Andrey SenchenkoSport correspondentAll materialsEmail to authorThe World Youth Ice Hockey Championship taking place in Canada suffers heavy losses and suffers from low ratings and attendance. Many experts, including Canadian ones, attribute the failures to the absence of the Russian team, but there are those who are convinced of the opposite. «No one misses the Russians. What a pity» Timo Kunnari, a Finnish journalist from Iltalehti, who is now in Edmonton, Canada, made a provocative statement regarding the Russian hockey team. «Russia is banned from participating in most sports tournaments around the world. What a pity. The International Ice Hockey Federation has excluded the Russians and their faithful horses from Belarus, so their team does not compete at the MFM-2022 in Canada. Annoying neighbors from the East, who dictate their own rules, are of no use to anyone,» Kunnari wrote. The journalist also added that Russia was allegedly successfully replaced by the Latvian team at the Youth World Championship — they entered the tournament without qualifying and got a chance to speak at the world forum for the first time since 2017 exclusively thanks to the resonant solution of the IIHF. Having taken third place in group A, the Latvian team made it to the quarterfinals of the MFM, where it will meet with the Swedes. «The whole country celebrates the successes of Latvia. The place of Russia in sports terms is excellently occupied,» the Finnish journalist said.
