When/if the new copyright legislation passes, it's going to get a heck of a lot worse.

If you claimed to use the fictional character as parody, you'd have been perfectly okay to use it. Using it in homage isn't okay, though. Stupid laws.

When the game is re-released 70years after the last bandy book is published, you can put it back in. Though I do wonder if the author himself (rather than the overzealous heir) would have minded. I kind of doubt it...