Ice hockey development in China: clubs, prospects, players, KHL. Chinese Ice Hockey Championship Chinese Ice Hockey Championship

“Canadians have salaries of $15,000 – they don’t want to leave.” Why hockey is good in China and other Asian countries

Hockey club "Sakhalin" could not take the title of champion of the Asian League, losing the final series to the Korean "Anyang Halla" with a score of 2-3 . Team leader Ruslan Bernikov conducts a tour of hockey Asia for the site,from where the Chinese club will soon come to the KHL.

The final series of the Asian League against the Korean club "Sakhalin" began with a defeat 1:6, but two next match won - 3:2 in overtime and 4:0. The excitement in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk was crazy: the arena for 1300 spectators was cracking from people crowded into it. In order to take the first title in its history, Sakhalin had two home matches, but both teams lost: 0:1 (the goal was conceded six seconds before the end of regular time) and 3:5 (the score was 3:3 - and the decisive puck Sakhalin missed again at the very end of the third period).

The leader of Sakhalin is striker Ruslan Bernikov. Before going to the island, Bernikov changed 14 KHL and VHL clubs in 10 years. And now for the second year he is one of the best snipers in Asia.

- Explain to us what the Asian League is. Who is the strongest there?

– There are nine teams in the tournament. The strongest are us, of course. There is also a very good Korean team - Anyang Halla from Seoul. This is just our opponent in the final. There is goalkeeper Dalton, a link of Canadians who have taken the citizenship of Korea and will play for them at the Olympics. The coach is Jiri Weber, who played in Perm. And in this team they are trying to gather the best hockey players in Korea in order to build a national team on its basis. So, in fact, it fell to us to play a series against the Korean team.

- What can you say about the others?

- There is a Korean military team called "Deimung Sangmu": they are soldiers, they have no salaries, they just play instead of serving and go to the penultimate place. The third Korean club is “Hi1”, Canadian Swift, the captain of the Korean national team, plays for them. Four more Japanese teams. The Freeblades are very strong: they have, for example, the captain of the Danish national team. Nippon Paper Cranes is a team from the port city of Kushiro. There, the guys after the season go to the factory to work.

- What plant?

- Pulp and paper. Pretty good team: five people from the Japanese team. Who we have next. Oji Eagles is a chic palace with heated seats, always full. "Nikko Ice Bucks" - the city of Nikko is located in the middle of Japan, this is the second Switzerland: mountains, lakes, clean air, deer walk around the arena. It's really great there. I communicate with Canadians who play Nikko. They don't want to leave, and good location you play hockey, and the salary is around 15 thousand dollars a month.

And the weakest are the Chinese from China Dragons. With other teams, they play home matches in Shanghai, and for some reason we play with them in Qiqihar, which is not far from Harbin. You come there - smog, five-story buildings are gray, the palace is cold, the ice is ugly. Very depressing. The Chinese also have five foreigners - the best of them is Brett Pernham, who played in the VHL for Perm and Saryarka. But their emphasis is on their own, on the Chinese. They play poorly, of course. For understanding: in all Asian teams, the game is played by Canadian units. The rest get out of themselves with all their strength, play as best they can - and the main task is not to miss. Hockey is completely different.

– In what?

- Asians play strictly according to the schemes. No one even tries to throw some beautiful, hidden back pass without looking. Improvisation is zero, they play straightforwardly. What is the plus: they are efficient, physically prepared, executive. The coach told the player where to run, and he ran.

- The Chinese club in the KHL - do you believe in it?

- Well, why not? I think it will be interesting for the guys from the KHL to fly to Beijing once a season. As for the game, this new team will have a maximum of one Chinese link, which will go out twice during the period. Because the levels vary, of course. What is the point of releasing them under Mozyakin - so that he makes fools out of them? A Canadian will probably be appointed as a coach there. And the Chinese, I repeat, will be in the composition of two or five, no more.

- The Chinese are good at personal views sports, and it is difficult for them to play team games. Do you think they will succeed in hockey?

“It will be hard for them. The Chinese need to put Pyotr Ilyich Vorobyov as a coach. Here he will be able to make a team out of them, which will spoil everyone's nerves. I'm not kidding: according to his schemes and tasks, they will play normally. Cut off a player, prevent him from throwing, get under the puck - they can do it all. What else is their problem: the Chinese have few big ones, all of them are short. And I feel that sometimes in collisions they are afraid of us.

Ruslan Bernikov signed this photo on his Facebook like this: “I start it, I start it - it won’t start.”

- Two years ago you played in Voronezh and thought to finish if there were no offers. Did you immediately understand that it would be so good for you on Sakhalin?

- Of course not. When they called me in 2014, I thought whether to fly or not. It's very far away. Arrived and thought: “Where am I? Was on some island. Why am I here? He came to the team - most of the guys are unfamiliar, with whom he did not intersect either in the VHL or in the KHL. And then hockey started: at Sakhalin's home games the stadium is packed, on the road there is an unusual picture - you visit Korea, Japan. This is cool.

- After trips to the major leagues, the difference is especially strongly felt?

