Ivan Fedotov missed against sanctions

Hockey became the first Russian sport to respond to international sanctions with its own loud demarche. It was the participation in the match between CSKA and Ak Bars, which opened the next season of the Continental Hockey League (KHL), the goalkeeper of the army team who lost it with a score of 2:5, Ivan Fedotov. In the summer, the International Hockey Federation (IIHF) disqualified Fedotov, who, after serving in the army, did not go to the Philadelphia Flyers club of the National Hockey League (NHL), which had signed a contract with him a year ago, but to the Moscow team, until January 1, 2024. However, the KHL allowed him to speak at the last moment, calling the IIHF decision “infringing on the right of a citizen of the Russian Federation to work” and citing a reminder from the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation about the inadmissibility of such violations.

The meeting between the winner and the finalist of the previous Gagarin Cup, which opened the next KHL regular season, turned into an exceptionally loud event thanks to the appearance on the ice of a hockey player who is not yet included in the category of superstars. We are talking about 26-year-old Ivan Fedotov, who took his place at the gates of CSKA, the player with whom the most acute story of the current Russian hockey off-season is connected, which in fact concerns not so much an individual athlete as, in principle, the choice of a behavior model by representatives of the Russian sports industry in the context of international sanctions .

Ivan Fedotov brilliantly spent the season before last. In February 2022, he won the silver of the Beijing Olympics, defending the gates of the Russian team, and soon made a huge contribution to the victory of CSKA in the Gagarin Cup. After the end of the season, Fedotov signed a one-year contract with the Philadelphia Flyers NHL club. However, he did not manage to fly to America. In the summer in St. Petersburg, he was detained by employees of the military registration and enlistment office, and the athlete went to serve in the army. After the end of the service, Ivan Fedotov, instead of still leaving for the USA, where he was still expected, signed a contract with CSKA, who needed a strong goalkeeper after the Swede Adam Reideborn left for Switzerland. Meanwhile, this caused protests from the North American side. It turned out that Philadelphia “postponed” the previously signed contract with Fedotov for the next season, believing that the Russian goalkeeper missed the previous one due to force majeure circumstances beyond his control. And NHL leaders even equated the incident with the complete abandonment of the 2010 Memorandum of Understanding. This document, in fact, declared the recognition of both the North American and domestic leagues of each other’s contracts.

IIHF, which still adheres to the “isolation” course taken immediately after the start of the special military operation in Ukraine against Russia (the national team has already missed two world championships, and will miss the third next year), took the side of the NHL in the conflict. She considered Ivan Fedotov’s contract with Philadelphia to be valid for the coming season. At the same time, the federation reported that Fedotov, having signed an agreement with CSKA for this period and not having received permission from the American team, violated its regulations on international transfers. The IIHF imposed sanctions on both the goalkeeper himself and the Moscow club. Fedotov for four months starting from September 1, the day of the start of the next KHL championship, she banned to take part in official national and international games. And the club for a year – until the end of next summer – to carry out international transfers.

Russian hockey was the first sport to respond to the sanctions of the international structure with its own demarche. Ivan Fedotov nevertheless appeared on the ice of the CSKA Arena, despite the fact that a few days ago it seemed that the KHL and the Russian Hockey Federation (FHR) were more inclined to recognize the IIHF verdict. It turned out that in a short time there were adjustments to their position.

Explaining why Ivan Fedotov is playing in the match, KHL President Alexei Morozov said the league and CSKA “do not agree with the IIHF’s decision” because it “infringes on the constitutional right of a citizen of the Russian Federation to work.” He specified that “the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation came out in defense of the player and sent a warning to the Russian Hockey Federation, the club and the league about the inadmissibility of violating the right to work and ordered Fedotov to be allowed to participate in the competition.” “We live in the Russian Federation and must live according to the laws of the country. We do not agree with the IIHF decision, we do not violate the rules and are ready to comply with the transfer agreements,” added the KHL president, who believes that the admission of the goalkeeper “will not lead to a deterioration in relations with the IIHF and with other national federations.”

Igor Esmantovich, the president of the Moscow club, who has already filed an appeal against the “engaged”, in his opinion, verdict of the international federation on Ivan Fedotov, stressed that, when resolving the issue with the goalkeeper, “FHR, KHL and CSKA interacted simultaneously in one direction, the side of the Russian hockey player.” And from his words it became clear who the management of CSKA considers as key actors in a complex process. Personal gratitude from Igor Esmantovich was given to the chairman of the board of the FHR Arkady Rotenberg, the chairman of the board of directors of the KHL Gennady Timchenko and the head of Rosneft, which owns CSKA, Igor Sechin.

The very return of Ivan Fedotov was not very successful. In the starting period of CSKA, he coped with the shootout of Kirill Semenov, but before that he missed from Dmitry Kagarlitsky, who completed the smart counterattack of Ak Bars, which had mainly defended before it. In the second, after Nikita Nesterov equalized, Dmitry Yashkin and Nikita Dynyak punched Fedotov twice with an interval of half a minute. And in the third, thanks to Yaroslav Dyblenko, CSKA revived the intrigue, immediately ruined it himself, earning two removals in a row. The experienced Alexander Radulov punished the soldiers for them. And soon another leader much more effective than the opponents, on that day, Kazan, Vadim Shipachev, finished off the authors of the demarche, which, of course, did not go unnoticed by the IIHF.

The federation announced that for Ivan Fedotov’s entry on the ice without a “really transfer” he would fine the FHR 5,000 Swiss francs. In addition, the IIHF warned that if Fedotov continued to play for CSKA, “additional sanctions” could be applied to all “involved parties” – the hockey player, his club and the same FHR.

Alexey Dospekhov