United Hockey Europe is a proposed pan-European

Pan-European

Pan-European can refer to:*Pan-European identity*International Paneuropean Union, a European unification group*Honda ST series motorcycles, sold as the Pan-European in the UK and Europe...

 ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 league

Sports league

League is a term commonly used to describe a group of sports teams or individual athletes that compete against each other in a specific sport. At its simplest, it may be a local group of amateur athletes who form teams among themselves and compete on weekends; at its most complex, it can be an...

. It was announced at the International Ice Hockey Federation

International Ice Hockey Federation

The International Ice Hockey Federation is the worldwide governing body for ice hockey and in-line hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 70 members...

's September 2009 congress by Alexander Medvedev

Alexander Medvedev

Alexander Ivanovich Medvedev is the current Deputy Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of Russian energy company Gazprom, president of the Kontinental Hockey League, and the Director-General of Gazprom's export arm Gazprom Export...

, the head of the Kontinental Hockey League

Kontinental Hockey League

The Kontinental Hockey League is an international professional ice hockey league in Eurasia founded in 2008. As of 2009, it is ranked as the strongest hockey league in Europe....

 (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 Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

n 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

Professional sports league organization

Professional sports leagues are organized in numerous ways. The two most significant types are a European model, characterised by a tiered structure using promotion and relegation to determine participation in a hierarchy of leagues or divisions and a North American model characterized by its use...

 based on relegation and promotion within national systems, supplemented by an international tournament, most recently Champions Hockey League

Champions Hockey League

The Champions Hockey League was a short-lived ice hockey league which was launched in 2008 by the International Ice Hockey Federation and only played in the 2008–09 season. Its creation coincided with the IIHF's 100th anniversary and replaced the IIHF European Champions Cup, the former competition...

, and replace it with a system of franchise

Professional sports league organization

Professional sports leagues are organized in numerous ways. The two most significant types are a European model, characterised by a tiered structure using promotion and relegation to determine participation in a hierarchy of leagues or divisions and a North American model characterized by its use...

s much like that of North American National Hockey League

National Hockey League

The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

 (NHL).

The Champions Hockey League (CHL) was canceled for the 2009-10 season because sponsors, including Gazprom

Gazprom

Open Joint Stock Company Gazprom is the largest extractor of natural gas in the world and the largest Russian company. Its headquarters are in Cheryomushki District, South-Western Administrative Okrug, Moscow...

 which Mr. Medvedev works for, withdrew their funding. The IIHF's president, René Fasel

René Fasel

René Fasel DMD is a Swiss dentist and ice hockey official. He started his ice hockey career as a player for HC Fribourg-Gottéron, in 1960, and became a referee in 1972 and president of Switzerland's ice hockey federation in 1985. In 1994 he was elected president of the International Ice Hockey...

, had previously announced that the CHL would be restarted in 2010-11 with the financial support of the NHL.