- Yes, traveling to the VHL is the worst thing. I am calling back now with the guys who play in the big leagues: they will either spend 30 hours on the bus, then 20 on the train, then they will stand on the M-4 in a traffic jam. And here, 10 minutes to the airport, the longest flight is about three hours to Seoul, on board the plane they feed shrimp and scallops. It takes 50 minutes to fly to Sapporo. Tokyo is two hours away. Completely different conditions. Here we had a delay at Sapporo airport for a day due to snowfall. And there is a bathhouse with hotel rooms at the airport right on the roof. And the days flew by. You take a steam bath, go out, lie under the open sky in a hot pool, look at the planes (some were still allowed to take off), snow falls from above - beauty. We slept, ate, went to the steam room, slept again, ate - and already our flight is being announced.

After the bath at Sapporo Airport.

- If you were called to the VHL now, what would embarrass you besides trips?

“There are salary delays of three months. There have never been any problems in Sakhalin for two years: everything is paid clearly. Before this season, they invited me back to Buran. To be honest, I was torn. I am pleased to remember Voronezh, it's true. A very good team, four thousand fans at almost every match. But I stayed and have no regrets. The main reason is family. Why is it good in Sakhalin: three matches in four days - and free. Played on the road - immediately flew home. And I spend most of the year with my family. And in the VHL you go on trips for one and a half to two weeks.

Is your family always with you?

- Yes. When a husband and wife do not live together, it is no longer a family. How many cities I changed - probably twenty - and they were always with me: a wife, two children, and a cat and a dog. The son is engaged in hockey and boxing, the daughter is in gymnastics. School next to the house. The kids love it here.

- Your son was born when you played in Togliatti. From Tolyatti you went to Cherepovets, Kazan, Ufa, Mytishchi, Novosibirsk, Nizhnekamsk, Chekhov, Moscow, Tyumen, Khabarovsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Voronezh and finally ended up on Sakhalin. How did the son take it?

– After all, I myself changed many schools in my childhood and I remember how hard it was to get used to the team. In this regard, the son will give me a head start: he enters new class- and in two or three days he has a lot of friends. Well done in general. And he changed so many hockey teams - he never complained.

Maybe because he's into boxing?

- Ha-ha, no, he's only been going to boxing for the second year - he went here, on Sakhalin. He's a pretty good guy. We go to training with the whole family. For example, I have a job in gym, with a son on ice, a wife in fitness, a daughter in gymnastics. And we spend half a day at the Sports Palace. My son initially trained at our Kristall Sports Palace, but now the arena is too heavily loaded: we have here and basketball team holds matches, they do not yet have their own hall. So the amount of ice in children has decreased. I agreed and sent my son to study at the Sakhalin Sharks school: there is ice seven days a week in the morning and evening, even if you drive him 14 times a week. Plus there is their training center with hockey simulators: 12 individual lessons with a coach there they cost nine thousand rubles - and I see that after these trainings my son adds. It is difficult to imagine such a situation in Moscow, but here, fortunately, it is possible: the son plays for Kristall, and trains at the Sakhalin Sharks - and no one interferes. People on Sakhalin are simpler and more friendly.

- The coach, who has been working in China for eight years, says that he can no longer eat Russian food. What habits have you developed during your two years on Sakhalin?

- Well, for example, now I practically do not eat meat. I switched to fish - and I can even advise a little. A lot of friends have appeared here among the fans of the team, who take them out for fishing and treat them with seafood. Seafood contains a lot of protein. The same scallop is the healthiest food. Before the games, I ask my wife to cook halibut with rice. And we eat rice native, Japanese. I don’t know how they grow it, but it is much tastier than the one we sell in stores. Therefore, when we are in Japan, I definitely go to the supermarket and pick up there: strawberries, ten kilograms of rice ...

- I heard Japanese vitamins are very good.

– Yes, all medicines and food supplements are of very high quality. I bring vitamins from there, shark fat in capsules is a very useful thing, they drink it as a prevention of cancer. For the wife - collagen, cosmetics. From China, guys who understand, they bring tea.

- You said that there is more free time on Sakhalin. What are you spending it on?

- There is nothing like in the VHL, when we trained twice a day. Here you came in the morning, worked out in the gym and on the ice, had lunch - and are free until the next day. You can go to the sea, you can go skiing - there is a good ski resort, to which they fly from all over Asia. In the evening I go to boxing or to the wrestlers' gym.

How did you get along with the wrestlers?

- And they are similar in spirit to hockey players - the same open guys. It turned out that they somehow approached after the match: “Rus, come to our hall.” I came and realized that their training is very useful for hockey. 30 minutes warm-up: somersaults, coordination exercises. Then they start fighting, I step aside - I have nothing to do there. I work on the horizontal bar, I do exercises for the press. And then I join them in rugby, more precisely in wrestling basketball: you run around the hall, but you don’t knock the ball on the floor, but like in rugby you carry it to the ring (this game is also called “regball” - site). And at any moment you can be pushed, knocked down, start to choke. A very peculiar game - and I really got hooked on it. They last played for an hour and a half. I came out of there soaking wet. I sweat well there, I lose weight - I really like it. What is useful for hockey: jerky speed is worked out, speed-strength endurance and power struggle is very tough. I understand that all this will come in handy on the ice.

