The former president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, René Fasel, is starting to fix referee issues in Russia.
International former president of the ice hockey association René Fasel gets a special assignment in Russia. The KHL president told about it Alexei Morozov Russian media For Championat.
According to the KHL pole man, Fasel, 73, is the right man to solve the series’ refereeing problems. He served as a referee from 1972 to 1982 after ending his amateur career as a player for his hometown team Fribourg.
The refereeing problems of the Ruplali League surfaced once again when Avangard Omsk’s captain Alexander Krylov spoke publicly about favoring some clubs.
According to the general perception, home teams are heavily favored in the KHL – or in some cases, certain big away teams. From time to time, at least in places other than the public, suspicions arise that justice distributors are being bribed or even engaged in competitive bribery.
In Krylov’s opinion, it would be time to get rid of the old brakes and replace them with younger referees.
“There are ideas on how to improve the interaction of the head referees with the clubs, their boards and the league as a whole. We are working to get more young referees, which Krylov needs,” said Morozov.
The journalist of Championat asked Morozov if Fasel could help the Russians in this matter.
“Oh, can you help? Of course, we’ll take him along. We announced on Monday, he can help us with referee matters. We instructed him to talk to the clubs about who they want to see in the referee committee, that is, who they trust,” Morozov formulated.
Former referee Alexander Zaitsev assumes that SKA’s head coach Roman Rotenberg related to Fasel’s new role in one way or another.
“Perhaps one of the decision-makers is Rotenberg. We remember that he repeatedly said in media conferences that the opponents executed many of his players. He also claimed that the referees did not react to those situations properly,” he said For Championat.
The name of Fasel, who has been petting Russia for years, has been in the public eye since the war of aggression started by Russia. The man himself has withdrawn from the public eye almost completely. At the same time, his friend works in Russia Vladimir Putin and in general has been harshly criticized for the good of the country.
Fasel caught a glimpse of the KHL match played in Russia last season on TV and claimed to a journalist who asked for an interview that he was not there for the entire event. At the same time, bombs went off in Ukraine.
Since the start of the war, Russia has been under the control of the IIHF. The country would very much like to return to international arenas. Fasel has praised the KHL, admired the Russian style of playing hockey and declared that he would like to see Russia on international rinks as soon as possible.
President of the International Ice Hockey Federation Luca Tardiff has said that Fasel would still like to influence its decisions.
The news agency Interfax reported in February 2023 that Fasel has received Russian citizenship. In the same context, Interfax reported that Fasel has become the main owner of the Russian apple producer Alma Holding with a 54 percent slice.
The remaining 46 percent of it is owned by Volga Group Agro. The owner of Volga Group is a businessman who belongs to Putin’s inner circle and was influential in the Helsinki Jokers Gennady Timchenko.
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