A club from the United Arab Emirates will join the KHL in 2020

A club from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) may join the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) in 2020. The first step on this path has already been taken - the local Emirates Hockey League (EHL) was headed by Russian businessmen Vladimir Burdun and Dmitry Butenko.

According to RIA Novosti , Burdun became president of EHL, and Butenko was appointed managing director. Their main task is to bring the tournament to the KHL level.

“The priority of the league is expansion to the interstate Asian level, where teams from Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Georgia will be able to take part, and attracting high-quality young players from Europe and Russia. An important direction will be the formation of a team that will become competitive at the international level and will be able to adequately compete against the best European clubs,” said Burdun.

Ice hockey in the desert might seem like a paradox, but for the Emirates Hockey League in Dubai, it's a match made in heaven. pic.twitter.com/d9e7gBwC1l

— Great Big Story (@greatbigstory) April 4, 2017

The plans of the president and management are to make a proposal to the KHL management in 2020 about the participation of a team from the UAE in the championship. At the beginning of 2019, an ice arena is expected to open in Abu Dhabi, meeting all the requirements of the KHL.

In August of this year, Alexander Medvedev, a member of the board of directors and the first president of the KHL, announced the appearance of a “rich team” from the United Arab Emirates in the league . According to him, local functionaries have money and a desire.

“Everyone knows that if the UAE is planning something, then the money factor is not a problem,” Medvedev noted.

There are currently six foreign clubs playing in the league. At the end of the 2017/18 season, domestic teams that did not meet the profitability criteria left the championship.