- I saw rugball in Dagestan in the hall of Khabib Nurmagomedov. Even then, the question began to occupy: will the playing qualities help or will they still quickly fill up?

- Well, the wrestlers usually play like this: they grab the ball and run. I try to be smarter: they gave me the ball, everyone ran at me, and I give it to the touch. Because if they grab my arm or leg, then there is almost no chance to save the ball. Therefore, my game: accepted - gave, showed with the body to the right - went to the left. We play nine by nine. I sometimes managed to run through the entire court with the ball, but I didn’t score. Because when you run under the ring with the ball, it is impossible to throw from there. They immediately hang on you, knock you down, start to suffocate you. The world champion in pankration Evgeny Lotin plays there, there are freestyle wrestlers of a very serious level.

Evgeny Lotin and Ruslan Bernikov at wrestling basketball.

- How often do you go to wrestlers?

– Twice a week if there are no games. This is also important: to change the picture before your eyes, to include other muscles. I am 38 years old. And for 32 years I have been training on ice. That is, young people go out on the ice to train - and they fight, cut, on emotions, and you, at your age, are more relaxed about this.

- Maxim Sushinsky said this on this topic: “It is better to play than to train.”

- Exactly. My excitement wakes up in games. And in this regard, for me, a real find in the training of wrestlers. They are perceived fresh, while you get a good load. On the same box for an hour and a half - and I'm covered in soap.

- There, after all, a famous boxing coach works for you - when I came to Sakhalin, he was presented as a local landmark.

– Yes, this is Samvel Sergeevich Abrahamyan. When he was still at CSKA, Kharlamov came to train with him. Samvel Sergeevich gives very interesting exercises for physics, for coordination. If you do something wrong, you can say: “But Kharlamov could easily complete this exercise.” A good man, he knows how to start. And all this is very useful to me. So I can run ten laps on the ice and not get tired, and if you hit a punching bag for three minutes, your hands hang. Another load. So in a week, in addition to hockey, I can have two training sessions with wrestlers, two or three in boxing, and if there is no wrestling or boxing, I just go to the gym with my wife and run along the track.

- According to the results of the regular season, you are fourth in terms of scoring in the league: 28 goals and 37 assists in 48 games. In the best season in Voronezh you had 16+20 in 53 matches. Are goals easier in the Asian League?

- Here, in general, the level of the major leagues. I just have more playing time here than I had in Buran. Head coach Aleksey Vasilievich Tkachuk trusts me very much, I am constantly on the ice when playing the majority. And if before you played 14 minutes, and now you play 25 minutes, then this affects the statistics, you understand. Another plus: the Asian league is very clean. No one here will hit you on purpose, or injure you. I just watched the KHL playoffs - well, they play very dirty. They see that a man is standing near the side, and they hit him in the back. Or they try to plant an elbow in the head. Very ugly. There is no such thing here.

- I saw on Facebook how your chin was cut.

- Yes, it happened by accident: I was going through a penny to finish off, and the Japanese tried to throw the puck away and, by inertia, hit me with a hook and broke my beard. And immediately a thousand apologies, then the whole Japanese team banged on the ice with clubs when I got up. That is, in the Asian League between rivals, as a rule, there are very respectful relations. There is practically no dirt. Which is good: we have a professional doctor - and in order to sew up, he did not even shave my beard. And everything turned out clean. Then, however, on rugby with wrestlers, this wound reopened for me, but nothing - everything has already healed.

Text: Alexander Lyutikov

Here is what they write: This Kunlun is an exclusively political project. We created a team a month before the start of the championship, when it had no arena, no squad, nothing. Of the Chinese who can hit the puck, there are a couple of people there, but those with dual citizenship. The real Chinese play for a minute per match, if they play at all. Of. the team's website exists only in Russian and English, no Chinese. Do the Chinese even know about the club? The leadership is from Russia, the coaches too, the composition is European. But the CHINESE club in the KHL, yeah.

Apparently this is just the beginning. But the Chinese also began to buy up football and EVERYTHING in general!

Now main sport for Chinese billionaires, it's football. Behind Last year The Chinese offered insane salaries to just about everyone famous football players peace.
Just in case, some of the most important Chinese transfer stories:

1. Alex Teixeira moved from Shakhtar Donetsk to Jiangsu Suning for 50 million euros. Ramirez from Chelsea followed there for 28 Eurolimons.

2. Carlos Tevez has become the highest paid player in the world, Shanghai Shenhua pays him about 40 million euros a year.

3. Diego Costa freaked out when he learned that the Chinese offered him a salary of 30 million pounds a year. He had a fight with Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte and missed training for three days.

4. Oscar became a Shanghai Tellais player, and Chelsea received 60 million euros for a player who did not make it to the starting line.

5. Hulk left for the same Shanghai Tellais for 55.8 million euros, and Alex Witzel refused Juventus for the sake of Tianjin Quanjian.

But the matter is not limited to the purchase of football players, the Chinese are also buying up clubs.

