On August 30, Beijing hosted a presentation of the Chinese hockey club “Red Star Kunlun” - the first in KHL Chinese club. The club was represented in the House of People's Assembly. The presentation was attended by players, coaching staff and managers, as well as honored guests, including the Chairman of the China International Center for Cultural Communications Long Yuxiang, the head of the Center winter species sports at the General Administration of the People's Republic of China for Physical Education and Sports Zhen Hongguo and the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the People's Republic of China Andrey Denisov.
Let us recall that the decision to create Chinese team in one of the most powerful leagues of the old world was discussed at the level of top officials last year. And already in June 2016, an official document was signed between the KHL and the Red Star Kunlun hockey club on the team’s participation in the KHL championship from the 2016-2017 season. The federations of Russia and China confirmed their obligations to provide the necessary support for the subsequent development of the club, holding matches and the creation of a hockey school on the basis of the Red Star Kunlun HC.
As noted in the KHL, the entry of the Chinese club into the strongest hockey league in the Eurasian space will be a significant stage in the development of cooperation between China and Russia, as well as with other countries, especially against the backdrop of the fact that the winter Olympic Games 2022 will be held in Beijing.
During the presentation of the Red Star of Kunlun in Beijing, our correspondents were able to talk with the guests and find out what they thought about the prospects of the Chinese club.
Long Yuxiang, Chairman of the China International Center for Cultural Communications, said:
“China has become a unique platform for the development of not only hockey, but also any other sports, which we are very happy about. We hope that together with the Russian side we will be able to increase the interest of ordinary citizens in winter sports.”
Note that the Continental Hockey League was formed in 2008. This is an open international hockey league that unites hockey clubs from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, Latvia, Slovakia, Croatia and Finland. Teams from these countries annually compete for the main trophy of the league - the Gagarin Cup. Since the 2016/2017 season, there have been 29 teams in the league.
The head of the Winter Sports Center at the General Administration of Physical Education and Sports of the People's Republic of China, Zhen Hongguo, said:
“Exchanges in the field of physical education and sports are an important part of international cultural exchanges. We hope that the entry of the Kunlun Red Star club into the KHL and the holding of the Winter Olympic Games in 2022 will contribute to the development of winter sports in China.”
For the Chinese side, the club's entry into the KHL can really play a key role in the spread of hockey and other winter sports in the country. If at least five percent of the population becomes seriously interested in hockey, it will be a great success for China. And this possibility is quite real, especially given the fact that this issue is supervised at the highest government level. Thus, the final match of the Olympic tournament in Sochi between Canada and Sweden was watched by 120 million Chinese viewers. It remains to be seen how many people will watch the Chinese team's matches.
Ambassador Russian Federation in China Andrey Denisov said:
“One of the main differences between modern Russian-Chinese relations is their diversity. We are constantly looking for new projects and together we open new areas, new areas and cooperation. One of these powers is sport. The participation of the Chinese club in the games of the continental hockey league will not only create new opportunities for the popularization of this water sport in China, but will also become a serious preparation national sport China hockey for the 2022 Olympics."
The coaching staff of the Red Star Kunlun club was headed by Vladimir Yurzinov Jr., who enjoys high authority in international hockey and has extensive experience working with KHL clubs, foreign leagues, as well as various national teams. Here's what he said about the club:
“We try to attract as much as possible more quantity Chinese hockey players. In order for them to learn and gain experience in European... Because in the future we would like to have more and more Chinese crayfish in the team every year. Because we believe that the most important goal is the national team that will compete at the Olympic Games in Beijing.”
The home arena of HC "Red Star Kunlun" became sports complex“Mastercard Center”, built for the 2008 Summer Olympics and ready to accommodate up to 18 thousand spectators. The team includes players from Russia, Europe and North America, however, as noted head coach"Red Star Kunlun", the main focus will be on Chinese athletes.
The first game of the Kunlun Red Star club in the championship will take place on September 5 in Beijing. The Chinese team will host the Admiral team from Vladivostok.
The first talk was that the Chinese club could start playing within the Continental hockey league(KHL), appeared at the end previous season. Towards the end of 2015, abstract conversations began to take on quite tangible outlines - Russia, perhaps even earlier than China, learned the name - the Beijing Kunlun Red Star - of a still non-existent team that had every chance of starting to play in the KHL. And so the first Chinese club was officially accepted into KHL composition and will begin its performances in the coming season.
This decision was made at the KHL Board of Directors, which had to consider three applications for entry into the KHL, received from different Chinese clubs from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Only one was satisfied - which meets all the requirements of the league.
A club that doesn't exist
Naturally, Russians are now wondering what this hockey team one from China that will play in the KHL against our CSKA, SKA, Spartak and Dynamo.
However, it is not yet possible to answer this question. Even in the club itself they are unlikely to be able to tell you anything intelligible. The fact is that the club still exists only on paper.
