Men's Ice Hockey IIHF World Championship 2021

[Hipooo 640]

8 hours ago, hckosice said:

!!!

 

The World Championships will not be in Belarus !

 

The 2021 World Hockey Championships were originally scheduled to be co-organized by Belarus and Latvia, but recent reports from the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) suggest that this will not be the case.

 

Journalist Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News reported on Thursday evening that the IIHF plans to take away the next championship from Belarus and assign it to Russia.

 

The second venue of the championship - Riga, Latvia - has not changed yet.

 

The Slovak Preliminary A-group thus will not be played in Minsk, but very probably in Moscow.

 

Ryan Kennedy informed that IIHF President René Fasel has already communicated the topic with Vladislav Tretiak, President of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation. The relocation of the hockey championship from Belarus to Russia is due to concerns about the safety of tournament participants and fans, as an independent report commissioned by the IIHF in September highlighted legitimate concerns about the current environment in Belarus and also expressed skepticism about coronavirus spread. At the same time, it criticized the measures to deal with the pandemic.

 

The World Hockey Championships are scheduled to take place from May 21 to June 6 next year.

I red some atricles (interview with Andrey Krauchanka, because he was arrested on 10 days by OMON) and I think it's good idea to changing place. In Belarus, there is not a safe place to organize big competition like world championship.  

[hckošice 15,825]

35 minutes ago, Hipooo said:

I red some atricles (interview with Andrey Krauchanka, because he was arrested on 10 days by OMON) and I think it's good idea to changing place. In Belarus, there is not a safe place to organize big competition like world championship.  

 

I think it was only a matter of time. there was absoltely no chance of this event taking place in Belarus. The pressure from Latvia was enormous.

 

BLR players and fans can blame only Lukashenko for this.

[Olympian1010 8,274]

Sounds like Bach supports Belarus being stripped of hosting rights.

 

He didn’t state it explicitly, but the IOC’s actions definitely imply that.

[intoronto 6,606]

Likely White Russia's neighbour, Russia proper will replace them. Can't wait for Putin to invite Lukashenko lol

[hckošice 15,825]

Rene Fasel the Ober-fuhrer of IIHF and the organization Secretary General Horst Lichtner tested positive for the coronavirus.

 

THUS They had to cancel the planned meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, with whom they were supposed to negotiate the organization of next year's World Championship in the country.

 

 

 

"Last week, the IIHF was given the opportunity to meet with President Lukashenko to discuss many issues related to the 2021 World Championships to be held in Minsk, Belarus, and Riga, Latvia. Together with Secretary General Lichtner, we planned to travel to Minsk today to discuss security issues affecting the preparation of the tournament, accusations by the President of the Belarusian Hockey Association Dmitry Baskov, the current situation with COVID-19 in the country and what steps are being taken. to ensure that the tournament can take place safely and in cooperation with Latvia. However, during the pre-flight testing, we were informed that we had both positive tests for COVID-19, ”Fasel wrote on the IIHF's official website.

 

The president added that he and Lichtner must undergo a 10 days quarantine, and since the federation's office will work remotely, he did not expect any more positive cases among employees. They postponed the meeting with the President of Belarus indefinitely as well as the planned Friday video conference with national associations on Friday.

The organization of next year's World Cup has been threatened since Belarus has been in turmoil following the announcement of the results of the August presidential election, after which massive protests against the Lukashenko regime began in the country. He used tough measures against the protesters.

 

Latvia, as the second host country, has publicly distanced itself from cooperation with Belarus since the disputed elections.

 

On Monday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) excluded Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko from all Olympic activities, including next year's Tokyo Games.

[Olympian1010 8,274]

I really can’t understand why Fasel continues to push for the championships to be held in Belarus. It would be extremely unpopular internationally, there might both political and medical issues prevalent, and the IOC made it pretty clear about what they thought of the situation.

[hckošice 15,825]

Not sure how much we can trust this site watson.ch but according to them there some real chances the World Champs may be moved to Slovakia

 

 

Due to the tense political situation in Belarus, the International Hockey Federation (IIHF) is considering the possibility of taking away the tournament from the country and at the same time is considering various alternatives. One of them should be apparently the transfer of part of the championship to Bratislava, informs the Swiss site.

 

IIHF President René Fasel does not want the cancellation of the championship as he did in 2020. He wanted to resolve the current situation with the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko himself, but he contracted the coronavirus and had to move his planned travel to Minsk.

 

According to some rumors he was expected to let him know at the meeting that the IIHF will take away the organization of the tournament. Originally, part of the championship was planed to be moved to St. Petersburg, but after the well known hosting ban for the entire Russian sport, this possibility fell through. Thus, other possible variants began to be solved.

 

One of them is that the whole championship would be organized only in Latvia by Riga, which, however, has only one hall meeting the requred conditions of the IIHF. The Nordic countries are also out of the question, as they already have the next World Championships assigned to them. In Finland in 2022 and in Sweden and Denmark in 2025.

 

The other two options are Prague and Bratislava .  The whole tournament in Bratislava and Prague should also according to rumors be in the game. If one part of the World Championship has to be remained in Latvia, Bratislava is apparently prefered to Prague because the Czech Republic will organizes the World Championship in 2024.

 

The fact that organizing the tournament would cost less money there than in the countries of Western Europe also speaks in favor of Slovakia or the Czech Republic. The final verdict should be announced at the beginning of next year.

[hckošice 15,825]

"Uncle" Rene arrived to Minsk. Let the soap opera start https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2021/wm/news/24082/meetings_in_minsk

[hckošice 15,825]

Lukashenko proposal :

 

During a personal meeting with Fasel, Lukashenko said that despite the protests, Belarus is a safe country. He compared the situation to what was happening in the USA, where supporters of president Donald Trump attacked the Capitol and it resulted in four casualties.

 

"In our country, protesters and otherwise dissatisfied people do not violently attack government buildings. In Belarus, the situation is quite normal from the perspective of the development of democratic processes," Lukashenko said and offered Fasel the opportunity to organize the entire tournament only in Belarus without  Latvia. On the sidelines, he said that this would be the best world championship ever.

 

[Olympian1010 8,274]

Rene Fasel continues to make questionable choices: https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1102906/fasel-lukashenko-meeting-iihf-world