Rene Fasel insists on holding Ice Hockey Championship with dictator

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) will not change its decision to hold the world championship in Belarus in 2014.

IIHF president Rene Fasel wrote this in a letter to members of the German FDP parliamentary group Bijan Djir-Sarai and Patrick Kurth in response to their appeal, Radio Svaboda reports with a link to  Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung.

According to him, “Discrimination of any member of the federation on political, racial or religious motives is inadmissible.” Rene Fasel referred to the “fundamental principles” of the International Olympic Committee and political neutrality of sport.

The German MPs appealed to the IIHF to remove the championship to another country due to violations of fundamental human rights in Belarus.

We remind the IIHF Congress is to consider in May the issue of the removing the ice hockey championship from Minsk.