From a legal point of view, everything looks just perfect - a Chinese team that will play in a converted basketball palace with financial help from mainly Russian and partly Chinese businesses. All necessary guarantees from the club and permissions from the federations have been received. It would seem that nothing prevents the start of work.
But there is no one to work yet. The first official public employee of the club, who began to work hard, was former general director of the resurgent hockey club “Krylya Sovetov” Vladimir Krechin, who became the general manager of the Chinese team.
“Today, June 8, Vladimir Nikolaevich Krechin left the post of general director of the Krylya Sovetov hockey club. Vladimir Nikolaevich received an offer to become the general manager of a new club in the KHL system - Red Star Kunlun from Beijing. We wish Vladimir Nikolaevich success and achievement of new professional heights. The name of the new general director will be announced later,” read the announcement on the official website of “Wings of the Soviets.”
This was followed by the announcement of the appointment of the head coach of Red Star. He became 51 years old Vladimir Yurzinov Jr., whose last place of work was the Ufa “Salavat Yulaev” in 2015, with whom the mentor won silver medals.Only the day before the name of one of the first hockey players who signed a contract with Red Star became known. He became a 32-year-old Finnish defender Janne Jalasvaara, who previously played for another recent newcomer to the league, the Sochi hockey club. All other players are still only in the future. But the names “Chinese” are thrown around beautifully. Now half the country is absolutely sure that the main star of “Kunlun” will be Ilya Kovalchuk, rejected by St. Petersburg SKA and its new head coach Oleg Znarok.
In the future, the team will recruit mainly Russian players and foreigners with experience playing in the KHL. As an exception, some Chinese may appear on the ice in a Chinese club.
“The Chinese club will place maximum emphasis on employing Russian players whenever possible, as well as on attracting our specialists to coaching staff. This was proposed by the Russian side, taking into account our extensive experience and accumulated knowledge in hockey. Although, of course, there will be Chinese players in the club,” he quotes KHL board member Roman Rotenberg TASS.
It is this functionary, by the way, who is the main driving force behind everything that happens in the Chinese club. He negotiates with managers, gives comments on transfer policy, and talks about preparing the basketball arena for hockey battles.
In general, hardly anyone knows more than Roman Rotenberg about the Red Star of Kunlun. But even from his comments a complete picture does not yet emerge. All we have to do is wait until September, when Krasnaya Zvezda will have its first match in the KHL. It is still unknown which club will be the first to experience all the delights of flying to Beijing. But even this will seem like an easy walk against the backdrop of constant visits to Vladivostok for matches with Admiral.
So far, these one and a half printed pages of A4 size in 12-point font are practically all that is known about the Chinese hockey club called “Red Star Kunlun. In China, believe me, they know even less about him.
Celestial hockey
For many Russians, not only the appearance of a Chinese club in the KHL, but even the very presence in Celestial hockey and the desire to cultivate it.
In fact, hockey came to China almost simultaneously with our country - in the 10-20s of the last century. Then the first skating rinks began to appear, on which the local population, mostly rural, ineptly drove the projectile with sticks.
Hockey in China began to transform into something similar to a sport closer to the middle of the twentieth century. In 1953, the Chinese League appeared, in which 8 clubs competed for the title of national champion. Little has changed since then - in the championship in different years There were from 6 to 12 teams playing, but it was not ranked on the world stage. Even now, the strongest Chinese clubs play not in the national championship, but in the Asian Hockey League, where clubs from Japan and South Korea. But even there the Chinese team is one of the weakest.
The Chinese team is also far from being in the first place. In the world table of ranks, the Celestial Empire ranks closer to the end of the fourth dozen. Occasionally, the team still made it to the first division of the world championships, but mostly vegetated in the second. To make it clear what we are talking about, Russia plays in the top division.
Despite the low level of hockey development in the country, China is an excellent and still virtually untapped market. Overseas clubs from the National Hockey League (NHL) have just begun to make their first attempts to somehow conquer it. And this is not without reason - the final of the 2014 Olympics in China was watched almost 10 times more people than in Canada, which, by the way, played in the final against Sweden.
What does this mean? There is interest in the country in sports such as hockey. But if the Olympic Games can be sold to the Chinese only once every four years, then NHL games can be sold at least every day from September to May. And the Chinese market, with a potential of more than a billion people, is more than a tasty morsel for any league.
But if in the NHL the most they can do is to instill in the Chinese a love for their teams through training camps, exhibition tours, advertising campaigns and even the appearance of the first Chinese in the draft, then for the KHL it is not a problem to take an entire Chinese club under its wing, and with the prospect of increasing the presence of the Celestial Empire in the league to several teams. This, as they say, is a completely different calico.
