[KHL/IIHF] Jokerit Boycotts a Game in Belarus, What About the World Championships?

[Itse]

Obviously distant and somewhat minor news, but what the heck, I think the story is pretty interesting, and has some pretty significant implications.

So as those who follow foreign news probably know, Belarus has seen long and massive protests against their local dictator (and hockey fan) Lukasenko, after he quite blatantly faked an election result to keep himself in power.

The prostest have been mostly peaceful, but have been met with brutal violence by the local security forces and mass arrests of thousands that included severe beatings and other forms of torture. In short, Lukashenko looks like absolute dogsh** right now.

A somewhat minor sidestory, but with big implications, is that our local hockey team Jokerit from Helsinki refused to travel to Belarus to play their scheduled KHL game in Minsk. Being Russian owned (although Jari Kurri serves as a front for the actual owners) it's quite obvious this was a decision Jokerit didn't do willingly, and previous comments from the club made it clear they were planning to go play the game.

What turned the issue was their own fan club, who after a unanimous meeting told the club that if they go to Minsk to play, their own fan club will boycott Jokerit home games in protest, "until further notice". This essentially forced Jokerit to back down and make a very neutral statement that they would not be traveling to Minsk to play. KHL responded by calling the game a 0-5 loss for Jokerit.

The next looming hockey related issue is that the IIHF 2021 World Championships are supposed to be played in Latvia and Belarus, which at this point is making IIHF look absolutely terrible. The IIHFWC of course has already been held in Belarus under Lukashenko in 2014, which did raise some eyebrows but ultimately most people didn't care much back then. This time however is starting to look very different.

It's extremely rare for a fan club to demand their own club to boycott a country for something like this, so I think that in itself is a fairly interesting story. If the Jokerit situation is an indicator of just how badly Lukashenkos reputation has been tarnished around Europe, it's going to be really difficult for IIHF to hold the games in Belarus, if Lukashenko manages to hold on to his power or the protests turn into a full blown uprising.

The IIHF of course are a bunch of spineless weasels (I think a fairly neutral factual observation ), and they don't want to upset the Russians. (Putin obviously supports Lukashenko because hey, fellow hockey loving dictator and everything.)

However, I think there's a good chance the European hockey fans will simply force IIHFs hands in the matter.

It will be interesting to see how this thing develops. Hockey and politics haven't been this intertwined in a while.

Obviously I personally hope that Lukashenko just takes the hint, packs his stuff and retires somewhere warm.

[Salt Water Cowboy #10]

It amazes me what leaders and politicians can get away with these days(or at least try to). Especially considering how much smaller the world is with smart phones and social media. We’ll see if trump wins the next American election... that’d be awesome. Cuz I’m sure if he does it will seem super legit.

[Itse]

Couple of notes:

- The "paid protesters" conspiracy theory btw has been in full force in Belarus. The security forces have been beating the protesters to find out who paid them.

- not to miss out on some E=NG, Esa Tikkanen is among the rather numerous hockey veterans who have defended Lukashenko in public. Lukashenko seems to be quite friendly with a lot of European hockey royalty.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

The fan boycott part is interesting. Are fans actually going to games right now in the KHL?

Because it's fan driven, I wonder if there will actually be implications at the international hockey level. My other thought is, will there even be a tournament due to COVID?

[Itse]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

The fan boycott part is interesting. Are fans actually going to games right now in the KHL?

Because it's fan driven, I wonder if there will actually be implications at the international hockey level. My other thought is, will there even be a tournament due to COVID?

AFAIK the Finnish fans are the only ones who demanded a boycott.

Nationality of course plays a part here. Jokerit are the only Finnish team in the KHL.

Really the only other team I could imagine boycotting Dinamo Minsk are the Latvian team Dinamo Riga. That game is scheduled for 1st of October. I have no idea what discussion is like in Latvia, or if it even exists. But they're the only other democracy still involved in the KHL.

The Russian, Chinese or Kazakstan teams are of course not going to "cause problems".

There's quite a lot of people who think Jokerit should quit KHL and rejoin the Finnish league, but it seems unlikely at this point considering it's a Russian owned team. KHL is also a weird league where profits don't really matter. Jokerit have never been profitable in the KHL, and I think the same is true for most teams. The whole league runs on oligarch money, and it's as much a political "soft power" project as it is a sports league.

That is why Jokerit being in the league is such an issue, they're the one truly western team KHL managed to catch, and they're not going to let go easy.

[Itse]

MAJOR UPDATE:

Latvia, who were supposed to co-host the 2021 world championships with Belarus, threatens to pull out as a host if Belarus is not replaced with a different co-host country.

https://www.insidethegames.biz/artic...eplace-belarus

I can't see Belarus hosting the games after this. That's a huge PR loss for Lukashenko.

[btimbit]

Happy to see that. Good on Latvia

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by Itse

AFAIK the Finnish fans are the only ones who demanded a boycott.

Nationality of course plays a part here. Jokerit are the only Finnish team in the KHL.

Really the only other team I could imagine boycotting Dinamo Minsk are the Latvian team Dinamo Riga. That game is scheduled for 1st of October. I have no idea what discussion is like in Latvia, or if it even exists. But they're the only other democracy still involved in the KHL.

The Russian, Chinese or Kazakstan teams are of course not going to "cause problems".

There's quite a lot of people who think Jokerit should quit KHL and rejoin the Finnish league, but it seems unlikely at this point considering it's a Russian owned team. KHL is also a weird league where profits don't really matter. Jokerit have never been profitable in the KHL, and I think the same is true for most teams. The whole league runs on oligarch money, and it's as much a political "soft power" project as it is a sports league.

That is why Jokerit being in the league is such an issue, they're the one truly western team KHL managed to catch, and they're not going to let go easy.

Do the Jokerit fans miss playing their natural Finnish rival teams? I'd have to imagine that they'd much rather see a game against a team like Frolunda than Kunlun Red Star.

[FlamesAddiction]

Move it to Poland, for no other reason than to really piss off Lukashenko.

Plus, just my humble opinion, but Poland would be a great place to try and grow more interest in the game.

[Itse]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

Do the Jokerit fans miss playing their natural Finnish rival teams? I'd have to imagine that they'd much rather see a game against a team like Frolunda than Kunlun Red Star.

Frölunda is not a natural rival, that's a Swedish team

I don't really know what the feeling among Jokerit fans is, I don't personally know any. For what ever reasons all my hockey fan friends here support HIFK, the other top team in Helsinki that plays in Finnish league.

I am however sure that almost all hockey fans in Helsinki and probably quite a few in other cities miss those HIFK-Jokerit matchups, and I know there's a growing rather vocal sentiment in Finland that Jokerit is playing in the wrong league. Just noticed a cover story in a local sports magazine with exactly that headline for example.

So I don't know if Jokerit fans want to go back to the Finnish league, maybe they prefer that KHL hockey, but most other hockey fans would likely be happy to see Jokerit back. For about 30 seconds, then they would all instantly go back to hating that big-money fair-weather-fans who-do-they-think-they-are team, just like old times

[Unknown]

Originally Posted by Itse

So I don't know if Jokerit fans want to go back to the Finnish league, maybe they prefer that KHL hockey, but most other hockey fans would likely be happy to see Jokerit back. For about 30 seconds, then they would all instantly go back to hating that big-money fair-weather-fans who-do-they-think-they-are team, just like old times

Jokerit fans want to see their team in FEL rather than KHL, at least most of them. I know a few Jokerit fans, and by reading their fanbase's comments on social media, it surely seems that they want their team back to FEL.