"Everyone has long forgotten": Russian coach made up a game about the "complete degradation" of the World Cup of Hockey

In his patriotic frenzy, well-known coach Andrei Nazarov made an absurd statement about the alleged decline in the level of the World Ice Hockey Championship due to Russia's suspension. He spoke dismissively of the Czech team's success at the 2024 World Championship, where it won gold medals for the first time in 10 years.

He said this in an interview with Championship.com. The native of Chelyabinsk, who managed to work with the Ukrainian national team, accused the International Federation (IIHF) of politicizing sports, and also spoke about "all the strength and power of our team" in friendly matches with Belarus and Kazakhstan.

"Except for the Czech president, everyone has long forgotten about the Czech national team's championship at the World Cup. There is a complete degradation of the leading national teams, as the level of the tournament has dropped dramatically without the Russian national team. If we think with our heads and allow all the major hockey teams, including Russia, to participate in the leading tournaments, the level of competition will immediately increase. Recently, we saw all the strength and power of our team in games with the national teams of Belarus and Kazakhstan. But the IIHF has completely lost itself in politics," Nazarov said.

Earlier, two-time Olympic champion and Kremlin regime associate Alexander Kozhevnikov called the participants of the 2024 World Cup hockey tournament Papuans.

As OBOZ.UA reported, a historical record of the competition was set at the 2024 World Ice Hockey Championship in the Czech Republic.

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