Italy

Football in Milan is now wholly owned by China. Last summer, Chinese retail giant Suning Holdings Group bought a 68.5% stake in Inter (including Massimo Moratti's entire stake). The company has announced that it wants to make Inter stronger - and "even more international". In the summer, the Milanese bought players for 150 million euros, failed the start of the season, fired coach de Boer and are now on a 9-match winning streak - only three points separate them from the Champions League zone.

The Milan sale deal is the Italian equivalent of the Krestovsky construction site. Back in August, it was announced that the Chinese Sino Europe Sports Group would receive 99% of the club's shares. Since then, the completion date of the deal has been postponed twice (which brought Silvio Berlusconi an additional 200 million euros), and there was also information that the buyers slipped false documents to the Italians. The new Milan sale date is March 3, 2017.

England

The Chinese own the Premier League club West Bromwich Albion, which was bought out in September by a group of investors led by Guochang Lai (worth about $2.8 billion). The second “Chinese” Premier League team could be Southampton. Lander Sports Development, a Chinese stadium builder, wants a controlling stake. By latest information, the club's owners have rejected an offer of £180m and are asking for £270m.

Chinese bosses are now at once at three championship clubs. Aston Villa was bought for £76m by Tony Xia, a businessman who studied at Harvard and Oxford. Upon arriving at Villa, Xia scolded Man City's sheikhs in an interview, calling the tactic of pumping money into top transfers an unhealthy development model. In the summer Aston Villa spent more than 60 million euros on transfers, but they are only 13th in the championship. By the way, Xia was accused of forging his university achievements, and his company Recon Group was accused of fraud.

Wolverhampton were bought by Fosun International for £45m last summer. The Chinese have committed to investing £30m in the club over the next two years. This purchase also had questions: one of the daughters of Fosun owns 20% of the company Jorge Mendes Gestifute. In the same summer, Mendes' client Ivan Cavalheiro moved to Wolverhampton from Monaco for £7 million, becoming the most expensive player in English history. In total, 14 players came to the team.

In autumn, the Chinese company Trillion Trophy Asia bought a controlling stake in Birmingham. The club's previous owner, Hong Kong businessman Carson Yong, is now in jail for money laundering.

China Media Capital Holdings owns 13% of City Football Group, which manages Manchester City (as well as the New York MLS team).

Spain

A 20% stake in Atletico last winter was bought by the development company Wanda Group. Its owner is Wang Jianlin, the richest man in China (worth $33 billion). The deal amounted to about 45 million euros (could have been more if not for the huge debts of Madrid). Jianlin has no plans to spend money on the best players world, he is interested in new connections here and the opportunity to bring Chinese football players to the Atlético academy. In general, Jianlin has huge plans for sports: he bought the largest marketing agency Infront Sports & Media for $1.2 billion. Infront has contracts with 180 media rights holders in 25 sports and hundreds of sponsorship deals. He paid another 650 million for the organizer of a triathlon under the Ironman brand.

Wang Jianlin plans to create new competitions (up to a new Champions League) and says he sees great opportunities in China for the growth of the sports industry.

A controlling stake in Espanyol at about the same time was bought by the toy car manufacturer Rastar Group (the amount is about 13 million euros). The new owners promised to take Espanyol to the Champions League and teach the heavily indebted team how to make money.

Granada is controlled by Chinese businessman Jian Lizhang.

The rest of the world

Where did Lyon get the money for Memphis Depay? The Chinese IDG Capital Partners helped, which bought a 20% stake in the club for about 100 million euros. Lyon spend money on transfers and debt servicing, IDG will get the opportunity to use the Lyon brand in Asia and seats on the board of directors. The Chinese are helping to pay not only Depay, but also Balotelli and Dante. Since the summer, Nice has been 80% owned by a Chinese-American investment group, the team is in the Champions League zone, ahead of PSG. The Chinese also own the league 2 club Sochaux, which was bought from Peugeot, and a controlling stake in Auxerre, which is hung in league 2.

The saddest story is that of the Dutch "Den Hag". In the winter of 2015, Beijing businessman Wang Hui (his company recently organized the Italian Super Cup in Beijing) bought the club for about 6 million euros. The investor promised that he would take the club to Europe, instead Den Hag almost ended up under external management due to the fact that Wang Hui missed the payment deadlines (but eventually paid).

The Chinese own 60% of the Prague "Slavia" and the status of the title sponsor of the second league of Portugal.

Finally, they got to Ukrainian football- FC "SUMY" from the second league came under the control of the investment company Smart-Mentors. The Chinese will run the club until the end of the season, after which they will decide whether they will participate in the financing of the team or buy it entirely.

Basketball

Don't be distracted by millions of Brazilian stars and English clubs - the most popular sport Basketball remains in China. Kobe Bryant has a lot more fans in China than Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.

China is the main overseas market for the NBA. Teams travel there all the time, and in October the league announced that China would have NBA training camps. More importantly, league commissioner Adam Silver often says that the timing of some matches needs to be shifted to accommodate the Chinese TV audience. Now the games are too late, if you play at least one match a week early in the morning, then in China it will fall into prime time.

