KHL President Alexander Medvedev.

The expansion of the continental hockey league can damage the Sochi Olympics-2014.

The ambitious project of the KHL in the near future will remain within the boundaries of the former USSR. This became clear after the Czech hockey federation imposed a veto on the performance of the Lev team from Gradets-Coolov in the open championship of Russia. The club from the Eastern Czech Republic went through the whole procedure for coordinating documents with the KHL, but in order for him to become the first representative of the league from the far abroad, the Russian hockey federation will have to quarrel with the International Olympic Committee. On the eve of the Olympics in Sochi, a similar turn of events is unlikely.

Conflict of interests

A few days ago, the KHL announced the possibility of including the Lev club in the league participants in the next season . But the members of the Czech Hockey Federation Executive Committee unanimously voted against the entry into the KHL team from Gradets-Coolov. “This decision concerns the next season, but the federation would like to continue negotiations with the KHL leadership,” quoted the words of the Secretary General of the Federation Martin Urban ITAR-TASS -our task is to protect the interests of its members, hockey clubs in internal competitions. In this case, in the KHL, we cannot do this. ”

Foreign clubs in the KHL

Dynamo (Minsk, Belarus)
"Budivelnik" (Kyiv, Ukraine)
Dynamo (Riga, Latvia)
"Barys" (Astana, Kazakhstan)

Earlier, the team from the Czech Republic had to go through a long procedure for checking their documents by the KHL inspectors. Initially, the league was not arranged by financial guarantees provided by the club from Gradets-Coolov . But then, under the pressure of her leaders, the KHL changed her mind, and decided to open the door for the Leva literally the next season, which starts in September this year. It is very important for the image of the League to cross the borders of the former Soviet Union, because so far the KHL is perceived as the heir to the USSR championship, and the main investor of the project, the top manager of Gazprom Alexander Medvedev, declares more ambitious expansion plans .

Spartak spirit

Earlier, the KHL has already encountered similar problems - the Swedish hockey federation refused Stockholm AIK in the right to play in the richest League of Eurasia. But there was a hope that in the case of a Czech club there would be no such difficulties. “The Lion Club was formed only last year and does not have such a story as AIK,” said Vladimir Shalaev vice president Vladimir Shalaev. - I am ready to give 90 percent that the Czech club will play in our league next season. In this regard, you will have to change the distribution of commands in divisions. However, we already have four different options, and all of them are convenient from the point of view of the calendar. ”

For the sake of joining the KHL, the Czech club was adjusted with financial guarantees in the amount of 330 million kroons (12.7 million euros). At the same time, the team was supposed to be created on the basis of the HCHK team, which in the distant past was called Spartak, and now performs in the first division of the Czech championship. The highest division of the Czech Championship - Extraliga - would not affect the new project. Nevertheless, the Czech Federation opposed the arrival of the KHL on its own land. This is the first to indicate that the integration projects of Alexander Medvedev in Europe will have a difficult struggle against national hockey elites.

Four years of silence

The presence in the KHL teams from far abroad would greatly increase the bets of our league in the NHL dialogue and the International Hockey Federation ( IIHF ). Theoretically, Alexander Medvedev has an option to include “Leva” in the open championship of Russia and without the permission of the Czech Federation. But such a turn will inevitably lead to a scandal with IIHF . Her head Rene Fasel is now not interested in new conflicts, because he has just received a strict reprimand of the IOC for fraud with television rights . But the phase has a great whip in order to restrain Russian hockey expansion in Central and Northern Europe - the upcoming Olympics in Sochi.

The Russian Hockey Federation, which at one time lost the right to hold the Russian Championship, is part of the structure of the Russian Olympic Committee and is under the rule of the IOC. If IIHF presses the actions of Medvedev in the International Olympic Committee, then the KHL will have to be very hard. Our league is not so strong economically and organizational as to talk with IIHF from the standpoint of power as the NHL does. In addition, Russia is extremely interested in good relations with the IOC in preparation for the Sochi Olympics. All this puts off the prospects for the expansion of the KHL to the west until at least 2014. Unless, of course, Gazprom cannot be interested in the obstinate national federations financially.