Izvestia: "Russia to bid to host the 2016 hockey world championship"
Russia has decided to take part in another sports competition – this time for the right to host the world hockey championship in 2016. The government has supported the Ice Hockey Federation's initiative.
Since Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's speech in Guatemala secured the Olympics for Russia, Russian officials have been dedicated to competing to host all kinds of sports competitions. With plans to build ideal grounds for Formula One races and a bid for the 2018 football championship waiting in the wings, the Ice Hockey Federation has come up with even more ideas: celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Summit Series between the USSR and Canada in 2012 and making a bid to host the 2016 world hockey championship in Moscow and St Petersburg. Putin announced these plans at a government meeting.
"We won't have to build almost anything for the hockey matches. All the facilities are ready now," he said.
Putin said that he had received a positive reaction to this news from all the interested parties and officials. St Petersburg will only have to allocate a small amount of money from its budget. Putin requested the same from Sergei Sobyanin, the new mayor of Moscow.
If Russia is prepared to formally launch its bid by next May, then it has a good chance of winning it.
Putin said with pleasure: "In this case we'll have the World Student Games in Kazan in 2013, the Olympics in Sochi in 2014, maybe the Student Games in 2017 and probably the hockey championship in 2016. One year after another – 2012, 2013, 2014... If we do everything as we have planned for Formula One, we'll start hosting Formula One races at the end of 2014 or in 2015. We'll see when the time comes."
The head of the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia, Vladislav Tretyak, shared the prime minister's optimism but offered different arguments:
"Our chances are very high. Denmark is our rival. I'm going to visit the country on November 13. We'll give them 2017 and they'll give us 2016. We have an agreement with them to this effect, so let's fight for this."
"What about our traditional friends and rivals – Czechs? Aren't they bidding?" Putin wondered.
"Finns, Swedes and Czechs will host the competitions before us. So they are not our rivals, they are not bidding. We will vie with Ukraine and Denmark. Latvia also wanted to bid but changed its mind at the last moment," Tretyak explain.
Anastasiya Savinykh
