Opinions & Interviews

At the beginning of the session the president emphasized that the state of affairs in Belarusian ice hockey is discussed at his level not because there are great achievements in this field or, as people say, he likes to play ice hockey himself. The reason is that ice hockey and football are the most popular sports.

“Millions of people are not just interested, they are fond of these sports. Almost all people in Belarus like them,” Alexander Lukashenko stressed. “There is an impact on people’s minds, this is the main ideology of any country. Ideology is not about lectures. A lecture can be attended by 300-500 people at most. An ice hockey match is watched by millions of people. This is the thing.”

“If we decided to develop this sport (it has become very popular here), let’s do our best for it. But the results are bad,” the Belarusian leader stated. “We saw a disastrous performance at the Olympic qualification tournament where we lost to Slovakia although it is was the brightest crayon in the box. We have been on the edge of being relegated for the second year in a row.”

Alexander Lukashenko remarked that even ice hockey players have a defeatist attitude. “Ice hockey players gave an interview before the last two games. And they said one thing: no one was thinking about playoffs, they only hoped to stay in the top division. This is the attitude of our players.”

According to the president, the results of HC Dinamo Minsk also leave much to be desired. “They failed to fulfill their promises. In fact, our domestic championship did not become the factory where ice hockey players develop their talents. To put it bluntly, there is no domestic championship,” the head of state said.

He stressed that the investments in this sport are quite big – 18% of all spending on physical fitness and sport taking into account the funds from all sources. “One fifth of the money is spent on one sport and there are no results!” Alexander Lukashenko said. “Instead of being proud for the colors of our flag, people just feel ashamed. They even started to send letters to me. And I agree with them. There is no willpower, team play, and individual mastery. The work of coaches is also unsatisfactory.”