Considering that in 2022 the Winter Olympic Games will be held in Beijing, and the country will allocate huge amounts of money to popularize winter sports number one among its population, the timing for the KHL's expansion to the east is simply perfect. As a result, it turns out that the rush to include the “unknown animal” in the league that we are watching is absolutely justified. It remains to be seen what will come of it.
Special: a Chinese club will hold its first full-fledged championship in the league. Fragmentary information about who will play in it, where he will play his matches, what tasks will be assigned to him, etc., appeared here and there constantly. And on July 5, a big official press conference finally took place, at which the team’s head coach and its sports director Vladimir Krechin told us everything about the club at the moment known.
Name
The name of the Chinese club is “Kunlun Red Star”, and there is no need to translate it into Russian. However, the leaders suggested that the press use a short and simple abbreviation - “KRS”.
Coaching staff
Previously, he worked as a head coach at Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, Khimik, Sibir, Torpedo, Severstal and Salavat Yulaev. The experienced specialist will be assisted by Alexey Tertyshny, who finished his playing career in 2011 and has already worked as the head coach of two MHL teams. Another assistant of Yurzinov was Oleg Gorbenko, who has been living in China for eight years and managed to educate future champions of this country. The goalkeeper coach will be Aki Näikki, another coach will be from China.
“Contracts were signed with all coaches for two years. You need to understand what will happen in the first year, and show the results in the second year. Not for a year - because it would be wrong if other people came to everything ready-made. We will hit bumps, fall, take risks,” it was noted at the press conference.
Compound
Goalkeepers: Tomu Karhunen, Andrey Makarov;
Defenders: Janne Jalasvaara, Ansi Salmela, Tuukka Mäntylä, Dmitry Kostromitin (trial contract), Alexander Mikulovich;
Attack: Damien Fleury, Martin Bakos, Tomas Marcinko, Oleg Yashin, Daniil Romantsev (negotiations are underway with Lokomotiv), Igor Velichkin.
“Negotiations are underway with the remaining players, including foreigners with experience playing in the NHL. The third goalkeeper will be from China. Contracts with players are concluded for a year. After the first year, we will understand who deserves to stay, and we will re-sign them.
There will be 12 players from China at the training camp. We understand that in order to be competitive in the league, we need to give more time to players who have experience in . And we will introduce the Chinese guys into the game gradually so that they understand the speed and requirements. We need to assess the level of newcomers and the level of Chinese hockey players, and work with the players individually. There will be Chinese players, but it’s difficult to say in what quantity,” Yurzinov said.
There is no Russian money in the club. In China, Kunlun is considered an investment project. This means that if sponsors invest in our project, they will expect this money to be returned.
Infrastructure
The palace in Beijing, where Kunlun Red Star will play home matches, seats 18 thousand people. The local plays his matches here too. basketball club, and the stadium is completely packed for his games. What the cost of a hockey ticket will be is still an open question.
“A very large complex is being built, there are two hockey rinks - a large one and a small one. Huge dining room, huge gym the size of a football field. There you can play basketball, volleyball, mini-football, and handball. There will be a very modern base, they promise to finish it by the end of August,” said the team leaders.
Budget
It is known that the club did not have any problems with financing. Kunlun is supported by three large companies operating in the energy and construction sectors.
“We will not waste money. We have the budget of an average team. We will take players who have the best price-quality ratio. The Chinese are very wise people, they calculate and understand everything perfectly. The Chinese organization that created it holds 51% of the club's shares. There is no Russian money in the club. We flew to Harbin and met with mayors and party officials. In China, Kunlun is considered an investment project. This means that if sponsors invest in our project, they will expect this money to be returned,” emphasized Vladimir Krechin.
There will be 12 players from China at the training camp. We understand that in order to be competitive in the league, we need to give more time to players who have experience in . And we will introduce the Chinese guys into the game gradually so that they understand the speed and requirements.
Selection
Selection work at Kunlun Red Star continues, and the range of candidates for the team has been outlined. Their names have not yet been announced, but these will be players from 21 to 30 years old.
“The market is practically empty, it’s very difficult not to make a mistake; we deal with the selection issue 24 hours a day. The circle of candidates has been outlined. Clubs traditionally begin pre-season training with six fives at their disposal. Some people won’t be suitable in the end, others won’t be given the role they would like to play. We will consider all candidates between 21 and 30 years old. First of all, they should be an example for Chinese players; no one takes this task away from us. We don’t want to just close positions; development is necessary,” it was said at the press conference.
Playing style
“We have an experienced goalkeeper and defenders. Yes, it is almost impossible to play without defense; good defense gives confidence to the team. But for now we proceed from the price-quality ratio in matters of acquiring players. He will try to play disciplined, tough, and show interesting hockey so that the Chinese fans will like it,” said Vladimir Yurzinov.