So far, no one has been able to repeat the success of Yao Ming, right now there is not a single Chinese basketball player in the NBA. But last summer, the first minority shareholder appeared. Jian Lizhang, the owner of a controlling stake in Granada, broke through into basketball, buying out 5% of Minnesota.

Hockey

Here it is clearly worth recalling the Kunlun in the KHL, but in general the Chinese have views of the NHL. Back in early 2016, the Chinese metal container manufacturers O.R.G. sponsored the Boston Bruins. In addition, in June 2015, Andong Song became the first Chinese to be selected in the NHL Entry Draft. True, he has not yet played a single game for the Islanders.

In general, the Chinese have views on the NFL with MLB, but it will be more difficult for them to penetrate the North American market: in Europe, many more owners dream of getting rid of the unprofitable asset as soon as possible.

MMA

Khabib Nurmagomedov, Conor McGregor, Dana White and other UFC stars could very well be clients of the Chinese company that was bidding. Weeks before the WME/IMG deal was announced, ESPN reported that Wang Jianlin was in the best negotiating position for Dalian Wanda. China Media Capital also participated in the auction.

Important international tournaments

Beijing will host the 2022 Olympics. Alibaba, the company of one of China's richest men, Jack Ma, has been awarded an estimated $600 million deal to sponsor the next six Games.

Alibaba is also reportedly looking to become a sponsor of the World Cup. Which, by the way, has never been held in China.

Why do they need SO MUCH?

1. First of all, technologically advanced Chinese companies, which are expanding their geography, enter the international market. Sponsorship for them is first of all an image story.

2. Expensive purchases of foreign stars can justify themselves financially. The ratings of Chinese matches are rising, the league's current television contract (2016-2020) is worth $1.25 billion (although it is estimated as an overpayment). Organization of new tournaments can bring big money, Chinese sports market rated as very promising.

3. Buying shares of foreign clubs - the ability to send young Chinese players to the best academies in Europe. After all, China not only really wants to host the World Cup. He still hopes to win it someday.

In China, everyone is happy with such spending?

Specifically, the purchase of foreign players - definitely not. At the end of last year, Chinese officials announced that something had to be done about the insane spending on foreign players, otherwise it could hinder the growth of young Chinese footballers (remember, China wants to win the World Cup).

As a result, China invented its own limit, which now does not interfere with buying stars, but primarily hits inexpensive Asian legionnaires like Odil Akhmedov. However, in the future, Chinese officials promise to limit transfer amounts and set a salary cap.

Roman MUN

Chinese hockey is ridiculous, but soon they will pray for it. There's a lot of money

Only the lazy didn't kick the Kunlun at the start of the season. The Chinese dragon will not forget this.

"Let's just get out of here." This phrase of the Salavat goalkeeper Juha Metsola after the matches in China has already become winged, and the problems that arose with the matches in the Celestial Empire caused a flurry of criticism and discontent. Empty stands, loose goals, soft ice, an unimaginable mistake in the word KHL - all this contrasts sharply with the demands that the second is trying to make. hockey league world to organizing matches. To scold the Chinese and mock their inability and lack of interest, whether to demand their expulsion - everyone chooses for himself. But already now there are nuances that make us take the Chinese passion for hockey with all seriousness.

Another fail in China. They made a mistake in the word "KHL"

In addition, the name of the guest team was misspelled.

Tickets - from a thousand rubles

Despite the fact that Traktor Chelyabinsk was also unable to fly to Shenzhen, China on time for the regular season matches with Kunlun, and there was some possibility of rescheduling the matches, ticket sales for these games did not stop. However, the cost of tickets can surprise a Russian fan who is captivated by stereotypes about the well-being of people in China.

So, the cheapest ticket to the stands of the Shenzhen sports center Universiade, cost 100 yuan (about 920 rubles at the exchange rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation). The cost of the most expensive ticket was 980 yuan (about 9 thousand rubles), while there were various discounts (from 20% to 30%) when buying several tickets. According to the electronic sales system 228.com.cn, the holder of each ticket for the Kunlun matches in Shenzhen could receive a T-shirt with the club's logo and an autographed photo as a gift.

By Russian standards, tickets for hockey in Shenzhen are quite expensive. For comparison, the cost of “passing” to the “army” derby in St. Petersburg on September 23 starts from 500 rubles and does not exceed 3,400; Russian cities ticket prices are even lower. At the same time, the audience at the victorious match for Kunlun with Traktor turned out to be quite decent - 8115 spectators (according to the official protocol), which is in club history.

golden dragon without wings

It is noteworthy that in addition to Kunlun, three Chinese teams and the youth OERJI-Junior, another club from China has recently appeared in Europe. Last week, the Chinese club Golden Dragon made its debut in the third division of the Czech Republic, the composition of which consists entirely of Chinese hockey players, with the exception of three people. In the first match of the season, the Dragons met with the Tabor club from the Czech city of the same name and lost with a score of 0:7 with a shot ratio of 16-60. The attendance of the match was 82 people.

It is difficult to say what the usual average audience for matches in the Czech third division is. But, compared to 82 spectators, 8,000 fans in Shenzhen at the match with Traktor are forced to say that Kunlun is in perfect order.

