Hockey goalie Frans Tuohimaa, who won gold with Finland at the recent Beijing Olympics, described how difficult it is to “escape” from the Russian Continental League. He also talked about the situation of Czech teammates.
The KHL playoffs started on Tuesday with foreigners as well. In a situation where the Russian army is attacking Ukraine and when in a recent preparatory battle between CSKA and Spartak, the banner “Putin – our president” hung on the rotations of Moscow teams.
Therefore, many foreign players want to leave the competition associated with the Putin regime as soon as possible. The American Nick Shore, the most productive hockey player in Novosibirsk, or Geoff Platt, a Canadian with a Belarusian passport, have already succeeded.
Tuohimaa, the Finnish goalkeeper of Nizhnekamsk, would also like to be gone. “I feel miserable,” he told the Finnish daily Ilta-Sanomat.
He is currently playing with his team in the elimination series against Chelyabinsk. “But it’s hard to organize my thoughts. Hockey is not in the first place for me now. Prior to that, he worked mainly in the Finnish league.
In the event of war, the contract can be disregarded and simply left, but as Tuohima noted, Russia is not officially at war. He announces that he is undertaking a “special operation” in Ukraine.
If a player breaks the contract in such a situation, he will be fined two-thirds of the remaining reward and, on top of that, an additional 18-month ban. He may escape with impunity, but only after probable legal struggles.
Foreigners in the KHL are now solving these problems more than the fall of the ruble, which is making their earnings shrink.
“Money is secondary at the moment,” Tuohimaa said. “Every club works a little differently here, so I don’t know how it is elsewhere, but I’ll tell you there’s no way to get out of here for good. You can’t leave by appointment.”
Other foreigners in the Nizhnekamsk region are the American Dan Sexton and the Czechs Lukáš Klok with Ronald Knot. “I noticed a different approach depending on which country you come from. The Czechs are under more pressure and in an even worse situation. They get threats, which is a completely different level,” Tuohimaa said.
In addition to Klok and Knot, Šimon Hrubec from Omsk, Jakub Krejčík from Minsk and a trio from Chelyabinsk – Roman Will, Lukáš Sedlák and Tomáš Hyka – also entered the playoffs of the Russian competition.
Jakub Jeřábek is then in the Spartak line-up, but he has not played yet, because the Moscow team immediately advanced to the next round after his opponent, the Helsinki Jokerit, withdrew from the league. He reacted to the Russian aggression. Latvian Riga subsequently took the same step.
Many hockey players also want to disappear. In addition to Tuohima, this intention was publicly announced, for example, by the Slovak Libor Hudáček from Minsk.
In addition to the contractual conditions, early departure complicates the journey itself. Not only because the European Union has closed its airspace to Russian aircraft. “There are a lot of risks involved because you’re on Russian soil. The whole departure process takes a few days. You can’t just get lost,” Tuohimaa added.
