Lauri Marjamäki, the head coach of the jokers, considers the decision to suspend the season to be the only right one – “I am very sad”

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Lauri Marjamaki the head coach of the jokers considers the

Lauri Marjamäki’s four-year project in the Jokers ends when Russia’s attack on Ukraine ended the team’s KHL season.

Helsinki Jokers said they would withdraw from KHL’s playoffs on Friday. According to the club’s bulletin (you will switch to another service) in the current world situation, it would have been impossible to continue the period. Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine on Thursday.

Head coach of the Jokers Lauri Marjamäki received the information about the withdrawal sad, but considered the decision completely correct.

– There must have been no doubt. From yesterday morning, it was quite clear to everyone. Probably no one thought that the Jokers would play in a situation like this, Marjamäki told Sport.

– Of course, the first thoughts are with the people who have to experience such things in Ukraine. Secondly, I am sad for the team. The climate did not come again. The year is always done with work and in the spring if there is no corona, then there are wars. Yes, this is deep.

In the spring of 2020, the Jokers dropped KHL playoffs due to a corona. Last season, the playoffs for the Helsinki team ended immediately in the first round, when the club lost directly to Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in four matches.

The entire Joker team is scheduled to meet after a six-week break on a full Saturday morning, when the players in the Olympics will also return to the team for the first time. The team plans to get together even though the games no longer continue.

– We were full of enthusiasm, we were training early in the week and we were heading towards the climax. It felt like this year would be our seam. The big teams SKA and TsSKA are not that tough this year. We had the best regular season in the history of the Jokers’ KHL and we would have left second place, Marjamäki lamented.

The Jokers were second in the Western Conference just after the SKA in St. Petersburg with 64 points.

– However, it is useless to spin them. There are bigger things in the world that need to be put into perspective. In a situation like this, this is just hockey, but I’m very sad for the players of the club, the organization, and everyone. However, the ideas in the bigger picture are in Ukraine.

The Jokers ‘supporters’ association Eteläpääty ry demanded that the club withdraw from KHL on Tuesday. On Thursday, many of the club’s partners announced the end of the partnership.

Head coach Marjamäki is annoyed that the players have also gotten angry about the situation.

– A little annoying sometimes on behalf of the team when the team is accused of something. It is not the fault of the players or the team or the club. We can’t do anything about what happened there. KHL is the top series we have been able to be in. We would have liked to have taken up the challenge again this spring. But in a situation like this, there are no two words, which is a decision, Marjamäki said.

What about the future?

The decision notified by the club applies only through this. The contract that started in Marjamäki in the summer of 2018 will also end this period. He is concerned on behalf of the club staff.

– Most of the group, all the guardians and masseurs, were continuing. Hopefully the Jokers will be such a big club that they will continue to play. That’s where, I’m the wrong man to answer. I don’t know any backgrounds, Marjamäki said.

The Finnish pilot considers KHL to be sportingly important for Finnish hockey.

– KHL has been a very big thing for Finnish hockey. If you look at the Olympic gold medalists, there were 14 players from KHL and three who played KHL the previous year. Even the contribution of the jokers only in the national teams, and how the players have developed.

The team will meet for the last time on Saturday morning. The plans are open.

– Hopefully we can be together and break down our thoughts. Just be and see. So it ended again like a knife cutting this season too. A year of working together and experiencing good moments. Then when you have to start playing and measure the final, then it is taken away. I don’t think I need a word in it, we sit and we’re in a hurry. It may be that tomorrow is probably the last day we will be together, Marjamäki decided.

Story edited on 25.2. at 1:37 PM: Fixed that the Jokers left the playoffs in the spring of 2020.

