Hockey federations: Congress will decide whether to hold World Cup in Minsk
Euroradio has called to national ice hockey federations and asked what they think about the possible change of place of the Ice Hockey World Cup-2014.
The International Ice Hockey Federation urged to abolish the World Cup in Belarus. The history.
"We haven't thought about this year and haven't prepared anything so far. Our point of view is that the decision to hold the World Cup in Belarus was taken by the Congress of the IIHF. This means that only the IIHF can abolish it. We are not getting prepared to discuss this issue at the Congress", - spokesman of the Czech Ice Hockey Federation Zdeněk Zikmund says.
According to him, if someone does raise the "Belarusian issue" at the Congress, the Czech delegation will analyze the arguments and only then define its position.
Representatives of the Slovakian Ice Hockey Federation have forwarded Euroradio to the IIHF.
Slovakian Ice Hockey Federation: "Only they can tell you something in this regard, and do something. The Slovakian Ice Hockey Federation is a member of the IIHF. Therefore, we need to do what they say".
Germans have approximately the same opinion: they have read the statement of the Secretary General Franz Reindl:
"This event is organized by the IIHF. As we are a member of the IIHF, we must participate in it. Only the IIHF can abolish the World Cup. We will wait and watch the discussion during the IIHF Congress in May in Helsinki".
Practically, it is almost impossible to abolish the World Cup in Minsk. The IIHF's charter does not prescribe this. However, everything may be decided by the majority of votes. Details.
President of the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation Kirovs Lipmans thinks that Belarus should not be deprived of an opportunity to host the World Cup.
"This issue has been discussed more and more often recently, that Belarus should not have a right to host the World Cup. Especially in the view of the recent conflict between Belarus and the EU. I am against this. It is a shame that politics ruins everything. Sports is meant to unite people, not vice versa. It's not the people's fault", - Kirovs Lipmans said in an interview to the Latvian newspaper "Telegraph".
Executive Director of the Finnish Ice Hockey Federation Matti Nurminen refuses to speak about holding of the Ice Hockey World Cup in Belarus, as well as President of the Norwegian Ice Hockey Federation Ole Jakob Libæk.
At the same time, the Russian Ice Hockey Federation has no doubts about the World Cup.
Russian Ice Hockey Federation: "Naturally, we are not going to raise any issues with regard to abolishment of the World Cup in Belarus. Moreover, we worked a lot so that Belarus would get this championship".
Representatives of the IIHF informed before that the destiny of the World Cup-2014 might be solved during the organization's Congress in May. The Congress will take the decision if someone of the 70 IIHF members raises this issue.
Photo: 21.by
