European sports officials have found a “gold mine” by removing Russia and Belarus

It’s easy to win without leaders

The sports performance of European teams and individual European athletes is growing by leaps and bounds. The rain of gold medals, as if from a cornucopia, is falling on the heads of European sports officials. The curves of income graphs from sponsorship contracts are rising so rapidly that they have already blown the roof off the offices of the presidents of European sports federations, and themselves.

Where did such success come from? Have their pharmacologists really invented a new secret Euromeldonium that WADA cannot yet detect? Or has a powerful European coaching school invented an innovative system for preparing winners at any tournaments and Olympiads? Not at all. Why does “a feeling of deep satisfaction” fill the hearts of Eurosport leaders? The answer is as simple as a hockey puck.

After the International Ice Hockey Federation on February 12 extended the exclusion of the Russian and Belarus national teams from all its competitions at least until the end of the 2024/2025 season, the chairman of the Swedish Hockey Federation Anders Larsson rejoiced: “We are in for a fantastic spring without Russia!” Continuing his speech, like a speaker at some Soviet party congress: “We, the representatives of Swedish hockey, support this decision, which is absolutely necessary in the current situation. It’s nice that now we know the conditions for the next season: at the Beijer games (Euro Hockey Tour stage – ed.), the NHL Four Nations tournament and – the main culmination – the 2025 World Hockey Championship in Stockholm.”

It is worth admitting that Larsson is right. Without the Belarusian national team, and even more so without the “Red Machine,” the situation on the hockey rink in Europe, and the rest of the world, has changed dramatically. Since one of the main contenders for gold medals was kicked out of all competitions on February 28, 2022. The results followed immediately. At the 2022 World Championships, instead of the national teams of Russia and Belarus, the teams of Austria and France played (by the way, since 2021, the international ice hockey federation, IIHF, is headed by former French hockey player Luc Tardif – ed.). The German team took second place in Group A. At the 2023 World Cup, Germany played Canada in the final. And she took the silver. And Latvia became the bronze medalist, beating the Americans in the match for third place.

There is also beauty in the Eurohockey Tour – Russia has been replaced by Switzerland in the spring of 2022. Which, with all due respect to Swiss hockey, this season in three of the four stages already played, was weaker than the other three participants – Sweden, the Czech Republic and Finland. Accordingly, the income of these teams has increased – there is no need to share any more with the Russian team.

How we won’t have to share medals and prize money with us at the NHL Four Nations tournament in 2025, where Americans, Canadians, Finns and Swedes will play. And the 2025 World Cup, which will take place (drum roll) in Sweden, can also be won by the Swedes, or even Italy, or, what a gift it will be for Tardif, France – why be ashamed. Therefore, it will not be surprising if in the spring of 2025 the IIHF council again decides that it is unsafe to play hockey in Russia and Belarus, and that our national teams are not needed in world competitions. Having won victories again not on the ice, but on paper, since for today’s bosses of world hockey medals have no meaning. And the money owed for them even more so.