Results of 2023: we remember the five main events in Bashkir hockey

Salavat’s elimination in the first round

Just as in a conversation the last phrase is most remembered, so any hockey season is remembered by the team’s results in elimination matches. “Salavat Yulaev” finished the last regular season in second place in the East, but this was of little consolation to Bashkir hockey fans after the main team of the republic ingloriously went on vacation in the first round, losing to an opponent who spent half as much on the team as the Ufa club. The fans expected much more from their team.

This fiasco can well be called historical. In the history of the KHL, this is not the first time that Salavat ends its campaign for the cup in the first round, and once the Ufa team was already knocked out by a team with a lower seed, but these were all opponents with the top prefix and championship ambitions. In the first season of the KHL, the last team loudly knocked out the winner of the regular season and the current national champion, but the “Yulaevites” were opposed by not just anyone – it was Avangard, led by Jaromir Jagr and Alexander Svitov.

After that, three more times the Bashkir flagship finished in the playoffs at the first stage: twice missing out on Ak Bars and once on Magnitka, which became the champion. It is unpleasant to give in to such rivals, but there is no shame – in terms of tasks and resources, they are comparable rivals, and even superior to Salavat Yulaev. “Admiral” from Vladivostok barely managed to fit into the lower limit of the salary budget, spending a little more than 300 million rubles on players. Before last season, none of the Admiral players were well-known, no other clubs competed for them, and many players moved to Admiral from the VHL. Compared to Salavat, who spent more than 600 million on contracts, the Primorye residents look like poor relatives, but only on paper. In practice, the Ufa team was able to gain the upper hand in only two out of six matches and clearly went on vacation much earlier than expected. The failure was deafening, no matter what the leaders of the Bashkir club said about it.

In the failure of any business, the most important thing is what conclusions those on whom the future path depends will draw from it. At most clubs, the consequences of such a fiasco would be serious. At least for the coaching staff and team members, and even for higher-ranking managers. In Ufa, almost all the culprits remained in their places, having received a chance for correction: the management, the entire coaching staff, and the core of the team clearly underwent changes that could not be called perestroika. In the off-season, the team only strengthened in a targeted manner, and only those who wanted to leave or put forward completely inadequate demands left.

Such confidence in one’s own infallibility in the correctness of the chosen course aroused well-deserved skepticism among fans and specialists. He was only strengthened by the team’s performance at certain points early in the season, but over time, Viktor Kozlov showed that he was capable of learning from his mistakes, and in many aspects the team under his leadership took a step forward compared to last season. Many transfer decisions also came to fruition, although not all. In 2024, the team is among the leaders and has the status of the least conceding team in the East. There are plenty of questions for “Salavat”, and we do not forget that a year ago the “Yulaevites” also had a good run at the end of the regular season, but in the knockout games they were, frankly speaking, simply untenable. Nevertheless, this season Salavat Yulaev looks like a team with greater capabilities and a margin of safety. Whether this is real progress or apparent – only the spring of 2024 will show.

Fifth gold of “Agidel”

It was not the first time that the girls from Agidel were responsible for sports pride in republican hockey. For Ufa, the success of the women’s team is a common thing, but the year before, the “Agidelki” stumbled, for the first time since 2011 they were left without medals. The situation was aggravated by an internal conflict between the head coach and the sports director of the team, under whose leadership the Ufa team played in the finals for four years in a row. The club’s management had no choice but to fire both. It seemed that the championship window, which would be more correctly called the “Agidel” era in the WHL, was closing. However, the club managed to save the team, and Valery Davletshin, who headed the team after Denis Afinogenov, did not break anything in the existing mechanism.

As a result, “Agidel” again reached the top step of the podium. This time the path was not paved with roses – a serious fight began already in the semi-finals, and in the final, for the first time in the history of the league, the teams played until the decisive fifth match. But the Ufa girls won the trophy for the first time in front of their fans – the previous three times the triumph fell on the road.

In the new season, teams are no longer fighting to get into the playoffs, but serious competition for a higher place has already begun in the regular season. “Agidel” had to give up points in a quarter of the matches played this season. Sometimes champions lack motivation somewhere, but their opponents have also drawn serious conclusions. The first four have more than ever equal chances of success, and now we can say that very stubborn and interesting confrontations await us in the spring. Moreover, there will now be more matches in the playoffs. “Agidel” will have to make every effort to leave the cup in Ufa.

A change of generations is just around the corner, and it is obvious that the hegemony of the most titled team of Bashkortostan in the WHL will sooner or later come to an end. Now is the time for the club to think about maintaining its leadership position in women’s hockey, for which it needs to prepare a reserve. In the republic, for some unknown reason, the women’s team of Bashkiria was liquidated, from where personnel could be drawn in the future. Ufa has the experience, conditions and structure that now allow us to dominate, but we need to think about the future.

