Fasel will announce to Lukashenko that the hockey World Cup will move

Of: Moa berander, Tomas Ros

Published: December 28, 2020 at 12:42 p.m.
Updated: December 28, 2020 at 12:52 p.m.

Photo: Alexei Nikolsky / TT NEWS AGENCY

René Fasel together with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Officially, no decision has been made about the hockey World Cup in Belarus.

But Swiss news site Watson claims IIHF president René Fasel will soon be flying to Minsk.

This is to announce to President Alexander Lukashenko that the World Cup will move.

The crisis meeting to be held around the hockey World Cup in Belarus and Latvia in early December was canceled. This is due, among others, to the fact that the president of the IIHF, René Fasel, had suffered from covid-19.

According to Watson, Fasel will fly to Minsk shortly, as soon as he has recovered, to meet with the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko.

The news site claims that Fasel will inform the president that the nation will ditch the host. The decision has to be made, but it is not yet official, as Lukashenko will be communicated personally first.

“No new information has been received”

Anders Larsson, president of the Swedish Ice Hockey Association, has yet to hear that a decision has been made.

– I have a fairly close dialogue with René Fasel. We both talked just before last Christmas. The IIHF is working on the complex issue of the World Cup. So far, the member countries have not received any new information. We look forward to getting more information after the weekends, he says.

If the information is correct, the question is where the hockey World Cup will take place. Latvia cannot present itself as the only host nation, as it only has a large enough arena, if the audience is allowed.

The main candidates, according to Watson, are then the Czech Republic or Slovakia. A combination of the two may also be possible.

Published: December 28, 2020 at 12:42 p.m.

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