Finland won the World Cup at home.
Afterwards, the championship was heavily criticized by Russia.
– The value of the medals decreased, writes the Russian site Championat.
Expectations for Finland were sky high. With enormous crowd pressure in the back, the Finns were big favorites to take home the World Cup gold at home, and Sweden’s neighboring country held the press.
Russian anger
But the final would be a dramatic story. Ordinary time could not separate the teams, and the match was forced to extra time. There, Finland’s straw was sharper, following a controversial ruling, and won the gold.
It was Finland’s first World Cup gold at home, and wild celebrations broke out all over the country. But in Russia the tones are completely different. They were expelled from the championship, and after the match they directed sharp criticism at Finland and the entire World Cup.
They believe that the dignity of the championship was diminished due to Russia’s non-participation.
– The value of the medals decreased, and the tournament left a lot of room for improvement, writes the Russian site Championat according to Finnish Iltalehti.
“Took it from us”
Russia also goes hard on the referee level during the championship. They believe that the judges were biased and if Russia had been involved, the judges would have turned most of them against them.
They also take a hard line against Finland, saying that they were one of the countries that took the lead in excluding Russian participation. In addition, Russia lost the World Cup next year, which will instead go to Finland.
– Finland put pressure to exclude Russia from the World Cup. At the same time, they took the championship from us in St. Petersburg (2023) and took it for themselves, writes the site Match TV according to Finnish Iltalehti.
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