A racist incident ignited a long-brewing civil war in Ukrainian hockey. Can amends be made in time to grow the sport ahead of an expected bid for the 2034 Winter Olympic Games or have things already gone too far?
Something is rotten in the state of Ukrainian hockey.
This time last year, Ukrainian Olympic Committee President Serhiy Bubka was announcing a planned bid for a future Winter Olympic Games. The Verkhovna Rada set aside nearly 500,000,000 UAH to build new arenas across the country. The Ukrainian Hockey League (UHL) was deep in talks with a lucrative new sponsor. Things were looking up.
But as we end 2021, the reputation of Ukrainian hockey is in tatters; felled by a frustrating clash of visions, egos, and financial interests.
Rival professional leagues vie for the services of the country’s top teams. Legal battles wind their way through courts and sports federations. A racist incident caught the enraged attention of the wider world. Potential sponsors have been spurned. And a toxic and very public quarrel between Ukraine’s Hockey Federation and its most successful team, Donbas Donetsk, have led to international ignominy.
How did we get here? Have we passed the point of no return? Can the reputation of Ukrainian hockey still be salvaged?
Racist Act Catches World’s Attention
The lines had already been drawn in the sand when Kremenchuk faced rival Donbas on September 26.
Kremenchuk player and national team star Anton Deniskin pantomimed eating a banana in front of Donbas’ Jalen Smereck, who is black. The racist episode quickly went viral, earning the scorn of the international hockey community.
Jalen Smereck / HC Donbas Facebook
It also proved to be the inciting incident in Ukraine’s hockey civil war.
Video of the incident went viral, in part because of the disgusted reaction of the announcers and in part because of the near immediate sharing of the incident on the UHL website.
The game was aired on XSport, a Ukrainian sports channel owned by Borys Kolesnikov – a business and political tycoon who also owns the Donbas team. The UHL website was then managed by Evgeniy Kolychev, a co-author of the hockey documenta ry ‘Uke’ and General Manager of the UHL.
Universal condemnation came in from all corners of the hockey world, with many prominent black NHLers weighing in, including Anthony Duclair, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, and Kevin Weekes. Some players called for the permanent removal of Deniskin from the league, including Mathieu Joseph and Georges Laraque.
Deniskin apologised but was still handed the league’s stiffest sanction – a 13-game suspension, with the ability to pay a fine to reduce the penalty to three games.
Deniskin’s punishment led to hard feelings all around. Smereck felt it was insufficient, so withdrew from the league to play in Germany. Donbas felt that the Kremenchuk player should have faced a stricter sentence, while the Ukrainian Hockey Federation (FHU), led by President Heorhiy Zubko, was upset that Kolesnikov allies at XSport and the UHL had poured gasoline on the story.
The incident set off a series of dominoes that led to the implosion of the UHL.
Civil War Erupts
The first order of business for the FHU was to deal with the Evgeni Kolychev, who the federation felt damaged the credibility of the league by sharing the racist incident through the league website and advocating to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) for harsher punishment for Deniskin.
This was done at a meeting on the 11th of November, where the UHF voted to fire Kolychev.
The move to remove Kolychev didn’t sit well with Kolesnikov and his allied owners in Kramatorsk, Mariupol, and Bila Tserkva. They walked out of the meeting and made other plans.
That weekend, the Ukrainian national team was set to play in the Euro Hockey Challenge in Budapest, Hungary. Players were already in the Hungarian capital when the situation took a dramatic turn.
Donbas recalled seven players from the national team on the eve of the tournament. Kramatorsk also recalled a player. The teams also recalled players from the U20 and U18 national teams.
Out of the eight professionals, only the national team captain and 2020-21 UHL playoff scoring leader Vitaliy Lyalka refused to leave. Despite being the second highest scorer in team history, Donbas terminated his contract the next day.
Vitaliy Lyalka / HC Donbas Facebook
Later reinstated by the courts, Kolychev was again fired after being accused of scuttling a multi-million UAH sponsorship deal with VBet, an online gambling site that also sponsors Ukraine’s football Premiere League.
The UHL had reached an agreement with the company to sponsor the league and provide the teams with hundreds of thousands of UAH based on team performance. The UHF accused Kolychev of helping to scuttle the deal at the behest of Kolesnikov, whose Donbas is sponsored by VBet rival Parimatch. Even an amended deal to exclude Donbas from the deal fell through.