"We expected the opponents to be ready to resist, but we managed to break them down from the very beginning, scoring some quick goals," said the Tabor coach Arpad Giori.

The idea that the Chinese team will play in the Czech Republic arose quite recently - at the end of April 2019, when the President of Milos Zeman accompanied tomasz kralj And Jaromira Jagra. The team's coach was a well-known striker in the past Jiri Sheiba, manager - Josef Seitz, but even they have so far failed to make anything out of young Chinese players.

China will play well

Chinese hockey is trying to prepare for the 2022 home Olympics, although the Chinese team is only 32nd in the IIHF rankings. Participation of the host team in Olympic tournament will be guaranteed, and in this light, the attempt to develop this sport in China looks quite logical. However, a little more than two years are left before the White Games, and in this short period of time, competitiveness will obviously not come to the Chinese - that is why they are trying to naturalize hockey players with Chinese roots.

It is worth remembering that in our country ice hockey also arose not so long ago and at first took root with difficulty. “The game has a purely individual and primitive character, is very poor in combinations and in this sense cannot be compared with bandy. The question of whether Canadian hockey should be cultivated in our country can be safely answered in the negative ... ”, - wrote the publication Physical Culture and Sports in 1932. The first championship of our country was held in the 1946/47 season, and the pioneers of the new sport were people from bandy. A decade and a half passed before the full-fledged formation of “Canadian” hockey before the Soviet Ice Hockey Federation was created, and more than a quarter of a century passed from the moment of the first USSR championship to the historical Super Series-72. But now Russian hockey players with the puck are world stars, and the future of bandy as a sport is in big doubt.

Made in China for the KHL. Even the Chinese laughed at their helplessness

The picture was trembling, the gates were not standing, the ice was melting, and the judges were explaining themselves to the announcer using drawings. And all with empty stands.

That is why it is foolish to laugh at the current Chinese attempts to develop a completely new and somewhat alien sport, since China can hardly be called a northern country and there have never been traditions associated with hockey in China. Rather, critics deserve our hasty decisions to quickly establish in China hockey clubs high level, although the conditions for this were absolutely not prepared.

Let's suppose that from tomorrow in Russia they decide to develop baseball or cricket, which are super popular in the world, from scratch they will create enough strong team from people from other countries, they will find a suitable stadium and say: "In two months - the first game of the season." How many people will be interested in this activity? How many people in the country will confidently know the rules and understand the intricacies, know the players and lineups? Where can you find specialists who can train, explain, write about it, work at stadiums during games, and competently fill out protocols and documents? Will the boys be able to go out into the yard and start studying, where to get equipment? Who will even know about this if this sport is not shown on affordable television?

So the persistence with which the Chinese authorities are trying to develop hockey deserves respect. Recall that even a quarter of a century ago, with the phrase “Made in China,” people in Russia grimaced with displeasure, pointing to falling apart shoes, torn clothes, and fantastically poor-quality electronics. Today, the vast majority of goods that can be bought in a Russian or foreign shopping center will be made in China, since all world manufacturers seek to transfer production there. The quality, in most cases, will be very different from what it was in the 1990s. There is no doubt that the Chinese will play hockey decently if the development program is not curtailed - it just takes time.

“I don’t know if there is a word for ‘impossible’ in Chinese. I think that he is not. The symbolism of China lies in the fact that when this country wants something, it will do it day and night, will put all its efforts into it until it fulfills its plan,” said the head of the IIHF Rene Fasel in 2018.

Gretzky, Ovechkin, and Adong Song

“I think hockey can become one of the top four sports in China. Women, through constant growth and investment, will one day have a chance to win gold Olympic medals. Men have a longer way to go, but they must be represented in the best clubs world,” said Kunlun owner Billy Ngoc.

The fact that the Celestial Empire is not yet ready for high-level hockey is also said in the NHL. It is no coincidence that after exhibition matches in Shanghai and Beijing in 2017 and 2018 Gary Bettman abandoned this venture this year with the official wording "due to serious organizational difficulties." Instead, the North Americans changed the method of expansion to the Asian market: they sent to China on a friendly and explanatory visit first Wayne Gretzky, and then visited the Celestial Empire as a hockey ambassador.

Video can be viewed on the channel NHL on YouTube.

Attracting attention through a star, a famous person seems to be absolutely the right move - this is evidenced by the example of basketball, which became wildly popular in China after the center appeared in the NBA. Now with 300 million people playing basketball in China, it's no surprise that hockey officials want their share of the giant sports pie too. Even in the American south - in the same California - hockey made its way on a similar model, which was actively promoted by the exchange of Gretzky from Edmonton to Los Angeles.

“Over time, hockey in China will be comparable to basketball and will be at the top of the charts. It will be an incredible hockey market. The key factor is the consistency and stability of development. We have training programs for people on skates, which we practiced in the United States, ”says Scott O'Neill, CEO of Harris Blitzer Sports Entertainment, which owns the Philadelphia 76 basketball club and the New Jersey Devils hockey team.

