Quote:
Originally Posted by Itse
Czechia has 10 million people, about the same as Sweden, that's not small for a hockey country. Finland and Slovakia are both like 5.5M. Switzerland has 9M.
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True and I'm not trying discredit any of those countries. I see your location is in Finland so I'll tell you right away they're the one hockey country outside of Canada that I'm most fond of! Finland to hockey reminds me of what Croatia is to football. Small population of passionate, overachievers that came from a efficient sporting program.
The only thing I'd push back on your post is that while they have a larger population, without knowing first hand I'd assume Czechia has had some instability when it comes to funding sports programs in somewhat recent history.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this, because I've never actually been to a Scandinavian country (although I plan on it!). But I have been to Czechia and from what I've seen it doesn't seem like a complete 'hockey country', the interest & funding in the sport seems like it's more region based. Whereas I assume countries with smaller populations like you mentioned might have more established programs.