It should be noted that upon an audit of UHL financials by the FHU, it was discovered that the league actually paid Kolesnikov’s XSport to broadcast the games, instead of collecting broadcast revenue from the channel.
The decision to recall the players incensed the FHU, who immediately banned the six players from both international and national competitions.
Despite warnings of repercussions, Donbas and Kramatorsk continued to ice the suspended players in UHL games, leading to the expulsion of the two teams from the league. Kolesnikov then set-up a rival league – the Ukrainian Hockey Super League – and coaxed several of his allied UHL owners to join him.
This mutiny left the UHF with effective control of the UHL. A scramble for teams, players, and sponsors ensued.
So, too, did a very public war of words.
War of Words Escalates
Gennadiy Zubko / Facebook
Zubko took his case to Ukrayinska Pravda, a news site he has ties to from earlier in his career. In an opinion piece titled “What is happening in Ukrainian hockey”, he painted Kolesnikov as a troublemaker.
“Anyone who has been monitoring the situation knows about the crisis in hockey, which was provoked by the owner of the Donbas hockey club Borys Kolesnikov”, he writes. “Kolesnikov does not need fair hockey; he needs more the format where he is the ultimate instance and decides everything and everyone, often in a dishonest way.”
Boris Kolesnikov / Wikipedia page
Kolesnikov responded in an op-ed piece for his own XSport titled “Donbas Has Done More for the Ukrainian National Team Than All the FHU Officials Put Together”.
“Everything Zubko says is a lie”, he says. “The Ice Hockey Federation of Ukraine is the main enemy of our sport.”
The difference in vision goes back a long way.
Kolesnikov’s preferred candidate for FHU President, former NHL great and Olympian Oleksiy Zhitnik, was barred from running for the post against Zubko.
He also recalled his players from the national team at a tournament in March.
The level of animosity continues to escalate.
Accusations that FHU Press Secretary Ivan Verbytskyi has ties to the far right have circulated in the media, including a photo where he is accused of making a racist gesture outside of a Jewish synagogue.
What’s Next for Ukrainian Hockey?
Kolesnikov’s new Ukrainian Hockey Super League begins action tonight with six teams, four based in Donetsk Oblast:
- Donbas Donetsk
- HC Kramatorsk
- HC Mariupol
- Altair Druzhkivka
- Bilyy Bars Bila Tserkva
- SK Sokil Kyiv
Following the departure of Donetsk, Kramatorsk, Mariupol, and Bila Tserkva , the Ukrainian Hockey League restarted the schedule with the following teams:
- Sokil Kyiv
- HK Kremenchuk
- Rulav Odd Kharkiv
- Dnipro Kherson
- Brovary Sports and Professional College (BSPC)
The battle for hearts and souls of Ukrainian teams is evident.
Kharkiv’s Rulav Odd remains in the UHL, while the former Kharkiv Dynamo were invited to play in the USHL. While Bilyy Bars – a former farm club for Donbas – joined the USHL, many of its players and coaches left to form the core of BSPC. The original Sokil Kyiv remains in the UHL, while the USHL recruited UkrDonInvest founder Vitaliy Kropachev to own the ’clone candidate’ Sokil Kyiv in the league.
The influx in teams has meant a scramble for players. Several Belarussian players have joined the new teams in the USHL, including 41-year-old Denis Kochetkov, who Druzhkivka Altair coaxed out of retirement to become their player/coach.
Donbas continues to employ the greatest number of non-Ukrainian players.
The rival leagues are also competing for sponsorship and TV deals. Kolesnikov’s XSport has refused to show UHL games and will only work with Kolesnikov’s USHL. The UHL will work with a conglomerate of local TV stations and air games on its YouTube channel.
The war of words also continues. Serhiy Varlamov, another former NHLer who serves as the General Director of the new USHL went after the FHU in a recent interview with XSport.
“We learned that FHU President Heorhiy Zubko, Executive Director Oleksandra Slatvitska as well as the chief specialist of national competitions Yuri Kirichenko put pressure on the heads of hockey educational institutions and youth sports schools, trying to impose their position and threatening to suspend them from work.”
Zubko continues his work unabated, recently signing a deal to have Swedish experts advise the FHU.
Two leagues. Two personalities with clashing visions of the future of Ukrainian hockey. Just one national team. Something’s gotta give.
Kolesnikov insists that his players will be available when Ukraine plays in the World Hockey Championship – Division I B next April in Katowice, Poland.
Whether Zubko and the FHU allows the players to play or not remains an open question.