This is how the Joker KHL sky has progressed

  • The Jokerit officially began operations on October 27, 1967. The Jokerit has won six Finnish Championship golds (1973, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2002).
  • Harry Harkimo acquired a majority stake in Jokers in February 1991.
  • For the 1997–1998 season, the Jokerit moved to a new hall in Helsinki’s Ilmala.
  • In the summer of 2013, the Jokerit announced that they would be leaving for KHL for the 2014-2015 season.
  • In the summer of 2013, Harkimo sold the Jokerie home arena to Finnish-Russian businessmen Gennady Timtshenko mixed Arcade, Boris and To Roman Rotenberg. At the same time, Harkimo sold 49 percent of Jokerie’s shares to the Finnish-Russian Arena Events Oy, whose majority owner was Roman Rotenberg.
  • Even today, the Helsinki Arena is owned by Helsingin Halli Oy, whose main shareholder is Arena Events Oy. The chairman of the boards of both companies is Russian businessman Roman Rotenberg, who, along with Gennady Timtsenko, is one of the arena’s biggest owners.
  • The jokers’ departure from the Finnish Championship was controversial. The Finnish Championship League clubs considered that the Jokers had violated the league’s shareholder agreement. According to the SM League, the Jokerit had not asked other clubs in the SM League for permission to transfer their KHL. However, the Jokers were allowed to play in their final season in the Finnish Championships by paying a penalty. The Jokers did not play their first practice match against the Finnish Championship League after leaving for KHL until August 2020.
  • In the spring of 2019, principal owner Harry Harkimo bought himself all the shares in the club. It was then reported that the player legend Jari Kurri is the new owner of the Jokers and chairman of the club. In the spring of 2019, Jari Kurr’s company Jack Promotions Oy acquired the entire share capital of Jokerit Hockey Club Oy from Harkimon Hjallis Promotions Oy. Jack Promotions Oy’s financial statements showed that the purchase price was EUR 4.064 million.
  • After Kurri had bought the Jokers, a directed share issue was held in the summer of 2019. 40 percent of the Jokers were acquired by Norilsk Nickel Harjavalta Oy, a Finnish subsidiary of the Russian Nornickel Group. Norilsk Nickel is part of a group whose main owner is one of the richest in Russia Vladimir Potanin.
  • Read more about the Joker’s funding pattern, a story published in the summer of 2019: Comment: Jari Kurri succumbs to the worst mistake of his career with his sad statements – why not say this simple truth about the Joker’s financial pattern?
  • In 2020, it was reported that the Russian owners of the hockey team Jokers have been following the suspicions of money laundering for several years by major international banks and U.S. authorities. Vladimir Potanin and Oleg Deripaska or numerous money laundering reports had been made of their companies. The amount of suspicious credit transfers to Potanin, the main funder of the jokers, was several tens of billions of euros.
  • Read more: US money laundering authority warns of dozens of Russian owners of Jokers – billions of euros in transfers raised suspicions
  • In the fall of 2020, it was also reported that the majority owner of the Jokers and chairman of the board, Kurr, do not have the power to decide alone where the club will play. This was stated in the articles of association of the Jokers background company Jokerit Hockey Club Oy.
  • From the beginning of the 2020–2021 season, the supporters’ association Eteläpääty said that it would boycott the games if the Jokers play in Minsk. There was a great deal of unrest in Belarus after the presidential election. President Alexander Lukashenko elections that secure re-election are considered fraudulent. The protests led to arrests and violence.
  • Eventually, the Jokers did not show up at the airport and the Minsk match, the opening of the Jokers season in the fall of 2020, was canceled at the last minute. The Jokers were sentenced to a 0-5 loss. Many Russian hockey bosses, such as the boss of the Russian Hockey Federation Vladislav Tretjak were furious with the Jokers.
  • Read more: A fan of Dinamo Minsk told Sport he was glad that the Jokers would not come to Belarus – violent statements from Russian influencers: “Spitting in the face of us all”
  • The Joker season in the spring of 2020 was interrupted due to a corona pandemic. Now the season 2021–2022 was interrupted after Russia invaded Ukraine. The Jokers announced on February 25, 2022 that they would leave the season before the start of the playoffs.
  • Read more: Lauri Marjamäki, the head coach of the jokers, considers the decision to suspend the season to be the only right one – “I am very sad”

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