Storm hockey club left Odesa due to unfrozen ice arena

The Odesa Ice Hockey Club is leaving the city due to the unsuitable condition of the ice arena. The club assured fans that the final place of training and participation in competitions will be announced later.

This was reported by the press service of HC Storm.

The Storm hockey club announced the team's temporary departure from Odesa due to technical problems at the Palace of Sports ice arena. According to the club's management, as of today, the arena remains unfrozen, and the conditions of stay offered by the administration of the facility on September 1 were unacceptable to the team.

As noted in the press service, because of this, preparations for the Ukrainian championship have not yet begun, and the final venue for the Ukrainian Cup will be determined by the Ukrainian Hockey Federation (UHF). The club emphasized that it does not manage the arena itself and, together with its fans, is waiting for official information from the Ukrainian Hockey Federation.

The club's management assured that the team will announce the exact city and training conditions later. In its appeal, the club urged fans to trust only the club's official resources and continue to support the team.

Recently,Chornomorets, Seasters and Real Pharma have faced injustice from UEFA. It became known that the organization would pay 10.8 million euros in so-called solidarity payments to Russian clubs, even though Russia has been banned from European tournaments since 2022.

Even more outrageous is the fact that five Ukrainian clubs have not received their payments over the past two seasons: Odesa's Chornomorets and Real Pharma, Zaporizhzhia's Metalurh, Kharkiv's Metalist 1925, and Phoenix Mariupol. The delay is cynically explained by the fact that these teams are allegedly in the war zone. Also, three women's clubs, including Odesa's Seasters, were left without payments.

At the beginning of the year, Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov regained power in the International Fencing Federation (FIE), and it was only a matter of time before the federation, which was already loyal to Russia, turned even more toward conniving with the aggressors. The National Fencing Federation of Ukraine, athletes and journalists appealed to the FIE to reconsider the decision and at least follow its own relaxed rules regarding the aggressor.

Анна Бальчінос