The appeals committee of the Ice Hockey Federation overturned the punishment previously given to Noora Rädy by the competition committee of the same association.
Jaakko Servo,
Bettina Törnvall
20:55•Updated 21:36
The ice hockey association’s appeals committee accepted the former national team goalie Noora Rädyn appeal and overturned Räty’s four-month competition ban in his recent decision.
Urheilu reached out to Rädy after the appeal committee’s decision.
– I’m in the United States and I woke up at night. I saw that I had received an e-mail saying that the complaint had been accepted and the ban from competition had been lifted. In the morning, when I woke up, I wondered if it was a dream.
– From a legal point of view, this is a completely correct decision. The punishment was based entirely on the assumptions and efforts of the disciplinary board. There was no concrete fact why the punishment was given, Räty stated.
The case is about the punishment Rädy received last April, where the Jääkieksliitto’s competition committee gave him a four-month ban.
Rädy was found to have violated the ethical provisions of the competition rules, and especially its subsections regarding responsibility and integrity, after trying to influence the former head coach of the Women’s Lions Pasi Mustonen position.
According to the disciplinary board, Rädy’s motive had been at least partly personal revenge against Musto.
Räty appealed the punishment to the union’s appeals committee, which resolved the matter in Räty’s favor with its recent decision. The appeals committee therefore accepted Rädy’s appeal and overturned the competition ban.
In a document seen by Urheilu, the committee justifies its decision by saying that Rädy has not been proven to have harmed or tried to harm Musto or the women’s national ice hockey team with her actions, and thus she has not acted in violation of the rules.
The decision states that evidence and facts were presented for and against Rädy’s guilt, but the burden of proof is on the party that claims the procedure is against the rules. In cases of doubt, the matter must be resolved in favor of the subject of the disciplinary procedure, i.e. in this case Noora Rädy.
– Fortunately, the appeals committee saw the matter as it should have been and overturned the punishment. Of course, no one can undo the disadvantages and wounds of mental well-being.
The actual decision of the Jääkieksliitto appeals committee is 16 pages long. Räty said (US time) in the morning that he hadn’t gone through the entire report yet. The lawyer who represented Räty, who lives in the United States, in the case Matti J. Huhtamäki was Rädy’s support when preparing the complaint.
– Matti immediately said that the entire punishment was completely based on the assumptions of the disciplinary board. My intention was to cause damage to the reputation of Mustose or the team going to the Olympic Games. That has never been my motive, says Räty.
Chairman of the Ice Hockey Association’s Appeals Committee Antti Aine did not want to comment on the case to Urheilu.