KHL announced its next season’s team on its website and Instagram account. The Jokers in Helsinki and Dinamo in Riga are exhausted from the list. Alexei Morozov, chairman of KHL, confirmed the news to the Russian media.
5.4. 14:06 • Updated 5.4. 14:58
Helsinki Jokers is not included in the listing, nor is Riga Dinamo. There are 22 teams on the list.
The Jokers previously withdrew from the ongoing KHL season after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The Russian media Champions also reported on the situation of the Jokers.
– Riga Dinamo and the Jokers did not send their applications, so only these clubs will change. The remaining 22 clubs have submitted their applications for the coming season, the chairman of KHL Alexei Morozov said Championatille (you move to another service).
– When we communicated with the clubs, we were told they were not playing. We do not know what is happening to these clubs and what the political situation is in these countries.
Chairman of the KHL Alexei Morozov told KHL ‘s website that Joker GM and the main owner Jari Kurri will be removed from the board of directors of KHL.
– The September General Assembly will decide on the new composition of the Board. We will not stop at the current number of 22 clubs. We are trying other countries, Morozov say (switch to another service)i.
Sports has not yet reached the CEO of Jokers From Sami Kauhasta to comment on the news.
That is how the situation has progressed
The Jokers transferred to KHL for the period 2014–2015. The club, founded in 1967, previously played in the SM League.
KHL is a Russian-led hockey league with close ties to the Russian president Vladimir Putin.
On Tuesday, February 22, the Jokers ‘supporters’ association Eteläpääty ry announced that it would demand the club’s immediate withdrawal from KHL. At that time, Russia had concentrated its forces on the Ukrainian border and the threat of war was obvious. Two days later, Russia invaded Ukraine.
Riga’s Dinamo and Joker were the only KHL clubs in the European Union last season. KHL plays teams not only from Russia but also from Belarus, China and Kazakhstan.
Some of the Finnish players who played in Russia this season returned to Finland in the middle of the season due to the war in Ukraine. The playoffs in KHL are still ongoing.
In their KHL years, the Jokerit made it to the second round of the playoffs at its best, the top eight in the 2014–15 and 2017–18 seasons. In the spring of 2020, the club abandoned the playoffs due to a corona pandemic.
The military operations launched by Russia have also had a major impact on international sports. Among other things, the International Hockey Federation IIHF has excluded Russia and Belarus from its competition activities, and the countries will not be seen in the World Championships for men to be played in Finland from late spring.
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 suspicionsIn 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”