Double Olympic champion Boris Maireov in a conversation with , he said the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) felt uncomfortable without Russian team at the World Championships, and therefore wishes to return it as soon as possible.
According to , the IIHF is considering the option of the Russian team participating in the World Championships in 2024, the majority of IIHF members are in favor of Russia returning to the World Championships “for commercial reasons”, including Canada and the United States. . The Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden and the Baltic countries are against.
– The International Fencing Federation has already announced that it will allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete. The ice is therefore broken. Hopefully the IIHF will follow this path. I was hoping that this year we would be allowed to participate in the world championships. If we compare the IIHF without the Russian team with the human body, it is as if an important organ had been removed from a person. Of course, at the same time a person gets sick, feels unwell, he himself wants to bring everything back to normal. That’s how the IIHF feels right now. After all, without the Russian national team, its image suffers, the level of hockey drops.
– You mean the absence of our team in international tournaments?
– Not only. For example, I don’t think the Finns will continue to perform at the World Cup as successfully. After all, it was a very solid help for them that many players on their team had played in the KHL. After all, our league is much stronger than Finland’s. And now it’s gone.
– In addition to the IIHF’s image, does it also suffer financially from Russia’s absence from the World Championships?
– Certainly. Now only lazy people don’t think about making money. No matter how you look at it, removing Russian hockey from the international arena is a blow to the IIHF. We have 70 people playing in the NHL. And among them there are stars with world names. And all of them are ready to join the national team at the World Cup. Who else among the powerhouses of hockey can brag about it? But the very presence of stars of this level at the tournament elevates its status, attracts spectators and sponsors, Mayorov told .
On February 28, 2022, the IIHF suspended the Russian and Belarusian teams from participating in competitions under its auspices.
In January 2023, IIHF chief Luc Tardif told that the issue of admitting the Russian team to international tournaments would be discussed at the organization’s annual congress in May.
Source : MatchTV
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