Latin hockey league system
The Latin hockey league system, also known as the Latin hockey pyramid, is a series of interconnected professional and semi-professional leagues for men's ice hockey, featuring 4 teams in Lyncanestria and 1 team in Lihnidos also competing. The system includes promotion and relegation between leagues at different levels, potentially allowing for the smallest teams to reach the very top of the league system. There are more than 83 teams across 6 divisions. Divisions one, and two require all teams are professional, while divisions three features semi-professional teams.
While the league system exists below division three, the structure is not regarded as definitive and typically features amateur teams that vary from year to year.
Structure
Liga Magna is the top division league of the Latin hockey system, often called "top flight", containing 25 teams, all of which have been based in Latium since 2022. From 1970 to 2022, LMH featured two Gelonian-based clubs; however, all three Gelonian clubs left the LMH system for the Gelonian Superleague before the 2022-23 season. There is one Lyncanestrian team that has reached the league. Immediately below Liga Magna is LHC, which together comprise the closed Liga Magna system. Before the establishment of Liga Magna in 1955, Liga Hocceia Glacia Campionata served as the top flight hockey league, though league operations were suspended from 1948. The current tier two league LHC has no legal affiliation with LHGC. The lowest level professional league in the system is Liga de Hockey Nationale, hosting 16 teams. Liga Nationale was founded in 1988, and requires teams to be professional or semi-professional in order to participate, and operates independently of the Liga Magna system.
Level five is a purely amateur division, and varies in the number of teams participating from year to year. As of 2018, there are five regional amateur leagues and 80 teams.
Promotion and relegation
- Liga Magna (LMH) (level 1, 25 teams): Top four teams in regular table season qualify for post-season playoffs, teams five through twelve qualify for post-season play-in series. The bottom three teams are relegated.
- Liga Hocceia Campionata (LHC) (level 2, 25 teams): Regular season champion earns automatic promotion, teams finishing two through seven enter promotion playoff, with playoff champion and playoff runner up earn promotion.
- Liga Independete Hocceia (LIH) (level 3, 14 teams): Top six teams qualify for post-season playoff. The bottom two teams are relegated.
- Liga Septentrio and Liga Auster (level 4, 28 teams total across two leagues, running in parallel): Champions of each division earn promotion, the next four teams enter promotion playoffs with champion earning promotion. The bottom two teams are relegated if qualifying teams in level 5 are eligible for promotion; if none are eligible, no relegation.
Cup eligibility
Members of Liga Magna, Liga Hocceia Campionata and Liga Independete Hocceia are eligible to compete in Copa Glaciei every season. Copa Glaciei is the oldest ice hockey competition in Latium and is a single elimination tournament that runs from the initial qualifying rounds in October to the final round in March. In addition, LMH and LHC clubs compete in the Copa Liga.
Teams participating in division five play in Copa Latii Aperio, which begins in November and runs as a single elimination tournament. Tournament games are played in a home and home series as teams advance by aggregate score throughout the two game series.
System
Men's
|
Level |
League(s)/Division(s) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Liga Magna (LMH) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
2 |
Liga Hocceia Campionata (LHC) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
3 |
Liga Independete Hocceia (LIH) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
4 |
Liga Septentrio |
Liga Auster | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
5 |
(All divisions run in parallel) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Women's
|
Level |
League(s)/Division(s) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Liga Hocceia Primaria Feminae | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Academy
|
Level |
League(s)/Division(s) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Maior Iuventus Academia Liga | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
2 |
Minor Iuventus Academia Liga | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||