SWINDON Wildcats general manager Steve Nell believes that English Premier Ice Hockey League owners were correct to come down hard on Telford Tigers and Manchester Phoenix for their financial crises.

Officials from eight of the 10 EPIHL clubs met on Sunday – the Tigers and Phoenix did not provide representation – and unanimously decided that the Tigers and Phoenix will not be invited into the end-of-season play-offs as ‘punishment’ for getting themselves into financial bother within the last 12 months.

Earlier this season, 2014-15 regular season champions Telford entered voluntary liquidation amidst debts of £500,000 and last week, Manchester’s future was thrown into doubt after their owner Neil Morris stepped away.

The bottom-of-the-table Phoenix’s holding company went into liquidation in May last year but a potential investor has asked head coach Tony Hand to prepare a team to travel to the Wildcats today (face-off 5.45pm).

At last weekend’s meeting, it was also proposed that future clubs entering administration, liquidation or bankruptcy during the course of the season will additionally face points deductions, as well as losing the right to international transfer cards.

Nell, whose club recently celebrated their 30-year anniversary, believes that the right decisions were made to protect the future integrity of the league.

The Wildcats GM said: “I think Telford may have sent their apology from their coach at 8.30 on the morning of the meeting but really, it was an owners’ meeting and their owner should have represented.

“One way or the other, you should get somebody there. It’s pretty tough to not be happy with what goes on if you’re not there to be part of it.

“I think if you look in any sport, when these things happen, there has to be something done. It’s about the integrity and you can’t just not pay people.

“I do realise that it’s not the current (Telford) owners who were not paying people but the old owners didn’t pay people and you can’t just expect to do that.

“It’s tough on the players but we’ve got to take a stand as a league of what’s right and what’s wrong.

“I don’t think Manchester were going to be in the play-offs anyway – they’re not going to have enough points.”

With Milton Keynes Lightning ascending to the Elite League next season and Guildford Flames this week applying to do the same, Nell admits it is frightening to see EPIHL teams flirt with extinction but the Cats supremo hopes that the league will soldier on.

“To be open and honest, it is concerning that there are two teams that have been in trouble this year and two teams are potentially leaving – that leaves you with six and then out of those six, how many of those are financially strong? That’s not for me to say,” said Nell.

“We’ve just come through a very tough period for the last eight years, so I think that for us, we’ve had hockey for 30 years and I need to think about how we keep it for the next 30 years.

“We’ll support Manchester to help them come down here and hopefully they’re going to be okay for the rest of the season but apart from support teams from where they need supporting, I’ve got to focus on what’s best for Swindon.

“We’ve got to get to the end of the season and see where we are, and that’s the whole league.”