One of the Hungarian fans at the Ice Hockey World Championship came support your team at the match with the Swedish national team in a T-shirt with the inscription «Russia». The organizers considered this a violation of the rules and demanded to take off the jersey. Russia is not at this world championship, but our country still remains the main supplier of news from the 2023 World Cup.
Hungarian banned from supporting RussiaThe ice hockey world championship without Russia for the second year in a row turns into a dull sight. This year the tournament takes place in Latvia and Finland, but it does not arouse much interest among the fans. The stands at matches are usually half empty, and there are practically no National League stars here. Canadians and Americans brought to the 2023 World Cup not even a second-rate, but a third-rate squad.
Some variety in the sluggish course of the tournament was made by Hungarian fans. Their team rarely breaks into the elite division, so the fans decided to celebrate such an event on a large scale. The Hungarians massively and noisily support their national team, even though it does not pretend to anything. One of the Hungarian fans came to the game against the Swedes in a T-shirt with the inscription «Russia».
Ilta-Sanomat.
The organizers immediately flew up to the fan with a provocative, in their opinion, T-shirt. And they demanded to immediately remove it, otherwise the person will be expelled from the stands and sent home. The fan did not stir up conflict and agreed to do what he was asked to do.
“We make decisions based on safety and order. Therefore, we drew attention to this fan in a T-shirt supporting Russia. There was outrage in the stands about this. We felt that all this threatened the match,» Ketonen added.
«Daring Russia» and «impudent behavior» It's not so hard to guess who was outraged about this T-shirt. Actually, even in the Finnish media, the situation was presented as a worship of the colors of the flag of Russia and our country. The publication Ilta-Salomat released an article with the title «Daring Russia admires in the stands of Nokia Arena». The act of the Hungarian fan was described as «arrogant behavior that is not appropriate in the current realities.»
The Russian flag was indeed banned at the 2023 World Cup, as Edgars Buncis, head of the organizing committee of the Riga part of the tournament, solemnly announced. Here, however, it was not about the flag, but simply about the inscription «Russia». Obviously, when it comes to our country, all the rules and regulations can only be interpreted in one direction. To ban and cancel is the main message.
It's funny that the flag of Ukraine, which does not participate in the World Cup at all, can be used. It was equated to Latvian, thereby bypassing the ban in the rules. The national team of Kazakhstan also suffered from the actions of the organizers, whose coaching staff was not given a visa to enter Latvia because people had a Russian or Belarusian passport. At the same time, the IIHF dutifully remains silent and watches how world hockey is being destroyed.