MOSCOW, Aug 25, Andrey Senchenko. Accusations against the coach according to the OFP of the Ufa hockey club «Tolpar» that he forced hockey players to take doping, are part of the strategy to protect some players, said Denis Taipov, head of the Tolpar press service.
In April, the Kontinental Hockey League reported that seven players from Tolpar, Salavat Yulaev's farm club in the Youth Hockey League (MHL), passed positive doping tests. On Friday, the telegram channel Baza reported that seven Tolpar hockey players accused fitness coach Igor Zagretdinov of forcing them to dope.
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"Indeed, the investigative committee opened a case on the discovery of doping in the players. It was initiated by the committee on the materials received from RUSADA. We have never denied the very fact of the discovery of doping. With regards to blaming the coach for GPT, as far as we know, such a blaming is part of the defense strategy of some players' representatives. We treat this strategy with understanding. Earlier, the defense offered us a similar option, where as the «accused» would be a member of the service staff. Such a strategy did not meet the interests of the club and could cause significant damage to its reputation,” Salavat Yulaev said in a statement.
facts of doping would have become known to the public even without the results of RUSADA tests,» he added.