter to the attention of their MPs who raised it with Richard Caborn at the DCMS.

Richard Caborn invited key stakeholders to a meeting in December 2006. He then instructed UK Sport to formulate a Position Paper in compliance with the recommended template governance model for sport, with particular reference to the insurance element and report its finding for review at follow up sessions with the stake holders.

Those in attendance gave an undertaking to fully participate in this process, and in a letter to the BIHFA Committee, Richard Caborn stated:

‘The sport signalled their agreement to cooperate with UK Sport to determine what issues currently need addressing and what further governance work in Ice Hockey may be necessary, either at structural level or at operational level’.

The initial findings were due back to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in February 2007, with the DCMS due to come to their initial conclusions in early March 07, after the UK Sport report had been received and considered. Invitations from the DCMS were again issued in April to the Ice Hockey parties to reconvene to confirm the findings and the points for review, and discuss the way forward.

It was felt that with the recommendations from UK Sport’s Position Paper, coupled with existing models in other sports which involve supporter associations, a formal body to represent the interests and views of the fans was needed, and BIHFA was born. A great deal of detailed thinking was put behind getting the basics right, and on June 11th 2007 the organisation formally launched and invited membership applications.

Post Launch:

As expected, BIHFA saw an early influx of members at its launch, and it was very encouraging to see members signing up from a variety of clubs across all the leagues.

Our newsletters have proved popular with articles being contributed by club chairmen, club owners, coaches and other key stakeholders within the sport.

Whilst we have not published as many newsletters as we would have wished it is only fair to accept that we very much underestimated the magnitude of the task, and it quickly became clear that as a voluntary organisation we needed to prioritise our objectives if we were going to make a difference.

The Government process continued on through this period with BIHFA liaising in the background with the various parties that were involved.

2008:

2008 was a frustrating year for BIHFA in terms of achieving what we had set out as our goals for that year. Amazingly the Position Paper process continued to run in the background and it was only at the very end of 2008 when we were in a position to begin putting together documentation on it that we could share with our members, stakeholders and fans generally.

During this period, a variety of personal factors limited committee members availability and at times impacted greatly on our ability to communicate as often as we would have wished with the membership, and we can only assure you that no-one felt this frustration more than us.

However, we don’t want to paint too negative a picture and suggest that little was achieved during 2008, as nothing could be further from the truth.

We continued to build our stake holder relationships, and spent a great deal of time scoping and planning so we were able to react when the proposition findings were finally made available for us to share.

Membership:

Membership at BIHFA continues to be free, with any expenditure being funded by the committee. It was not felt appropriate to charge for membership until we are confident that we can add value to the sport.

However, we firmly believe we have a solid, stable organisation capable of representing our members for many years to come. We look forward to the many challenges ahead with an element of trepidation, but with a huge appetite to try and make a difference and succeed!

The Media Release:

On Wednesday 11th Feb 2009, BIHFA published a Media Release to our media contact list which you can read via the link on our website. This was a rallying call from the Minister for Sport, Rt Hon Gerry Sutcliffe at the (DCMS) and BIHFA urging the Ice Hockey bodies to unite to transform the future of the sport.

Whilst it is not for us to tell clubs and leagues how to run the sport, we do believe there are major benefits in us all working together in extremely difficult times. For the mutual benefit of all concerned, we can ensure we have a stable, sustainable structure for the sport not only in these challenging times, but also for many years to come.

The Future:

So, where are we now?

Well, we have learned many valuable lessons during the last 2 years, and we now feel it is time to really send out a rallying call to fans throughout the country to come and join us. Remember, the larger our membership base, the greater our potential influence in the future.

We are not naive, we know Rome wasn’t built in a day, but we have a solid, stable and financially secure organisation ready for the challenges ahead.

We will be turning to our members in the weeks and months ahead in many different ways as we take BIHFA on what will, no doubt, be an exciting and unpredictable journey.

Contact Information:

If you are interested in further information, please contact us via the website or email Dave Cunningham directly at chair@bihfa.co.uk

For all media contacts, please email media@bihfa.co.uk