New IIHF President Launched Ethics Probe Of Racist Incident In Ukraine

By Scott Burnside

Luc Tardif, the new head of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), has directed the IIHF’s ethics committee to investigate the incident of racial taunting in the Ukraine that prompted world-wide outrage. That group will report its findings and recommendations for further sanctions to the IIHF’s disciplinary board, likely within the next 10 days.

Further action against HK Kremenchuk player Andrei Denyskin, who mimed eating a banana to HC Donbass Donetsk defenseman Jalen Smereck, — who is Black in a Ukrainian Hockey League game — could include banishment from participating in international events like the upcoming World Championships. It may also include refusing to allow Denyskin to transfer to a team governed by another member of the IIHF outside the Ukraine, new IIHF president Luc Tardif told Dailyfaceoff.com in a lengthy interview.

Further, Tardif said the IIHF will be demanding every member nation of the IIHF create language in their individual rules to govern racial incidents by the start of next season and that failure to apply those sanctions will prompt intervention by the IIHF.

“And if they don’t, we can take the lead,” Tardif said. “We will do everything to make sure that this guy (Denyskin) or some other guys don’t do these things.”

The IIHF does not have the power to overrule the existing rules of federations like the Ice Hockey Federation of Ukraine, which handed down a 13-game suspension of Denyskin in the wake of the racist act, even though Tardif said they tried to put pressure on the Ukrainian hockey body to levy a harsher penalty. That penalty was the most severe based on the Ukrainian league’s code of conduct. Still, the decision was condemned around the hockey world for its leniency.

It was after the suspension was announced that Tardif directed the IIHF’s five-member Ethics Board to investigate. There are nine members of the IIHF Disciplinary Board.

“That’s my decision,” Tardif said. “I can do that.”

“We can push them to change their rules, and they will do it,” Tardif added. “Now they know that they have to change.”

Tardif, a native of Trois-Rivières, Quebec, played briefly in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League before playing hockey in Europe and then making his home in France. He took over for long-time president René Fasel one day before the racial incident in the Ukraine Hockey League and plans to travel to the Ukraine after a resolution is handed down by the Disciplinary Board. Tardif also plans to meet in person with both Smereck and Denyskin.

“I want to go and talk to him and make sure he knows we are behind him,” Tardif said of Smereck. “And also talk to the other one the guy [Denyskin] to make sure he understands what he did.”

Tardif was named the first president of the French Ice Hockey Federation in 2006 and was first elected to an IIHF post as treasurer in 2012. He said confronting racism and homophobia, along with violence in the game and performance enhancing drugs, were among the top priorities he outlined in campaigning to become IIHF president. He replaced Fasel, who stepped aside after leading the international hockey body for 27 years.

“I think that’s really important to make sure we don’t let enter these kinds of things in our house,” Tardif said.

In other international news, Tardif said concerns over the competitiveness of China’s men’s hockey team have resulted in the scheduling of a series of test games in November that will determine whether the host country will ice a team at the Beijing Games next February.

The IIHF has provided the Chinese federation with a list of eligible players from which their team can be chosen. A team formed from that list of players will play two games against either a Kontinental Hockey League team a team from the Russian ‘B’ league during a break in the KHL schedule between Nov. 11 and 14. The games are expected to be held in Russia, Tardif said.

IIHF officials will view the games and determine if the Chinese are competitive enough to maintain their place in the 12-team men’s tournament that begins in Beijing Feb. 9.

South Korea went through a similar process leading up to the Olympic tournament in PyeongChang in 2018 and were allowed to compete, although they lost every game and were outscored by a total of 19-3. The 2018 Olympic men’s hockey tournament did not feature NHL players, who had been competing in every Olympic tournament since 1998 in Nagano. But the NHL will return for the Beijing Games and fears of the Chinese team being steamrolled in every game are very real.

Tardif said the IIHF will not be changing the rules of eligibility in order to allow them to bring in more talented players for the Olympics and that Chinese officials are aware their place in the Olympic tournament is not assured.

“That’s clear with them, that’s clear with the IOC (International Olympic Committee), that’s the process,” Tardif said.

If, as critics have complained in recent months, the Chinese national team is not ready to take part in the Olympic tournament based on the results of the test games it’s expected Norway would take China’s place at the Beijing Games and play in a pool of teams that includes the United States, Canada and Germany.

Tardif is also expected to meet in person with top NHLPA and NHL executives, including Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, around the time of the Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Toronto in mid-November.

Tardif wasn’t sure whether his first face-to-face meeting with critical hockey partners would take place in New York or in Toronto, where the Hall of Fame ceremonies are held. But he would like to discuss reviving the NHL’s once robust international calendar beyond Olympic participation.

“I think we have to find a way,” Tardif said. “We have to find a way and bring back the discussions. I’m going to try and do that my way.”