PHOTO: Bildbyrån
On Friday evening, the hockey World Cup begins in Finland and Latvia.
But then the host nation Finland vents its clear anger towards the championship.
“It’s insane,” writes Santtu Silvennoinen in a column on Iltalehti.
It’s time for the hockey World Cup again. This time the world championship will be decided in Finnish Tampere and Latvian Riga during the month of May.
The WC premiere
On Friday evening, the World Cup premiere for Tre Kronor takes place against Germany, but before that the host nation Finland steps into the tournament with its first match against the USA. Now the Finns are voicing their clear criticism of the hockey World Cup directly.
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All because Finland has a match on Friday, then a match again on Saturday and on Monday there is a new match when the neighboring feud against Sweden awaits. After that, four more games await in just eight days before the playoffs begin.
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Finnish anger
Now the unreasonably tight game schedule that has angered Finland is being seen.
“In the group stage, Finland meets its three main opponents in the first three matches. The impending world championship is coming to an end,” writes the journalist Santtu Silvennoinen in a columnist for Iltalehti newspaper.
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The Finnish columnist thinks that the World Cup format needs to be changed, especially since both Russia and Belarus are missing from this year’s championship due to the Russian war against Ukraine. He cannot understand that there are still so many nations in the hockey World Cup.
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Instead, Silvennoinen proposes that only twelve countries should be included and divided into two groups, with the best four in each group advancing to the playoffs.
“When Russia and Belarus are gone, there are no reasonable grounds for a World Cup tournament with sixteen countries,” writes the Finn in his column.
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