The men’s hockey World Cup tournament should be played every spring, both in the cabinets and on the rink, writes Jussi Paasi.
Jussi Paasi sports reporter
The Ice Hockey World Cup will be played in the Czech Republic from 10 to 26. May. follows events in the app, website, Sports Screen and Sports Radio.
I entered the plane. I took my seat and glanced at the end of a few rows of benches.
There was a familiar and wide smile. The happy man greeted in a good-natured way.
Juha Junnohan whatchamacallit!
When the flight landed in Prague, we had time to exchange a few words while waiting for our luggage.
The meeting was extremely warm, as meetings with Junno always are. A long handshake is his trademark.
I don’t know Junno particularly well. I have gotten to know him through my work and have done several interviews with him.
At this point, someone might ask, for good reason, why I told about Junto.
I’ll tell you.
Juha Junno is a hockey influencer known to everyone. The main architect of Oulu Kärppie’s success in recent years. A superior sports stallion.
I’m writing about Junno because he perfectly reflects everything that the World Ice Hockey Championship, which starts on Friday, is about.
It’s not the World Cup. There are not the best players in the sport, but only a fraction of them.
Lätkä’s World Cup tournament is a tough sport business. These competitions should be played every spring. In the cabinets and the trough. Even Junnok knows that.
He has made countless deals in connection with the World Cup. Handshakes have been raining in all directions and Kärppie’s cash register has been singing to an equally fierce tempo.
I asked Junno what all he plans to do at the competition venue this time. First, a good week of race tourism as a pensioner, then back to Finland, and after that another visit to Prague.
“Then I’ll help the Kärppie boys a little.”
So there will be handshakes. Behind the scenes, we network and do business.
The World Cup tournament is also a money maker for the organizers if the games are played in the right country. Those “real countries” include at least Finland, Sweden, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, which is now a travel destination. Maybe Switzerland and Germany too.
In the aforementioned countries, the World Cup means permission to print money. The Finnish Ice Hockey Federation guaranteed millions of winnings from the games played in Tampere last spring and next.
Ice hockey’s “Skoda Cup”, as the nickname of the tournament goes, is of course an interesting event in terms of hockey as well. A springboard for young players, a meeting place for different ways of playing. And this time, for many, it’s also a showcase for the Olympics to be played two years from now, where all the best NHL players have been participating for a long time.
However, the meeting with Juha Junno reminded me what this ice hockey carnival is basically about: business and entertainment.
A bit like Eurovision.