By Alexei Shevchenko (Gazeta.Ru)
Translated by Alexei Belousenko
Today, the Gazeta.Ru correspondent took the interview with the vice-president of PHL (Professional Hockey League) Vladimir Shalaev who is one of the Russian representatives in Zurich that negotiate the new IIHF-NHL agreement.
Could you explain please the situation around the Russian refusal to sign IIHF-NHL agreement? Today is a deadline. What did Russia decide?
V. Shalaev: I just talked to all of the clubs' managers. Everybody is against this agreement; therefore, we are not going to sign it.
Are Czechs not going to sign it, as well?
V. Shalaev: First, we received the information that they would sign it, but later we called them directly and found out that their position is still the same. They will say 'Yes' only to the agreement with their terms. In other words, they request the compensation of 350 thousand dollars for each player that goes to America. I know that NHL won't go for it.
Well, what terms would they go for?
V. Shalaev: Gary Bettman agreed that the agreement should be for three years. Also, he found it reasonable that players (upon their wish) would return to their countries if they don't get constantly in the rosters of their NHL teams by January. At the same time, the compensation of 350 thousand dollars for any player looks unacceptable for Bettman.
Than, what now? Could the agreement be signed between IIHF and NHL without us and Czechs?
V. Shalaev: IIHF could possibly sign the agreement without Russia, but doubtfully they're going to do it without Russia and Czechs together. At the last IIHF meeting in Zurich, the furious representative of Sweden came up to me and started telling me that we betray the family by not signing the agreement. They even threatened that they would never play with us. What could I say? Go ahead, don't play. I don't think that someone in Russia would get upset if they don't play with us. On the other hand, the rest of the countries understand our statement.
Please tell us about the question of future players' transfers'
V. Shalaev: I don't think, NHL would declare 'the gangster's attack' to Russia. Right now, pretty much here's nothing to steal, though, we still have a couple of players that they might be interested in. Actually, there are common people in NHL who are interested in a civilized solution of the problem. Like us, they don't want any legal courts be involved. I'm sure that from now on the clubs will negotiate the deals between each other. Though, I don't exclude that someone would steal somebody due to a lack of the agreement. But this depends on the agents that may propose not to pay the compensation to the club, and pay directly to them.
Though, at the same time we could steal somebody from America.
V. Shalaev: Impossible. There are very serious penalty provisions in the USA for the players that would break the contract. No one would risk in order to move to Russia. Even though, American laws don't work here, they wouldn't be able to come back to States. Only players who have nothing to lose may go for it.
So, may Russian players easily escape to the USA?
V. Shalaev: In order to exclude it we appealed to the Governor Parliament of Russian Federation to insert amendments into the professional sports laws. So far we already appealed a few times, but nothing happened. We need that mutual relations between the club and the player were regulated by the contract, but not the general law. Then, we'd be legal to amend the same penalties in the players' contracts as in America. This is the only way to avoid the unauthorized escape of the players.