Foreign players are in trouble after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Tomi Lämsä is the head coach of Salavat Yulayev Ufa. Emil Hansson / AOP
KHL playoffs should start on Tuesday.
There are 15 teams involved when the Jokers dropped out of the playoffs due to Russian hostilities.
There are still 16 Finnish players involved. Tomi Lämsä serves as the head coach of Salavat Yulayev Ufa.
Many Finns would not like to play, but they are in the same position as other Finns working in Russia. You have to go to work despite Russia’s hostilities.
According to Iltalehti’s report, many Finns now playing in KHL do not even think of returning to Russia next season. There are many reasons.
The number one reason for war
The tyrannical dictator of Russia Vladimir Putin The criminal offensive war against Ukraine, launched by the Civil War, is the biggest reason why almost all foreign players in civilized countries want to leave Russia.
The KHL is Putin’s creation, and by now, everyone has figured out what kind of criminal Putin is.
The International Hockey Federation (IIHF) will meet today, Monday, to decide on sanctions against Russia and its involuntary lawmaker in Belarus. Both countries can be completely excluded from the IIHF or at least prevented from participating in the spring World Cup in Finland.
The IIHF may also decide that players under the KHL Agreement may not participate in tournaments under the IIHF.
The ruble collapsed
No foreign player has gone to KHL out of love for the sport but to earn large sums of money and play high quality hockey.
In KHL, the salaries of all players are paid in rubles to Russian banks.
The ruble has collapsed due to Russian hostilities. As a result, at least about half of players’ salaries have already melted away. The ruble will soon be like toilet paper.
Sanctions against Russia are also hitting foreign hockey players.
When the rubles earned by playing are in Russian banks, they cannot be transferred out of Russia. Most Russian banks are excluded from the international banking system.
The money will apparently not disappear from Russian bank accounts, but no one knows when – if ever – the money will be able to move out of Russia.
Back door
A few Finnish players have been wise by far and have taken into account the unreliability of Russian banks and possible sanctions.
Some Finnish players have opened a ruble account with a Finnish bank, to which they have transferred their salaries from a Russian bank during the period. So money can be easily exchanged for euros in Finland, but the exchange rate is, of course, poor.
Of course, you can keep the ruble in a Finnish account and wait to see if the ruble ever appreciates.
Travel?
Finland, together with the EU, is closing its airspace to Russian airlines and Russian-owned aircraft.
When the season for Finnish players ends in Russia, returning to Finland can be very difficult without flight connections.
From Novosibirsk or Chelyabinsk, for example, it is not very joyful to travel by train to Finland.