The new season of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) started less weeks ago, and there were plenty of high-profile events. Ivan Fedotov started playing for CSKA, having received appropriate approval from the league, which quietly changed the tournament regulations a day before the start of the championship. “Ak Bars” showed a brutal line of attack and began to instill fear in opponents. Dmitry Kvartalnov famously returned to the KHL and has already brought Dynamo Minsk the biggest victory in the recent history of the club. «Lada» immediately felt a new level after the next comeback.
«Shumit» and Moscow «Spartak». Aleksey Zhamnov won his first victory as the head coach of the Red-Whites, having lost to the Chinese Kunlun before that, and his wards Nikolai Goldobin and Ivan Morozov broke into the leaders of the sniper and assistant standings, respectively.
Goldobin became the author of the first hat-trick in the KHL season. However, it is not these facts that attract much attention to themselves, but the sensational decision of the capital club to exchange superstar Alexander Khokhlacheva for Amur on the eve of the start of the championship. We have already written about the details of this deal.
Khokhlachev quickly adapted to the new team and began to score points. He has two goals and one assist in two matches. Alexander's third game in the camp of the «Tigers» was to be held today in Moscow against the former club. However, Khokhlachev will not appear on the site of the Megasport arena as an Amur hockey player.
“Alexander Khokhlachev will not take part in today's match with Spartak. This is one of the terms of the deal to exchange the player to our club. In addition, Alexander has a microdamage that he will be able to heal in the near future,” Vadim Pokotilo, the general manager of the Khabarovsk team, quotes Amur press service.
The fact that a hockey player will not play against a former team is not unusual. There were many similar stories in the KHL, but the clubs did not publicly announce the agreements and cited a variety of reasons as arguments — from microdamages to coaching decisions.
Here, «Cupid» and «Spartak» openly admitted to «gentlemen's agreements.» Yes, we have repeatedly seen this in football, when a player loaned by one club missed matches against the team that owns the rights to him. Of course, not very sporty, but it's still a lease. In the case of Khokhlachev, a full-fledged transfer took place.
Attempts to find the details of such an agreement in the KHL regulations were unsuccessful. But in the press service of the league, in response to a request from Sport, the situation was explained as follows:
«The agreement on the transfer (exchange) of a hockey player is concluded in accordance with the standard form provided for by the legal regulations of the KHL — it does not provide for a condition on the prohibition of the player to take part in the match against the «old» club. If the transfer agreement does not comply with the standard form, then the KHL CIB will not register him. The agreement on the transfer of Alexander Khokhlacheva to Amur was registered by the CIB, as it complies with the League's regulations. The decision on the composition of the team for the game is made by the coaching staff of each team, including based on the physical condition of the players.»
Who benefits from this? Definitely Spartacus. The «Red-Whites» avoided the risk of suffering from the actions of the pupil and record holder, who is in good shape and very motivated.
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"There will be a lot of emotions, because this is a game against the home team. They will fill me up. I will try not to think about it and tune in to the match as if it were a regular game, «Khokhlachev said in an interview with the Championship. a couple of days after the transition.
Spartak fans, of course, are happy with the fact that the hockey player will not play. Already they have seen plenty of how the “former” enchant in matches with their favorite team. But even if Alexander played against Spartak today and scored (for example, the winning goal), would this have a global impact on the Zhamnov team? Not at all over such a long distance.
Who's the loser?
- «Cupid», who allocated a considerable salary to the hockey player, but lost the opportunity to use the player (at least for one match);
- Khokhlachev, who misses the game for non-sporting reasons;
- Journalists who have lost one of their reasons to pay attention to the game. Yes, the worries of the press hardly bother anyone, but we are interested in popularizing hockey. Isn't it?
- KHL, which will not count the audience that could potentially have a match with an interesting backstory;
- Again, the KHL, which demonstrates that the league is not particularly interested in these very stories.
Without interfering with such peculiar «gentlemen's agreements», the KHL deprives itself of intrigue and attention, contradicts its own convictions. We often hear words from the leadership of the league about increasing the level of competition in the championship. But do these statements fit the case? Not really.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.