Swedish league player receives two year suspension after cross-checking referee

Swedish league officials have announced a two year ban against Flemingsberg HK’s Alexander Rindå for cross-checking an on-ice official.

Read an account of the event from a game earlier in December, translated from Swedish courtesy of Aftonbladet:

“The player should then have started to go towards his own zone but with his eyes turned back towards the referee who went behind and then verbally attacked him. The referee then blew the game to expel the player. In connection with this, he must have slowed down sharply, attacked the judge verbally again and then also directed a violent cross-checking against the judge’s chest so that he was thrown against the ice and remained seated. The line referee then must have brought the player off the ice and during that time he should also have continued with verbal attacks against the referee. “

We can’t embed the video of the altercation in this article, but you can easily view it here.

Incredibly, Rindå believes that he should have only been assessed a minor penalty. 

The Swedish Sports Federation would go on to announce that Rindå will indeed receive a two year ban from ANY sanction Swedish sport. 

"The Committee finds in a combined assessment that the player's attack on the referee is an extremely clear example of what is to be regarded as gross in the sense of the RF statute, which means that the penalty value should be determined between one and two years of suspension. Given that the action seems to have taken place completely without reason and outside the game, the severe violence used by the club against a functionary and the injury risk that followed the action, the player's actions are, as far as the committee knows, one of the most serious attacks on a functionary which has happened in Swedish ice hockey. Therefore, no sanction other than two years' suspension can be considered. Since it is a question of intentional violence against a civil servant, the suspension must also be decided to cover all sports activities within RF. "

“We accept the decision and we have already shut him down. Now we try to give him all the support he needs. He made a very stupid decision on the ice,” says Flemingsberg IK’s Sports Manager Fredrik Strandfeldt.