Hockey The last convulsion of the jokers’ KHL journey is coming at any moment – The road to the home league looks awkward

Jokers the eight-year-long KHL sky is complete without a last convulsion.

The final confirmation of the Jokers ’withdrawal may come at any moment.

As Russia invaded Ukraine and expanded the war of arms phase into an open attack, the world sports map also changed.

The war hit and hit the Jokers the hardest on the hockey side. Economic sanctions, air traffic restrictions, airspace closures and other measures against Russia are wiping out the Jokers from KHL.

And public pressure is by no means the slightest factor. Playing at KHL is literally an impossibility.

Finn hockey would need a brand called Jokers, but quite easily Jokers are not seen in domestic troughs.

First of all, the Jokers have no players, no longer an arena to operate in, and no transparent Finnish ownership required by the Finnish Champions League.

According to information received by HS, the agreement between the Jokers and KHL states that the Jokers will play their home games in Helsinki and the Hartwall Arena. This was to ensure that the Hartwall Arena, which uses Russian sound, would have a puck club as a standard user.

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“If the Jokers are credible and add value to the metropolitan area, sportingly and commercially, commercially, it’s certainly interesting to go through.”

The Jokers already violated this rule with an exception last spring by concentrating all their playoffs in Yaroslavl, Russia.

Homely The league would receive the Jokers with open arms if the chairman of the Finnish Championship League Heikki Hiltusta borrowing the club would add value to the current series.

“Depending on what the Jokers are. If the Jokers are a model of Kiekko-Vantaa, it would hardly be a discussion we would have, ”Hiltunen tells HS.

“If the Jokers are credible and add value to the metropolitan area, sportingly and commercially, commercially, it’s certainly interesting to go through.”

So far, the Jokers have not been in contact with the League, and participation in the series starting in the fall of 2022 is no longer possible. Not even on an accelerated schedule.

Hiltunen emphasizes that the league’s series program will take place by the end of May and the beginning of June, when you should know how many participants there are.

The tangle of Jokers in Russia is so badly knotted that the schedule for jumping into the League in a couple of months is not realistic.

“There is nothing to comment on at this point. There is everything at the moment, ”said one of the owners of the Jokers Jari Kurri communicated and did not want to talk more about the club’s affairs.

There is another problem. Next season’s league licenses were reviewed last fall by the end of October. Next time, the doors of the league can be opened for the period 2023–2024.

Helsinki IFK would like the Jokers with open arms back to the League. Managing Director of IFK Jukka Valtanen tells HS the metropolitan area needs another team.

Valtanen would like to see sold-out local matches, but Valtanen does not want Jokers to use the same hall.

“In practice, it would be really challenging,” Valtanen commented on the Joker’s playing on Nordenskiöldinkatu.

The Jokerit played there until 1997, when the team got to the bigger premises in Pasila.

Valtanen suggests that IFK does not want the Jokers to spin in the same corners as at most as an opponent of game nights.

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“Someone should redeem the Hartwall Arena away [venäläis]off. After all, those Russians don’t need it anymore if the Jokers don’t play there. ”

President of the Ice Rink Foundation, which manages the Helsinki Ice Rink Tom Kivimäki says fitting the Jokers into the ice rink would be tedious, but he doesn’t want to close the door.

“It requires structural and operational changes, but why not. Anything is possible, and it must be carefully studied, ”says Kivimäki, looking back on the time before the Hartwall Arena.

That’s when the Jokers and IFK shared the hall.

SM -īga oy: n Hiltunen believes that the Hartwall Arena is out of the question in any case. According to Hiltunen, the Jokers would probably not even have access to it in these circumstances.

“Someone should redeem the Hartwall Arena away [venäläis]off. After all, those Russians don’t need it anymore if the Jokers don’t play there. ”

If the redemption of the Pasila arena is not successful, one of the Jokers’ solutions would be to try to rent the Espoo Metro arena for a transitional period and try to negotiate with IFK access to the Garden Helsinki hall when it is sometimes completed.

In addition to all this, the Jokers would have to meet the terms of a league license and redeem a league share worth around € 1.8 million.

When Jukurit, Sport and KooKoo joined the League, they redeemed 1.8 million league shares. According to Hiltunen, every club has also paid for it in full.

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“I used to have a conversation with Hjallikse, and he said the Jokers would never come to the League.”

Before buying a league share, the Jokers would need to put together a credible, league-level team to play for the winnings.

A successful league team in the capital will cost around 8-10 million euros. The pot is big from scratch and quickly trampled when Russian money wouldn’t get help.

For a league license must also present the organization’s performance, financial information, strategy and business plan, as well as team information and organizational information, i.e., condition patterns.

Hiltunen says that the Jokerit will not be able to come to the League with their current ownership base.

“Should be transparent and resistant to publicity. There are no seams at the moment. ”

Hiltunen would be ready to take the Joker’s case forward if there was an interest in playing in the League on that side.

Has the Joker asked about the possibility of returning to the League, Chairman Hiltunen?

“I used to have a conversation with Hjalliksen many years ago, and he said the Jokers would never come to the League.”

Harry “Hjallis” Harkimo may well be right that the Jokers will never play in the Champions League again.