Russia is increasingly isolated on the international scene, and if it were up to Wayne Gretzky, young Russian prospects should be excluded from the World Junior Hockey Championship.
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The invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin’s regime has led to numerous economic sanctions, and athletes from the country are also beginning to suffer from the actions of their president.
The World Juniors, which will be resumed in August after being interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic this winter, should thus be played without the Russians, in the eyes of the leading scorer in the history of the National Hockey League ( NHL).
“I think international hockey should say, ‘We’re not going to let them play in the World Juniors,'” Gretzky said on TNT Saturday night. I think we, as Canadians, have to take that position because the games are going to be played in Edmonton.”
This statement from Gretzky comes hours after the Poles refused to face Russia in the second round of the UEFA qualifying tournament for the 2022 World Cup.
Calling the current dispute senseless, Gretzky praised the Polish Soccer Federation for the decision.
It’s up to the IIHF to decide
However, it is the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) that will have to decide, and several member countries, with Switzerland at the top of the list, have officially requested that Russia be excluded from it.
“The request to the attention of the Council of the IIHF requests in particular the immediate exclusion of the Russian and Belarusian federations from the IIHF”, Swiss Ice Hockey clearly indicated in a press release.
This request also requests the relocation of the 2023 World Juniors, scheduled for Novosibirsk and Omsk, as well as the World Cup of the same year, which is to take place in Saint Petersburg.
Another team leaves the KHL
A few days after seeing Helsinki’s Jokerit withdraw from the Continental Hockey League (KHL) playoffs, Dinamo de Riga followed in Finland’s footsteps by announcing on Sunday that they were leaving the circuit “in response to the ‘Russian aggression in Ukraine’.
Dinamo, which plays in the capital of Latvia, detailed in a press release the reasons for its withdrawal.
“The decision to withdraw from the KHL has been taken, thus expressing a clear position of the management of the club, explained the chairman of the board of the team, Juris Savickis. In such a military and humanitarian crisis, we see no possibility of cooperation with the KHL.”
Unlike the Jokerit, Dinamo did not qualify for the playoffs, as they were last in the Western Conference at the end of the regular season.