The hopes of the Chinese so far are Andong Song, selected in the NHL Entry Draft in 2015 under the overall number 172, and

"SE" analyzes how soon Russian league, which includes six foreign clubs, will be replenished with a team from China

IIHF NOT AGAINST

As soon as the IOC named Beijing the capital of the 2022 Winter Olympics on July 31, all eyes immediately turned to hockey, which remains the undisputed king of the Games. After all, the format of the men's hockey tournament will not change compared to Pyeongchang 2018, and there will still be eight among the 12 participants the best teams IIHF ranking, the winners of the three qualifying groups and the host country. That is China.

Head of the National Olympic Committee PRC Liu Peng, commenting on the results of the elections, said that in an effort to develop hockey, they will rely on Russian standards. And the president of the KHL, Dmitry Chernyshenko, has already voiced the idea of ​​including a club from China in the league. He is echoed by the head of the IIHF Rene Fasel, who believes that the Chinese should start playing in the KHL from the 2016/17 season. It is no coincidence that one of the possible venues for the 2016 All-Star Game is called Shanghai.

The desire of the KHL to enter the Chinese market is understandable. It is vast and almost undeveloped. There is an opportunity to bend it for yourself, having received serious preferences in terms of brand promotion, advertising and marketing activities. In return, of course, development assistance will be provided. Similar goals are pursued by the IIHF, which benefits from collaboration with the accommodating Continental League and friendship with it against the NHL, which does not put the International Ice Hockey Federation in a penny.

NHL LONG FIGHTS FOR CHINA

I must say that the National Hockey League in China has been represented for a long time. Program Project Hope The Islanders, co-owned by Chinese-born billionaire Charles Wong (his real Chinese name is Wang Jialian), are working c 2006. In June, the Islanders made a knight's move, choosing the first ever Chinese in the NHL Entry Draft. Sun Andun, who has lived in the United States since the age of 10, instantly became widely popular in his homeland, and a segment of the ceremony with his choice was shown on CCTV in live.

Recently, Toronto, whose matches are most often shown on China Central Television, has stepped up in the same direction. Maple Leaves even began to place advertisements on the boards for a new market - in Chinese. And they sent an initiative group overseas to develop a strategy for promoting the Maple Leaves brand.

We note in particular that CCTV shows live NHL matches. In the regular season, there were 87 of those, and the Stanley Cup final was broadcast in full, and its audience ranged from 800 thousand to a million viewers - twice as many as in the regular season. The share, of course, is negligible, based on a population of 1.4 billion inhabitants. But given that the games started at 9 am Beijing time, the figure is starting to look very decent. The average audience of the Gagarin Cup finals in Russia - a hockey country - is only 2.5 times larger. And not in the morning, but in prime time.

The time of the show will become more convenient - the Chinese will certainly equalize the percentages not only with Russia, but also with America. And there is a deep sense to move in this direction. Don't think that China's millions of TV viewers are worthless, because their purchasing power is extremely low. This is just a persistent myth. In 2014, the average salary in China was $713. It is clear that this is a very conditional criterion, and the calculation method raises questions: nevertheless, you know that the country is full of unrecorded peasants who drag out a miserable existence. But the median salary in cities where more than half of the republic's population lives is almost the same - $683. Whereas in Russia there are only about 400.

That is, the Chinese market is very promising, and this is well understood in the NHL. As the legendary Phil Esposito recently told in an interview with SE, the league is ready to start working hard on him. Well, the fact that hockey in China is still in its infancy is a fixable matter. The lack of serious interest in hockey does not prevent the 4 millionth Croatia from being represented on the map of the KHL.

NORTH AMERICANS WILL PLAY

form new team it is possible according to the principle of the same “Medvescak”, who in his debut season without special problems made it to the playoffs and in general "gave a light" to many rivals, with a North American squad. Subsequently, however, disassembled by competitors due to very modest funding, but this is unlikely to threaten the hypothetical Chinese club.

There is something to attract foreigners: firstly, there is still money in the KHL, and secondly, in the same Shanghai, life is even more comfortable than in Zagreb. There is nothing to be done about flights, but the Admiral somehow lives, despite the fact that flying from Vladivostok to Moscow is about the same as from the Yangtze River Delta. Will not, of course, be peculiar Dom Sportova a special atmosphere, but this can be acquired, and there is an arena, albeit not very suitable for hockey. For 8 thousand spectators. And there will be more - and many more.

The authorities announced the goal of having a capable city for the 2022 Olympics hockey team. Under this business in the next five years it is planned to build about 500 indoor ice rinks, more than now in Russia (419). In Harbin, a kind of Chinese hockey Mecca, where hockey players 7-8 years ago received around $ 100 a month, huddled in something like a barracks with bunk beds, everything has changed dramatically. And at the sports university of this city this year there was the first graduation of two hockey faculties (coaching and management), opened in 2011 with the participation of the IIHF.