Problems with financing

The past year again brought unpleasant surprises related to the financial viability of the hockey vertical. This problem has been around for several years, but in 2023 the issue has become more acute than ever. For the first time, “Salavat” did not even have money for the salaries of the players of the main team, and “Toros” did not pay the club staff for several months. The state of uncertainty continued for three months, and, as far as the author knows from his own sources, even the leadership of the club and the republic had no understanding of the situation. The club received a warning from the KHL and even blocked the registration of new player contracts. They were seriously talking about the fact that for the first time Bashkir hockey might not be represented in the main league of the country. The club’s debts to contractors and resource supply organizations grew.

It’s all because of the support system that allows Salavat Yulaev’s vertical to stay afloat. Hockey has only one sponsor – the oil giant, which allocates funds for social projects through the Republican Fund for Social and Targeted Programs. It is clear that Moscow is not very interested in supporting the regional “social sector” and funds are allocated reluctantly and carelessly. The volume of support is cut back, and funding for the calendar year begins to arrive, at best, six months after its start. This gap leaves the hockey club without money by February – spin as best you can. The republic does not have extra money to save hockey every year, such expenses are not included in the regional budget. You don’t need to go to a fortune teller to predict that history will repeat itself in the new year.

Hockey in the republic, and not only it, is in dire need of a major sponsor who would be truly interested in the success of his players. Recently, the general director of Salavat Yulaev, Rinat Bashirov, in an interview with TASS, tried to reassure Bashkir hockey fans, saying that the head of the region was dealing with the issue of increasing the club’s budget to the previous level. The sports functionary said that a significant step in this direction has been taken and, under good circumstances, there will be no uncertainty about the source of funding for the next season. Let’s not rush to rejoice. I remember that not so long ago, after similar promises from the head of the republic, the Ufa football club slid down two levels of the domestic hierarchy and plays in the third strongest professional division. Bandy “Kirovets” and handball “Alice” lost their won place in the elite. One can give examples from the sad reality of Bashkir sports for a long time – even promises of help and support from the top officials of the republic do not save them from bankruptcy and demotion. Sport No. 1 can only hope that things will be different for him.

Doping scandal in Tolpar

But this is definitely the first time this has happened to Bashkir hockey. Like a bolt from the blue in the middle of the fight for the Kharlamov Cup in the MHL, bad news struck – several Ufa youth hockey players were suspended from competition by the anti-doping agency RUSAD. Two Tolpara players were found to have traces of drugs from the list of prohibited drugs in February samples, and additional fences suspended the careers of five more young athletes. Such a massive removal excludes individual intent. One or two people could come to an agreement, but seven at once is unlikely. It is obvious that there was an ingestion of a substance, organized by someone, similar in traces to the notorious meldonium. Whether this happened intentionally or due to the incompetence of the team personnel is a separate question. The main thing is that there was a serious blow to the club’s reputation, and the victims were innocent guys who dedicated their lives to sports.

The saddest thing is that the investigation has not yet been completed and seven young hockey players have been deprived of the opportunity to play for many months. The Ufa club takes a passive position; from Rinat Bashirov’s comments it becomes clear that the club’s management is focused solely on acquitting the club employee, who is primarily suspected of this act. The boys who suffered from someone’s actions are left to their own devices. The funny thing is that the suspected employee responsible for the physical training of Tolpara is not the first to appear in scandalous stories and has a bad reputation in Ufa hockey circles. This does not automatically make him the culprit of doping disgrace, but it makes you wonder why coaches leave the team with a scandal, staff write reports on him, and such a character continues to work as if nothing had happened and already this season he also receives “Agidel” as his ward “. As if there are no other, more qualified physical fitness trainers. One could say that management knows better, but we would disagree. There are enough stories about the controversial and frankly strange personnel policy of the hockey club, which speaks more about nepotism than about the selection of professionals based on their competence. Just look at the stubbornly appointed head coach of Toros, Ravil Khaidarov, who is burdened with obvious problems with labor discipline. It is forgivable to make a mistake in a person once, but the second entry into such a responsible position by a fired person with such a characteristic is outright surrealism.

The reputational damage to Salavat Yulaev, which is one of the brands of the republic, is difficult to overestimate and this cannot be changed. We look forward to resolving the situation with the suspended athletes in the new year. We can only hope that the guys will be able to do what they love, at least from next season.

New ice palaces

Along with financing, the lack of infrastructure is one of the main problems in the development of hockey in Bashkortostan. I am glad that new ice arenas are still appearing in the republic, albeit not as often as we would like. In December, a new palace was launched in Oktyabrsky, built according to the republican program. Under the same program, a second artificial ice will soon be put into operation in Sibay. Another indoor ice rink in Ufa on Mendeleev Street, built for the republic by the oil and gas corporation, is almost ready and will open its doors in February. The main, so to speak, anchor sport in this palace will be figure skating, which until now has not had its own ice in Bashkiria, but there will also be a place for hockey on this site.

Not a single hockey arena is idle in our country – the need greatly exceeds the capacity. The hockey infrastructure in the republic is inferior to many of its neighbors, who have built more palaces and created hockey academies. Now is a difficult time, and the state does not always get around to sports. Private initiative must be encouraged and supported. Ufa already has one private arena in the Astra sports complex, and it would be good to scale this experience.