Head Coach S.K.A. and first vice-president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation (RCF ) Romain Rotenberg in an interview with , he expressed confidence that Russia’s absence from international competitions leads to financial losses for world hockey.
On January 6, the head of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), Luc Tardif, told that the question of the admission of the Russian team to international tournaments would be discussed at the annual congress of the organization in May.
– Will the IIHF congress in May prove fateful, when they can vote for the return of Russia and Belarus? Do we have support among the delegates?
– There is a sort of “mafia”, in the figurative sense. I will not name specific countries, everyone understands perfectly who they are – who are not supporting us today. But here you have to think about the common interests of world hockey on a global scale. Without Russia, absolutely everything collapsed. See how the athletic level has dropped. They don’t even have the motivation to play against each other.
Finns here are as Russian-oriented as possible, it’s in their blood. But look what is happening with the Finnish national team now. She is playing worse and worse – both U-16 and U-18. Because their motivation is Russia. This has been the case culturally and historically.
When the International Federation looks at all the figures, it sees that its ticket sales have collapsed, that there is no revenue. In fact, they will soon be bankrupt. That is true. And they have a simple choice: either they go bankrupt or they go back to Russia. Because you have to be honest. And we have to think about the sporting interests of all of hockey. And now the IIHF has collapsed all business plans. Everyone knows, income and expense information is open, you can see it in the sources.
Therefore, we very much hope that the IIHF will be able to reasonably address this issue. You have to think about the interests of all of hockey, not the interests of small towns in different countries,” Rothenberg said in an interview with .
In February 2022, the IIHF Council suspended the national teams of Russia and Belarus from international competitions indefinitely. The teams missed the 2022 World Cup. Russia was also deprived of the right to host the 2023 World Youth Championships in Omsk and Novosibirsk.
Watch live broadcasts of matches of the Fonbet KHL Championship on the federal channel and thematic channels of the holding, as well as on the matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru websites.
Source : MatchTV
I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
