HK Nitra reacts to the case of non-release of representatives: SZĽH points out its amateurism – ŠPORT.sk

HK Nitra does not raise hostages, but hockey players

HK Nitra has been pushing the philosophy of educating young players and representatives for Slovak hockey for the last 7 seasons, since Miroslav Kováčik and Tomáš Chrenko have been in the lead. Often at the expense of A-team results in Tipos Extralige. The national team was and will always be in the first place, which we have already proved several times by releasing the players for national team events. Even during the extra-league season, as was the case, for example, during the World Winter Universiade 2019, where we released Juraj Šiška. And how it was and will be for the needs of the Junior World Championships, when we can not count on our players, despite the fact that the Tipos Extraliga has more rounds on the program.

We are surprised by the statement of SZĽH. Instead of concentrating the championship on preparing for the championship, it unnecessarily draws internal affairs to the public. He just points out his amateurism about the whole communication. In addition, the statement, which contains a hill of half-truths, will appeal to our club through the media. Probably according to the motto: “Whoever writes something first is right.” We don’t take players hostage, as the union ugly accused us. They were very well informed about our position in advance. The players themselves also showed interest in playing the match. Unlike most clubs, we do not have players under the age of 20 on the roster only in number.

The head coach of the junior national team, Ivan Feneš, announced to us before the nomination which players he was interested in and at the same time assured us that we can count on the nominated hockey players until December 12, 2021, when the last round of the Tipos Extraliga is on the program before the official national team break. The meeting was scheduled for Monday, December 13. Subsequently, a few days later, specifically on the 2nd of December in the evening, we received an email with a nomination and the beginning suddenly on the 11th of December.

We strongly oppose the information that we were notified in time of the postponement of the junior national team. Nobody communicated with us. Only after the nomination was announced did we ask the head coach Ivan Feneš and later also the president of SZĽH Miroslav Šatan to abide by the agreement on the release of our players only on Sunday after the last match due to increased team fuss. During the talks, we were misled by Mr Satan that all the players would meet on Saturday, including the players in Sweden and Finland, but this is clearly not the case with Juraj Slafkovsky. He is not due to report to the coach until Monday, December 13, 2021 (he played for TPS Turku against SaiPe on Saturday). We do not understand the double standard for players operating in Slovakia and abroad.

We suddenly perceive a time lag due to a bad pandemic situation as unnecessary. We would understand if SZĽH wants to have the nominated team pokope a week earlier, in order to keep the bubble safe, but one day it doesn’t solve anything. Especially when several more players join the team overseas.

We are sorry for the amateur communication with the date of the national team. We think that a similar event, such as the Junior World Championships, should be planned by SZĽH a few months in advance. We have been counting on the release of our players on December 13, 2021.

We informed the SZĽH management several times last week that we would release a pair of hockey players in accordance with the original agreement on 12 December 2021 in the evening. The IIHF’s official break also begins on December 13, 2021, as Ivan Feneš said in Saturday’s issue of the daily Šport – (note: “Clubs must officially release them for us on December 13, but we want to get them sooner,” the interview said).

HK Nitra is perceived by the public as the club that gives the most opportunities to young players. We do not understand the unnecessary attack and threats made by SZĽH in telephone conversations and in an article on the federal website. Nevertheless, we want to continue our efforts to educate valuable young people for society and skilled hockey players for the Slovak national team. “