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The head of the Belarusian Hockey Federation (FHB) Dmitry Baskov, in a conversation with the local television channel ONT, commented on the position of the Latvian government regarding the refusal to hold the 2021 World Championship together with Belarus.
Protests against the falsification of election results have been reported for more than a month in a neighboring country. Earlier, the Prime Minister of Latvia Krišjānis Kariņš informed that Latvia will not hold a tournament with Belarus, which was also announced by the International Hockey Federation (IIHF). At the same time, Latvia does not have the infrastructure to hold such an event alone. Belarus has such an opportunity, because in 2014 another arena was built in Minsk for the needs of the World War II.
“FHB has done a huge job to apply to host a PC with Latvia. After the right to organize the tournament was obtained, we started working together. But now Latvia is trying to politicize sports. Speaking of hockey, we have good contacts with both the Latvian Hockey Federation (LHF) and the IIHF. So far, nothing prevents us from holding one of the best world championships, ”Baskov is convinced.
“Currently, the scenario with PC removal alone is not considered. But we had a great tournament in 2014, so we understand that we will have enough strength and infrastructure to hold the championship alone once again, ”said the head of FHB.
This season, there was not a single Continental Hockey League (KHL) game in Minsk, because the Helsinki “Jokerit” did not go to Belarus. The Finnish team was awarded a technical loss for not attending the match.
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