Sunday, December 24, 2006

Baikal's Season Hangs in the Balance

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Baikal-Energia Irkutsk may lose a lot more than just one game as a result of their decision to refuse to complete their match December 16th against Kuzbass Kemerovo.

The Russian Bandy Federation's executive committee met on Friday to discuss the matter. In addition to ruling the game a forfeit in favor of Kuzbass, the committee also agreed to consider excluding Baikal-Energia from the remainder of the 2006-07 season. According to league rules, a cancellation of the team's season is a possible consequence of refusing to complete a league game. A decision on the matter is likely in a few days.

As an immediate result, Baikal's match against Metallurg Bratsk Saturday was canceled, and Baikal was forced to pay all costs incurred by the league, their opponents, and the officiating crew for travel to Irkutsk.

One of Baikal's fiercest rivals, SKA-Neftyanik Khabarovsk, has voiced their opposition to banning Baikal for the season. Although Sport-Express newspaper reported that Khabarovsk voted in favor of the ban at the committee meeting, the club released a statement saying that the person who cast the vote, Sergei Sudakov, had actually been released by the team two weeks ago and was not acting as a representative of SKA-Neftyanik.

Leage scores:

December 23

SKA-Zabaikalets Chita 4:1 SKA-Sverdlovsk Yekaterinburg

December 24

SKA-Neftyanik Khabarovsk 9:0 Mayak Krasnoturinsk
Yenisei Krasnoyarsk 4:3 Sayany Abakan
Kuzbass Kemerovo 8:2 Sibselmash Novosibirsk
Stroitel Syktyvkar 1:6 Vodnik Arkhangelsk
Raketa Kazan 3:2 Volga Ulyanovsk
Uralsky Trubnik 0:4 Dynamo Moscow

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