“The Executive Committee and the Slovak Ice Hockey Association will always respect international agreements and the applicable laws of the Slovak Republic. We believe that the players currently operating in Russia do not violate international agreements or our laws,” the union said last Thursday.
But it is not clear how he arrived at this verdict, with which many of the main sponsors, such as Orange Slovakia, Škoda Auto Slovakia or the Kaufland chain, do not agree. Because of him, Michal Handzuš also announced his resignation from his post in the executive committee on Tuesday. “The reason for my decision is the acceptance of the opinion of the executive committee on the possibility of Slovakia being represented by players from the KHL. I can’t imagine my further work in such a direction of the organization,” said Handzuš.
Another member of the committee, Branislav Semančík, responded to his departure by claiming that the Association did not vote on KHL players in the national team at all. “I was surprised by the statement of some media that VV SZĽH decided. Yes, VV SZĽH dealt with this topic. But the two oldest and most experienced members excused themselves from the meeting due to their workload, and everyone involved, including SZĽH president Miroslav Šatan, thought that with such a serious topic and decision, they would wait for the next joint meeting of the complete SZĽH VV,” said Semančík.
According to him, only then should a joint opinion be issued on the start of players from the KHL in the national team. There are currently 8 Slovak players active in the KHL: goalkeepers Adam Húska, Patrik Rybár and Július Hudáček, defenders Christián Jaroš and Michal Čajkovský and a trio of forwards Samuel Buček, Adam Liška and Michal Krištof.
Slovakia surprisingly went against the flow, most European countries, including the Czech Republic, Sweden, Latvia and Finland, banned players from the KHL from playing in their national teams.
