Athletistic / Hockey. SKA Board Chairman and simultaneously KHL First President Alexander Medvedev believes that Azerbaijan needs to do a lot of work for a club from that country to become a member of the league.
“To play hockey at the KHL level, any country, not just Azerbaijan, must meet certain conditions. The most important is high-quality infrastructure and a spacious arena. The second is interest in hockey. The third is a source of funding. As numerous experiences show, if there is money, then you can bring players.
Some “non-hockey” countries have already conducted research and asked the question of where they could find players. Today, if we take away Europe, which is hostile to Russia, there are enough hockey players in the United States and Canada, as well as in the KHL space, to form two or three more teams. But for this to happen, the first two conditions must be met. Therefore, Azerbaijan must do its homework before thinking about joining the KHL,” Medvedev was quoted as saying by Match TV.
On September 9, Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev, during a meeting with Azerbaijani Minister of Youth and Sports Farid Gaibov, invited his colleague to consider the issue of creating a KHL club in his country.
Note that there are now 20 teams from Russia and one each from Belarus, Kazakhstan and China competing in the KHL.
Source: Sport
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