Since 2001, the Macedonian Ice Hockey Federation is part of the international federation IIHF, but so far Macedonia has never been able to participate in a competition on ice. From 14 to 18 November, however, Macedonia will make their debut, in the Bundesleistungs Zentrum in Füssen at the "Development Cup 2018".
This Cup was launched last year and is for IIHF members who do not meet the criteria for the regular World Championships. Macedonia is here for the first time and it will be the first time that Macedonia shows on the sice.
So far Red-Yellow has played only "Roller hockey" on inline skates at IIHF competitions since 2011. Unfortunately, it seems that the IIHF has no interest to keep up inline hockey - first informations say, no World Championships and qualifications in inline hockey are to take place this year.
All the more fortunate is the Macedonian association's first participation in the Development Cup, which was played last year in Andorra and will always be played on alternating sites.
In addition to Macedonia are part of the tournament: Andorra (last year's fourth), Argentina (new entry), Brazil (new entry), Ireland (last year's second), Morocco (defending champion) and Portugal (last year's third).
Macedonia does not fulfill criteria
As mentioned, Macedonia does not fulfill the criteria (yet) to participate in the Ice Hockey World Championships or qualifications of the International Ice Hockey Federation. The first serious problem here is the infrastructure, Macedonia has only one ice rink, but no closed ice rink. Accordingly, the ice hockey season in Macedonia is very short and a successful junior work is hardly to operate.
In addition to ice hockey, the ice rink is open for the public and the figure skaters, hardly any ice time for the ice sports associations in Skopje.
It must also be borne in mind that ice hockey has not been played in Macedonia since the break-up of Yugoslavia. The Macedonian association was founded in 2001, but did not start functioning until 2010. Since the disintegration there was no more ice hockey club or any regulated game operation.
Ice hockey was very popular in Skopje, with teams like Red Star or Partizan Belgrade visiting the old Kale arena, the crowd was usually over five thousand.
Strict IIHF criteria make it almost impossible to integrate Macedonians raised abroad without a citizenship into the national team. Across Europe, only one hockey player is active, who is also registered with his Macedonian passport.
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