The Ice Hockey Federation accepted the equality commissioner’s settlement proposal.
Finland The Ice Hockey Association discriminated against the player and took countermeasures prohibited by the Equality Act against the coach in a case where a junior player had told about a racist name-calling in the middle of a match in November 2022. The matter was announced on Tuesday office of the equality commissioner.
The Jääkiekkoliitto also said that it had accepted the settlement proposal presented by the Equality Commissioner. The union has admitted discrimination and countermeasures and apologized. According to the equality commissioner, the Jääkiekkoliitto will pay a compensation of 3,000 euros to both the player and the coach and compensate them for the expenses incurred in the matter in full.
For the ice hockey association the case, which brought a lot of negative publicity, has been featured extensively in the media. For example Over reported in May that the Jääkiekkoliitto had not yet agreed to the apology and the equality commissioner’s reconciliation proposal.
“This has been a learning process for us, during which we have tried with the help of experts to find out how to act correctly in such situations and how the Jääkieksliitto’s operations relate to the Equality Act. We have accepted the equality commissioner’s settlement proposal, apologized to the player and the coach, and with that we turn our eyes to the new season. It is now important for us to focus on actions to prevent similar cases in the future”, the president of the Ice Hockey Association Harri Nummela says in the bulletin.
Case dates back to a match played on November 6, 2022, where the coach demanded measures from the referees when the player had told him that he had been called a racist by another player.
The coach directed his team to the locker room due to the incident, after which the referees stopped the match. The Ice Hockey Association banned the coach from interrupting the match, ignoring the fact that the coach’s motivation was to intervene in racist name-calling.
Equality Commissioner according to the law, the punishment given to the coach was a prohibited countermeasure according to the Equality Act. The player was subjected to indirect discrimination prohibited by the Equality Act, as both the Ice Hockey Federation’s instructions for addressing racist harassment and the referees’ training have been inadequate.
The coach of the junior team that was involved in the case Juha Sokan in my opinion, the whole sport will benefit from the lessons of the case.
“It took a long time, but the most important thing is that a common note was found. Based on our discussions, I believe that the matter is taken seriously and there is a genuine desire to develop the operation. I also believe that this case will give an impetus to all those involved in the sport: the basic rights of people and their respect must be the starting point in all activities,” says Sokka in the Jääkiekliitto’s press release.
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