Swedish Division I
Current season, competition or edition: 2015–16 Hockeyettan season
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| Formerly | Division 1 (until 2014) |
|---|---|
| Sport | Ice hockey |
| Founded | 1944 (1975) |
| No. of teams | 48 in 4 groups |
| Country |
 Sweden
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| Promotion to | HockeyAllsvenskan |
| Relegation to | Division 2 |
| Official website | www.hockeyettan.com |
Hockeyettan (or HockeyEttan, known as Division 1 from 1944 to 2014) is the third tier of ice hockey in Sweden. As of the 2015–16 season, the league consists of 48 teams divided geographically into four groups. Hockeyettan operates a system of promotion and relegation with HockeyAllsvenskan and Division 2.
From 1944 to 1975, Division 1 was the highest league in the Swedish ice hockey system, but with the creation of Elitserien (now the SHL) in 1975, it became the second tier. Division 1 was further relegated to third-tier status in 1999 as HockeyAllsvenskan was spun off into a standalone league. The league was renamed Hockeyettan for the 2014–15 season.
Hockeyettan is organized by the Swedish Ice Hockey Association.
As of the 2015–16 season, the league consists of 48 teams divided into four groups of 12 geographically. The clubs meet each other twice, home and away, after which the top four teams from each group form two new groups of eight. Each of these Allettan groups then plays an additional home-and-away series. Meanwhile, the remaining eight teams in each starting group play each other again in a continuation series.
The winner of each Allettan group qualifies directly for the 2016 HockeyAllsvenskan qualifiers. Teams 2–5 in the Allettan groups, along with teams 1–2 from the continuation groups, play a playoff to fill the remaining two spots in the HockeyAllsvenskan qualifiers. Teams 7–8 from the continuation groups are forced to requalify for Hockeyettan against teams from Division 2.
Division 1 was founded in 1944, replacing Svenska Serien as the top flight of Swedish ice hockey. From its foundation until the 1954–55 season, the league consisted of twelve teams, with group winners facing off in a best-of-three final, and with two teams from the bottom of each group being relegated. From the 1955–56 season, the best-of-three series was replaced with a double round-robin final round with the top two teams from each group. The league was expanded to two groups of eight for the 1956–57 season. The league would continue to have two groups of eight under a variety of different post-season formats until the 1974–75 season. With Elitserien, a new top flight of Swedish hockey to begin play the following year, this final Division 1 season was played in a single group of 16, with the top 10 teams going on to play in the new Elitserien, and the bottom six remaining in Division 1 in its new status as Sweden's second-tier league.
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