Special from Fussen: Controversy in B division

In an precedented foul up, the organisers of the European Curling Championships in Fussen came under fire today when the twenty-one teams playing in the B division were told that the rules they had been sent before the event were incorrect.

The rules on how the European Championships should be run may be found as a sub-section of the 2007 WCF rulebook, p35. This says clearly that if there are between 21 and 30 nations wanting to compete they will take part in three groups, each playing a round robin, with the top team in each group moving forward to playoffs.

However, it seems that the information sent out to the teams prior to this year's Europeans was incorrect, and the competing nations thought that two teams would go forward from each section. The teams only found out today that this was incorrect.

As one can imagine there was much disquiet, with some teams even threatening not to take to the ice to play this evening's games. Protests were made.

The ECF executive, headed up by Malcolm Richardson, met hurriedly and moved quickly to defuse the situation. "We take corporate responsibility for the mistake," said Malcolm, refusing to point a finger at any one person for the error. "We shoulder the consequences."

The decision that the Executive has made is that the competition will continue this year under the rules that had been sent out to the teams, and two teams will indeed go forward from each section.