President of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF)
Rene Fasel admitted in an interview with Sportschau that Belarus has almost no chance of hosting the World Cup in 2021.
To begin with, Rene Fasel explained the essence of his photographs with Lukashenka and Dzmitry Baskau. My joint photos with Lukashenka were misinterpreted. The discussion went in a completely different vein - I did not come to drink vodka with him. Our goal was to find a solution to the issue, Fasel said.
In turn, IIHF Secretary General
Horst Lichtner added that they were guaranteed that the photos did not get into the press.
Saturday, 16 January 2021
Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has denied her representatives spoke with International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) President René Fasel prior to his controversial meeting with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.
Fasel told Swiss website
Watson that the governing body has been seeking talks with representatives of the Government and also with the opposition .
The IIHF President said he had spoken to someone close to Svetlana Tikhanovskaya prior to the meeting and raised the issue of political prisoners with Lukashenko.
A statement issued by Tikhanovskaya denied having contact with Fasel prior to the meeting, however, with the Belarus opposition leader insisting the IIHF Men’s World Championship be removed from the country.
IIHF Delegation Meets with Belarus President 01/11/21
(ATR) International Ice Hockey Federation president René Fasel holds discussions in Minsk with Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko on the issues surrounding the country’s planned co-hosting of the 2021 world championship.
Fasel and Lukashenko at the 2014 IIHF World Championship opening in Minsk. (ATR)
Fasel leads the IIHF delegation, which also includes IIHF Council member Sergej Gontcharov and IIHF General Secretary Horst Lichtner. The IIHF says that in addition to Lukashenko, they also met on January 11 with Roman Golovchenko, the Belarus Prime Minister and chair of the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Organizing Committee, and with Sergei Kovalchuk, the Minister of Sports.
Interview: René Fasel über den Lukaschenko-Besuch tagblatt.ch - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from tagblatt.ch Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Franz Reindl (Germany).
Decisions are made by a majority vote, while Secretary General Horst Lichtner (he flew to Minsk with Fasel and supports the World Cup in Belarus) has no vote.
Thus, in order to make a decision, it is necessary to get at least 7 votes out of 13.
Council members who have already spoken publicly about the postponement of the championship
In mid-November, the IIHF heard a report from the expert commission, which noted that it would be extremely difficult to hold the championship in Minsk in the current conditions. The main issue is the safety of the teams and guests of the championship. Experts were also confused by the Belarusian statistics on coronavirus. To put it bluntly, they don t really believe it, which, in particular, the member of the IIHF Council Peter Břiza said.