Belarus sees itself being punished for “no reason” and in the sense of “political demagogues”, sports politicians and human rights activists, on the other hand, breathe a sigh of relief. June), the reactions are, as expected, very different: “This is a heavy blow for the dictator and his image,” said the human rights activist Ales Bialiatski from Belarus. Lukashenko would have loved to use the World Cup for his politics, emphasized Bialiatski, who was awarded the “Alternative Nobel Prize”: “It’s a bit like taking away a child’s toys.”
That is what the first reactions from Belarus suggest. The organizing committee wrote on the government website of a “baseless decision” to “satisfy the interests of political demagogues.” Tuesday’s statement did not reveal whether Belarus is considering a lawsuit against the IIHF.
This danger may also have been a reason for the IIHF’s long hesitation, because a possible contractual penalty would have a hard financial impact on the association. Against this background, the official justification of the IIHF for the decision is to be understood: Because of “growing security concerns in connection with the increasing political unrest” and Corona, the World Cup cannot be held in Minsk as planned. According to its statutes, the world association cannot reschedule a tournament for political reasons alone.
And so IIHF President Rene Fasel played for a while in the past few months when the unrest in Belarus made headlines with arrested, injured and even killed protesters. Demands from politics, human rights activists and also from co-hosts Latvia increased the pressure. Still, Fasel was left with no choice when the sponsors threatened to withdraw.
Fasel’s most recent meeting with Lukashenko, during which he hugged Lukashenko, turned out to be a fiasco for the IIHF boss. “I wasn’t there to have a glass of vodka with Lukashenko,” the Swiss later defended himself against the impression of being too close to Lukashenko. They tried to find a solution, but “forgot that sport is no longer just a vehicle for peace, but that sport is instrumentalized.”
It has to be doubted that Fasel is really that naive after almost 40 years as a sports official. “The IIHF president simply gambled himself away,” said sports committee chairman Dagmar Freitag. The SPD politician has now also called for the cancellation of other international title fights such as the pentathlon World Cup in Minsk in June.
For the ice hockey world championship a new organizer has to be found. Another cancellation after 2020, when the tournament in Switzerland was canceled due to corona, would be “a disaster,” said Denmark’s association president Henrik Nielsen. The sport would not be able to cope with another cancellation. Therefore he offered Denmark as a substitute venue.SID / nd
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