Hockey federation seeks reform after racist incident, president says
MOSCOW • The International Ice Hockey Federation will assess the need for harsher sanctions in response to a racist incident in Ukraine and plans to pressure leagues around the world to amend their rule books to define sanctions for racist behaviour, the new IIHF president said.
Luc Tardif took office as head of the IIHF a day before the hockey world was rattled by footage of Andriy Deniskin, a forward at HC Kremenchuk in the Ukrainian Hockey League, taunting HC Donbass defenceman Jalen Smereck, who is Black, by pretending to peel and eat a banana.
Smereck, 24, took a leave of absence after the incident. HC Donbass announced on Sunday it had reached a mutual agreement to terminate the American’s contract.
Tardif, who has dual French-canadian citizenship, has ordered the IIHF’S ethics committee to investigate the incident and assess the 13-game suspension handed to Deniskin by the Ukrainian Ice Hockey Federation, the maximum that could be imposed under its rules.
“Thirteen games, that’s a third of the season,” Tardif told Reuters in a video conference interview.
“That’s still a lot, but we don’t think it’s enough.”
If the ethics committee determines that the sanctions against Deniskin are inadequate, it could bring the case to the IIHF’S disciplinary board for further action.
Tardif added he could not be certain that additional sanctions would be imposed, an option left to the disciplinary board’s discretion.
“By calling on the ethics committee, this shows that I think we could go further in respect to the sanctions,” he said.
“I will let the committees come to a decision, but I don’t want to stop there.”
Ukrainian hockey officials have been criticized for what many players, including Toronto Maple Leafs forward Wayne Simmonds, one of the most prominent Black players in the NHL, consider too lenient a sanction.
Tardif said IIHF officials had analyzed the rule books of several national leagues and federations in the wake of the incident. The IIHF realized that many of them did not define clear sanctions for the perpetrators of racist, homophobic and other kinds of discriminatory behaviour.
“We have to put pressure on the federations and the leagues to include sanctions for these types of incidents in their rules,” Tardif said.
Tardif planned to contact Smereck, who has said he is determined to prompt change for the next generation of players.