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The president of the Slovak Ice Hockey Association (SZĽH) Miroslav Šatan was not elected a member of the Council of the International Hockey Federation (IIHF) on Saturday.
After the election of the president, senior vice president and three regional vice presidents, 18 male candidates and two female candidates ran for the remaining nine seats.
Representatives of the IIHF elected both women to the body – the Hungarian Zsuzsanna Kolbenheyer and the Polish Marta Zawadzku, and the men to the next five places in the 1st round of Finn Heikki Hietanen (76 votes), the Swede Anders Larsson (76), the Russian Pavel Bure (60), the Swiss Raet Raffainer (58) and Taliana Andreu Giosa (52). In the next rounds, the remaining two members were elected, in the second Franz Reindl (46) and in the third Latvia Viesturs Koziols (33).
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Satan was close to the election before the third round, as he finished in second place with 30 votes, the fifth Koziols got 27. In the fight for the last place in the Council, Latvia was more successful, while the Slovak official received only 20 votes from delegates. . The former long-time representative and captain of the world champions from Gothenburg won them in the 1st round 33.
Satan did not become the third Slovak member of the IIHF executive. The first was the former head of Slovak hockey Juraj Široký, in two consecutive terms in the years 2003 to 2008, resp. 2008 to 2012. Subsequently, representatives of member associations elected another former SZĽH president Igor Nemeček to the IIHF Council. He was part of the executive body from 2012 to 2016. In May 2016, he unsuccessfully applied for re-election.
Candidates for the IIHF bodies had the last opportunity to attract delegates to the six-month Congress on Friday. He also used the space for a speech Satan. “I would like to thank you for this opportunity and tell you why I am running for your vote. Four years ago, I decided to return to Slovakia and help hockey at home. I found our infrastructure outdated. That we have 70 stadiums that are probably older than me and that only a few have been built or renovated in the last 10 to 15 years.
We also had an outdated training system for coaches and many other key issues. We have found that countries that are at the top of hockey do it differently. One of the first steps in the reform process was to find funding, new partners and to address the government so that it too could participate in the development of hockey as an extremely popular sport in our country.
We managed to involve it in the plan for the construction of eight hockey academies with the support of 14 million euros. Many speakers before me spoke about the development or how to deepen the global dimension of the whole of hockey. From the post of president of hockey in a country somewhere in the middle, I understand the problem on both sides. I would like to be a bridge in the understanding of these parties and look for solutions or a vision for the whole international hockey family for the next decade, “ the speech was presented by the hockeyslovakia.sk portal.
Miro Satan
Source: SITA
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The election took place at the IIHF Congress, which took place this week in St. Petersburg and culminated on Saturday. Representatives of member associations elected a new president, the Frenchman Luc Tardiff, who replaced the outgoing René Fasel. Switzerland has been leading the international federation since 1994. Elections to the IIHF bodies were originally scheduled to take place at the St. Petersburg Congress in September 2020.
However, due to travel restrictions and restrictions related to the spread of the coronavirus, members of the IIHF Council decided after a debate with representatives of member associations to postpone the election congress to September 2021. This decision also extended the term of office
Proposals for new names to the IIHF bodies could be sent by member associations until 30 June 2021. SZĽH nominated Miroslav Šatan for one of the nine positions in the IIHF Council. “There are many candidates, there are more than twenty of them for a position in the IIHF Council. So it will be very difficult. I didn’t lobby in any way, I don’t take it very seriously. I said to myself that I would try it this year, maybe I will get some first experience. We’ll see what it brings. The chances are small, there are many people interested, “said Šatan even before the departure of the Slovak delegation to St. Petersburg on Tuesday.
On Saturday, the congress also elected a senior vice president, Czech Petr Bříza, the regional vice presidents are Canadian Bob Nicholson (for America), Ajvaz Omorkanov from Kyrgyzstan (Asia and Oceania) and Denmark Bach Nielsen (Europe and Africa). Delegates also elected two auditors to monitor and evaluate the IIHF’s financial transactions with respect to short-term and long-term operations.
It is interesting that the term of office of all elected members of the bodies will not last four years, as usual, but exceptionally up to five. The reason is the fact that the new elections in September 2025 will not take place a few months before the 2026 Olympic Games, but only after them. Subsequently, the term of office shall be reduced again to four years.
Elected members of the IIHF Council for the period 2021-2026
Pavel Bure (Rus.)
Heikki Hietanen (Fín.)
Raeto Raffainer (CHE)
Anders Larsson (SWE)
Andrea Gios (Tal.)
Franz Reindl (No.)
Viesturs Koziols (Lot.)
Zsuzsanna Kolbenheyer (HUN)
Marta Zawadzká (POL)
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Moved by Craig Ramsay after advancing to the Olympics:
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