United Hockey Europe is a proposed pan-European ice hockey league. It was announced at the International Ice Hockey Federation's September 2009 congress by Alexander Medvedev, the head of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).
The proposed league would consist of two conferences split into four divisions. The current KHL would make up one of the conferences. The other conference would be composed of a Scandinavian division and a Central European division. The winners of the two conferences would play each other for the overall championship.
The new league would essentially replace the current model of European hockey based on relegation and promotion within national systems, supplemented by an international tournament, most recently Champions Hockey League, and replace it with a system of franchises much like that of North American National Hockey League (NHL).
The Champions Hockey League (CHL) was canceled for the 2009-10 season because sponsors, including Gazprom which Mr. Medvedev works for, withdrew their funding. The IIHF's president, René Fasel, had previously announced that the CHL would be restarted in 2010-11 with the financial support of the NHL.
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