ALMOST NO CONS

In five years, the number of hockey players in China has grown from 200 to 2000. In Slovenia, which participated in the Sochi Olympics and regularly appears in the elite division of the world championships, with seven rinks throughout the country, it is half as much. The level has also grown: five years ago, according to the coach of Dynamo Minsk Andrey Kovalev, who worked there for some time, the Chinese team would have been an outsider in the MHL. Now things are a little better, work is in full swing. And having such huge resources, desire and huge plans, catching up and overtaking the same Slovenia is quite a feasible task, and with its implementation and regular participation in the world championships, popularity will come.

Not so long ago, Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China, admitted that hockey is his favorite winter sport. Vladimir Putin also plays it. Why not additional ground for a strategic alliance? To organize a KHL club in China, and on the conditions declared by the league, will not cost anything. And the dividends can be huge. And a serious team with decent funding, and an immense market in which they will let you work without interference, and the opportunity to bring to mind the idea of ​​​​Vyacheslav Fetisov about the Pacific division of the KHL as an independent combat unit. The only downside is the logistics. There are many more pluses.

• The China Ice Hockey Championship is the main ice hockey league in China. The league was founded in 1953. Only amateur clubs participate in the championship. The only professional Chinese team, the Chinese Dragons, participates in the Asian Hockey League.

Related concepts

North American Super League (North American SuperLiga), also Super League (SuperLiga) - a former international football tournament in North America, played between the clubs of the Mexican Examples and the MLS league clubs from the United States and Canada. The tournament has been approved by CONCACAF, the US Football Federation, the Canadian Football Association and the Mexican Football Federation. The Superleague was the regional championship of the North American Football Union - part of CONCACAF, as well as the Central American Champions Cup and the Caribbean ...

The Spanish Ice Hockey Superliga is the top Spanish ice hockey league. Although the first hockey match in which the Spanish team participated took place in December 1923, but only after the congress in Madrid in 1971 did the Spanish championship take place. January 20, 1973 began the first ice hockey championship in the Iberian Peninsula. Six teams took part in it: Real Sociedad, HC Barcelona, ​​Jaca, Valladolid, Puigcerda and Madrid.

The Spanish Basketball Federation or Spanish Basketball Federation (Spanish: Federación Española de Baloncesto, FEB) is the national basketball body in Spain. The Spanish Basketball Federation is a member of the continental association FIBA ​​Europe and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). It was founded on July 31, 1923 in Barcelona and Fidel Bricall became its first president.

East Coast Super League - hockey league in the Australian state of New South Wales. The league was formed in 2002. This league is the second strongest hockey league, being a kind of bridge between youth hockey and AHL. Five league clubs are based in Sydney and one in Newcastle.

The First League is the fourth league in the structure of Russian basketball. Unlike the first three leagues, it is amateur. All interested teams, which are divided into regional divisions, take part in the tournament. IN final tournament winners of their divisions participate.

The Royal Bank Cup is an annual tournament held by the Canadian Junior Hockey League and the Ice Hockey Federation of Canada, where the champion of Canada among junior clubs is determined. The predecessor to this tournament was the Manitoba Centennale Trophy, which ran for 25 years from 1971 to 1975. Five clubs participate in the tournament: two from Western Canada (winner and second place of the Western Canada Cup), one each from Central and Eastern Canada and the host of the tournament, which is predetermined by the Canadian Junior...

The Icelandic Women's Hockey League (Isl. Islandsmotid i ishokki kvenna) is the national ice hockey competition for women in Iceland. The league was formed in 1999. Games usually run from September/October to March/April.

League Cup - a sports tournament in team sports (football, volleyball, handball, etc.), held according to the cup system in some countries. The most famous are football. It usually features teams from only one league (some may include teams from other leagues, such as the English Cup Football League, which involves representatives of the Premier League and three divisions of the Football League). This distinguishes this tournament from the national cup, where, as a rule, teams from many leagues play ...

The Championship of the Higher Hockey League (unofficial abbreviation - VHL-B; in the 2010/2011 season - the Russian Ice Hockey Championship among club teams, in 1992-2010 - the First League of the Russian Ice Hockey Championship) - the third most powerful league in the system Russian hockey(after the Continental Hockey League and Major Hockey League). Some teams playing in it are farm clubs of KHL and VHL teams. Until the 2015/16 season, it was called the Russian Hockey League, and before the start of the same season, the rights ...

"University" (kaz. University) - student female basketball club representing the Republic of Kazakhstan in the championship of the USSR. best achievement team in the championship of the USSR was 5th place (1986).

The Swiss League Cup (German: Schweizer Ligacup, French: Coupe de Ligue Suisse, Italian: Coppa di Lega Svizzera) is an abolished Swiss football competition that was held from 1972 to 1982. Clubs from the National League A and B took part. For the first two years it was played before the start of the season, and then began to be held during the championship. The competition was held according to the Olympic system with the participation of 16 or 32 teams.

The Higher Hockey League (VHL) is an open international hockey league, which at the same time is the second most powerful division of professional hockey in Russia after the KHL. From the moment of its formation until the end of the 2015/16 season, the VHL competitions were organized by the Higher Hockey League NP, however, starting from the 2016/17 season, the VHL Championship and Championship will be held under the auspices of the FHR. Until 2010, the second most powerful championship was the Major League of the Russian Ice Hockey Championship. Established November 24, 2009. The first founding...