Is the exclusion of Russia not political? IIHF boss is cunning and turns the World Cup into a circus
Pavel Panyshev May 26, 2023, 21:15 MSK Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
The current world championship has already become one of the worst in history.
Unfortunately, tournaments under the auspices of the IIHF each year fall below the pedestal. Everyone remembers how weak, uninteresting and uncompetitive the world youth championship turned out to be without the participation of the Russian team in it. Now we can see the level of the adult championship, without tears you will not look at it.
The complete absence of stars, apathy and boredom – all these associations are typical for the world forum that takes place in Latvia and Finland. Even the defending champions, the Finns, who lost lopsidedly in the quarterfinals to their own fans of the Canadian team in their 10th or 15th strongest composition, didn’t want to push themselves in their home tournament. With a bang, the Swedes went flying, disgraced in the game with Latvia and have already received a reprimand from the Swedish press. As a result, the Latvians reached the semifinals of the World Cup for the first time in their history, and the final of the tournament will be completely unique.
Sensational Hits from Latvia and Germany:
There are two super sensations in the World Championships! How did Germany and Latvia break into the hockey elite?
But, of course, without the Russian team among the participants, the current show is worthless. When one of the major sports and hockey powers is not allowed to compete in some implausible decisions that have nothing to do with sports, this is not a championship of the best, but ordinary blasphemy. It is even more surprising to listen to the speeches of the head of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), Luc Tardif, who is afraid to call things by his name, simply deceiving everyone, including himself.
“All decisions made by the IIHF Council are aimed at protecting the competitions and delegates from Russia and Belarus. These decisions are not political. We will not allow the discussions to turn into political debates. We will talk about competitions, sports, I want to assure you that we do not accept any political pressure,” Tardif said.
If under Ren Fasel the organization was in complete order, then with the arrival of the French manager, discord and chaos began. It’s about time Tardif took off his rose-colored glasses and admitted the obvious: Under him, international hockey tournaments were literally sucked into politics and bogged down in political strife.
Krikunov walked hard in the Tardif:
Krikunov: Tardif received an order from above not to let us in, to look for fools in the mirror
“Personally, I don’t understand why the IIHF just accepts and cancels hockey for our country. I think everything is simple: in the West they are afraid that the Russian national team can win the World Cup. A very strange and incomprehensible decision, at first they mixed politics with sports, and now we see boring semifinals. For example, can you imagine a soccer world championship without the selection of Argentina, Brazil or Germany?
Look, nobody cancels gas or oil from Russia. And at any price. And it will never cancel. And then they decided to win in hockey again and say that this is not a political decision, it’s just ridiculous to listen to it. In my opinion, Russia could field two teams from their country for the World Cup, we have a lot of stars.
The organizers were simply afraid of us. We were afraid of becoming champions. Of course, we would be in the final. So the new French elder Luc Tardif is fake. Then say: “We are afraid of Russia and we do not want to see it as a champion.” By the way, the Belarusian national team, which was also suspended from the tournament for political reasons, would not miss it either and would act with dignity, ”the well-known coach Andrei Nazarov said harshly.
Lucas Tardiff
Photo: Antti Aimo-Koivisto/IMAGO/TASS
Nazarov correctly noted that Belarus was also not allowed to participate in the World Cup, and the Kazakhstan national team, in fact, was forced to change the head coach, denying a Schengen visa and entry to Latvia to the Belarusian specialist Andrey Skabelka. . And what, Tardif will say again that this is not politics?
It is worth recognizing that the Russian team (as well as the Belarusians) is not expected in the international arena, otherwise the problem would have been solved long ago. But Western sports officials buried with their own hands the once excellent and brilliant competition, which was a feast for fans from different countries. Now the Ice Hockey World Championship is on the same level as the Eurotour, and it will soon cease to interest anyone.
