Iksu may disappear from the SSL appeal filed with the floor association

Iksu has for a long time been one of the Swedish dominions' major dominants. The club has won three of the four most recent women's gold medals, and has won a total of seven gold medals in total.

But financially it is heavier. In April, the floor club announced that their future was threatened. The reason was that the main association, which, among other things, runs one of Europe's largest training facilities, has a sports medicine department and a swimming pool and consists of 16 different sections, has strained finances and has therefore chosen to withdraw its elite support and liquidity support for the floorball ladies.

Despite this, the club registered last month for next season's SSL, but made clear that the team's future was not secured.

- We are trying to find solutions so that we can play SSL. That is why we have registered, but what form, if and how it can be resolved remains to be seen, said club manager Johan Sjöström then told the local newspapers in Umeå.

Now, with only three months left for the planned start of the 2020/21 season, it is still unclear what it will be like.

Next week, however, a message may come that may open up for a solution. This is when an appeal from the all-Swedish Team Thorengruppen has been submitted to the Swedish Board of Association's legal committee.

The Thorengruppen previously had a collaboration with Iksu Ungdom and had a joint academy with them, but changed their name to Team Thorengruppen before last season. The Thorene group finished second last season in the Northern Allsvenskan, behind Rig Umeå (the team of the gymnasium gymnasium).

However, according to the competition rules, Rig is not entitled to advance to SSL. According to the competition rules, the series two should therefore qualify for SSL, but when the corona pandemic caused the season to be interrupted, the Swedish Inland Association decided to move up two other all-Swedish series winners instead, without qualifying games.

- They think they should have a place in SSL based on the results they did last year. And if they don't get that spot, they think they should be higher on the vacancy list if there is any rebate. And then you can quickly figure out that if they were one on that list and Iksu in that case steps out, they expect to get that spot, says Patrik Eklund on the Competition Committee to SVT Sport.

The Thorene Group, which plays its home games at Iksu Sport, has filed an appeal with the legal committee of the floor association.

- The matter was submitted on June 12 and we will discuss it next week, says the committee's chairman Christian Almäster, who does not want to make any further comments on the subject.

According to information to SVT Sport, the Thorengruppen in the appeal consider that because it is so clear in the competition rules that Rig Umeå can not go up to SSL and that the two should therefore go to SSL qualification, that Thorengruppen should be classified as a series winner and therefore should be one on the vacancy list because two series winners (Falun and Lund) were moved up and the last series winner (Rönnby Västerås Youth) from all Swedes refused to SSL games.

No formal decision has been taken by neither Thorengruppen nor Iksus's boards, but according to what SVT Sport experiences, it is most likely that the outcome - if Thorengruppen's appeal goes through - would be that Iksu would then opt out of SSL, and then Thorengruppen would thank yes to go up instead - and that many of Iksus' current players would go over to them instead. This information is confirmed by Margareta Ericsson Lif, Sports Manager / CEO of Iksu Central.

- We do this with the utmost consensus. We are happy if the girls get the opportunity to play in the Super League. We no longer have the financial resources after a tough financial spring and a very uncertain autumn, she says.

The Thorene Group is basically a development company, which runs preschools, compulsory schools and colleges, among other things. They have previously taken over the football team Tegs SK and now play in Division 1 North. The indoor ball gentlemen merged with Umeå City in 2014 and played 2016-18 and also plays them in the Allsvenskan.

Nor does Mikael Ahlerup, secretary general of the Swedish floor association, want to make some comments.

- Both discussions and writing are ongoing between the parties. It is an ongoing process

 which is by no means completed. That's where we are, he says.