Postponement of 14 matches, quarantine and questionable tests abroad: the new season of the KHL was in jeopardy due to COVID-19

Two-week pause for Jokerit and cancellation of the match in Riga

Lokomotiv is yet another KHL team that suffered from coronavirus at the start of the season.

On Friday, the league's official website published information about the reasons for the postponement of two matches of Yaroslavl: with Sochi (September 17) and Dynamo Minsk (19th). 

According to the KHL, 11 Loko players and one employee of the club immediately showed symptoms of the disease upon arrival in Sochi.

Later, the Yaroslavl residents announced the inclusion of another part of the team in the contact group.

“For the safety of all participants in the competition, the team was evacuated to Yaroslavl and tested upon arrival.

Initial test results are negative, but nine hockey players continue to develop symptoms, ”the league's official website says.

On Sunday, the hockey players and the coaching staff will undergo in-depth testing, after which it will become known whether the railroad workers will be able to play with Kunlun the next day.

Lokomotiv is not the first team whose KHL matches had to be postponed due to positive tests for coronavirus.

On September 10, it became known about the postponement of the match between Riga "Dynamo" and "Neftekhimik".

Upon arrival in Latvia, the Nizhnekamsk team underwent mandatory express testing, which revealed primary positive results in seven hockey players at once.

After that, the guests were forced to leave the country.

But Jokerit put the league in the most difficult position.

The team from Finland has already started the season with a huge scandal.

The team refused to fly to Belarus for the match with Dinamo Minsk for security reasons.

The Jokers were given a technical defeat.

On September 9, Lauri Maryamaki's wards hosted Nizhnekamsk residents in Helsinki and, by decision of the Finnish health authorities, were quarantined.

Confronted with the fact, the KHL was forced to postpone five matches of the team at a later date.

As a result, no cases were detected either in Neftekhimik, which already on the 13th played another regular season match with SKA, or in Jokerit itself.

Despite this, the "jokers" remained in quarantine.

However, on Friday, the KHL applied to the Finnish Institute of Health and Wellbeing with a request to reduce the time limit.

The message on the official website of the organization says that "Neftekhimik" before the trip to Helsinki on the 6th and 8th was tested for PCR.

All results were negative.

And out of seven hockey players who passed positive tests in Riga, only four had the disease.

But their PCR results were also negative later.

Also, the head of the league, Aleksey Morozov, asked the representatives of the Latvian side to change the test contractor.

“Their rapid tests are giving false positives.

We saw this on the example of Neftekhimik, on the example of judges.

Our PCR tests, which are done in 8-10 hours, are the most accurate, ”the functionary said. 

In "Jokerit" itself, they stressed that they are in contact with the leadership of the league and the rival teams.

Allegedly, an agreement has already been reached with some of them on the date of the postponement of the meetings that did not take place on time.

Outbreak of COVID-19 in Barys and problems with the calendar

While the KHL was trying to do everything to ensure that Jokerit returned to the ice earlier, another foreign team in the league, Barys from Kazakhstan, went into quarantine for two weeks.

12 members of the team and the coaching staff passed the primary positive tests for coronavirus.

On Thursday, the league announced the postponement of six upcoming matches of Barys (with Riga Dynamo, Severstal, Metallurg, Kunlun, Vityaz and Sochi).

Numerous transfers pose a serious threat to the current KHL season, because teams will have to play 60 regular season matches in six months.

With such a busy schedule, it will be extremely difficult for the league to organize all the off-hour meetings without prejudice to the playoffs.

An additional problem for clubs can be the matches of the national teams.

However, according to media reports, IIHF may refuse to hold the Eurotour.

In this case, the KHL will be able to play all matches painlessly. 

However, further outbreaks of coronavirus in teams could put the league in a quandary.

At the same time, the leadership of the KHL is in no hurry to count technical defeats to the quarantined teams and to remove them from the tournament. 

“Hypothetically, we can imagine and think anything.

We must take into account what rules they have in their country.

In Russia, for example, there are also different regulations on attendance.

Now write down five defeats to Barys and Jokerit - they will find themselves in a very difficult situation.

Of course, this whole situation worries us ”, - quotes Morozov“ Championship ”. 

At the same time, the Finnish club has already demonstrated in the spring that it is ready to make decisions regardless of the league by voluntarily withdrawing from the Gagarin Cup due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

And Morozov in the current situation recalled this.

“I don’t want to repeat the April situation when they made their own decision.

There's a league for that.

The clubs should inform the league about their situation, and we will give press releases, ”added the functionary.

In turn, h

Lenin of the KHL board of directors and the chairman of the board of directors of Omsk Avangard, Alexander Krylov, stressed that in the event of a possible suspension of the season, it will hardly be possible to finish it. 

According to him, it is important to understand what rapid tests the teams use. In particular, Krylov, like Morozov, complained about the incorrect testing of hockey players in Riga, which led to the postponement of several matches at once.