In case the borders of Covid-19 will be closed due to the spread of Covid-19 in the rest of the season, the management of the Continental Hockey League (KHL) will try to arrange Riga Dinamo and Helsinki Jokerit teams to play in Russia, President Alexei Morozov.
It has already been reported that the disease with Covid-19 after returning from Belarus has been confirmed by 13 people related to Riga “Dinamo”, as a result of which “Dynamians” will be able to return to the square starting from October 25-26.
This was the second time in Dinamo that a large number of Covid-19 patients had been diagnosed in the club. The closing of the borders has already been experienced in the spring, but in case of recurrence, KHL will invite “Dinamo” and “Jokerit” represented by Jānis Kalniņš to agree to hold home games in Russia.
“We hope that will not happen, but otherwise we will try to get permission for these teams,” Morozov said. “A similar” special permit “is currently granted by the Kazakh government to Nursultan’s” Baris “, which can both travel and receive guests from other countries.”
“If we imagine the worst case scenario, clubs will look for hockey halls in Russia.”
Morozov also stressed that the league has not considered the scenario of suspending the championship for a short time. There were also no plans to shorten the calendar, although several KHL clubs have so far been diagnosed with Covid-19.
“As of Thursday, there were 75 people in the league who had been infected with Covid-19. This number is not limited to players, as the staff, coaches and others are also testing in collaborative laboratories. As far as I know, 322 people have recovered from the virus,” added Morozov. .
The president of the league also emphasized that there is no reason for any team not to go to Belarus, where there have been protests against the falsification of the presidential election for more than two months. He pointed out that Minsk’s “Dinamo”, for its part, is doing its best to receive guests and play games in a safe atmosphere.
With seven points in 13 games, Dinamo ranks last among 11 Western Conference teams and is also the weakest unit in the league.
It has previously been reported that nine hockey players and two staff members were infected with Dinamo during the first case of Covid-19.
Last season, “Dinamo” took the penultimate place in the Western Conference and in the entire league, not qualifying for the Gagarin Cup for the sixth year in a row.