Pre-season training camps
The team will undergo a medical examination in Moscow, because short time in Beijing it is not easy to find a clinic whose work would meet the requirements. After the medical examination, Kunlun will go to Finland for a month, where they will play with Traktor, Amur and Spartak. Then the team will move to Astana and spend friendly match with Barys and will take part in the pre-season tournament. This will be followed by a return to Moscow, a few more test games, and if the arena in Beijing is ready, before the start of the championship there, perhaps Kunlun Red Star will play another friendly match.
Stars
“We don’t need a star player at the moment. In general, in order to seriously invest in a club, you must first understand what will happen. Now you need to get on your feet, and in the future you can think about it. You can, of course, take 20 Chinese and Ilya Kovalchuk. But one star won't do anything. If we still see that the team needs a star, we will talk with the managers about this topic. But we did not negotiate with Kovalchuk; he has a valid contract with SKA,” noted Vladimir Krechin.
You can, of course, take twenty Chinese and Ilya Kovalchuk. But one star won't do anything. If we still see that the team needs a star, we will talk with the managers about this topic.
Tasks
Of course, no one expects that Kunlun will aim for the Gagarin Cup in the first year of its existence. The team's main goal now is to get back on its feet, show a decent game and attract the interest of Chinese fans.
“The main task is for everything to work like a well-oiled machine. Then we will deal with tournament tasks. We are also not considering long-term goals yet. We have them every day, we need to do as much in a day as a regular team does in a week or month. There is no time for mistakes, you cannot make mistakes. Every step must be taken quickly, correctly and efficiently,” it was said at the press conference.
Popularization
Work to popularize the team is being carried out in all directions. The website is being laid out and being developed new logo, paraphernalia is produced. Negotiations are also underway with a Chinese channel about showing the matches. It is planned to launch everything upon returning to China from Astana.
“In China they plan to do everything at once. There will be an information explosion, and everyone will know about the club,” assured Vladimir Krechin.
The date June 24 can now be entered in red in the official KHL calendar. On this day, the Board of Directors of the Kontinental Hockey League approved the Beijing Red Star Kunlun club as a participant in the KHL championship for the 2016/17 season.
The ambitious league, which considers itself second in the world and first in Europe (in some respects - with good reason), has already expanded to the West several times, joining teams from Finland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Croatia, and today it has made a huge step to the East.
Not to say that this news was unexpected. Representatives of the FHR, KHL and the team itself signed a letter of intent on March 17; all that remained was to submit the documents. However, the official announcement of the newcomer was still a big event.
U Chinese hockey there are no glorious traditions and great popularity within the country, but it has something that, for example, many European ones lack KHL teams, - huge money and a fantastic market in scale, in which our league will have no competitors.
Events from this day on will develop rapidly. Already on June 25 in Beijing, the KHL management will sign an agreement with Zvezda on the right to participate in the championship; this is a standard procedure for newcomers. In another five days the final decision on the composition of the season's participants will be made.
When the formalities are settled, club representatives may reveal some information about their capabilities and future transfers, but for now everything is limited to rumors and dry formulations: “Currently, the formation of the team’s composition and plans for its pre-season preparation continues.”
However, even the information that is leaked to the media allows us to assert that the financial support of “Red Star” will be at the level of the strongest KHL teams. According to experts, salaries in the Beijing club, which can be called a kind of national project, will be on average twice as high as in Russian teams KHL.
In addition, the tax system in China is loyal to sports. For example, football clubs China spent three times more on transfers than clubs in 2016 English Premier League. This trough will probably give something to hockey.
These guesses were partly confirmed by the president of the FHR. In an interview with Sportfact, he said that Red Star Kunlun will be an economically wealthy and international club for which Russian and Canadian hockey players will play.
Among the potential newcomers to the Beijing team, the media mention the names of three Gagarin Cup winners - Ilya, and.
Kovalchuk, due to conflicts and unsuccessful play, was removed from SKA in the current Gagarin Cup, but the management St. Petersburg club so far denies his departure.
Thus, the SKA president emphasized that Kovalchuk will not leave the club this summer, and a member of the board of directors called this information “ridiculous.”
There is also no certainty about Metallurg Magnitogorsk forward Danis Zaripov. The club president called his possible transfer “rumors” and noted that the issue of luring players to the KHL is not an issue.
But with leadership new team everything is more or less clear. The post of general manager at the club will be taken by the ex-general director of the Moscow “Wings” and the Chelyabinsk “Traktor”, and the head coach, according to media reports, should be Vladimir Yurzinov Jr., who won silver medals in the Russian championship at the head of “Salavat”.
At the moment, six foreign clubs play in the KHL - Jokerit, Medvescak, as well as Minsk and Western Conference and "Barys" - in Eastern.
Two more teams, the Ukrainian “Donbass” and the Czech “Lev”, each various reasons left the league.
You can get acquainted with other news, materials and statistics on the Continental Hockey League, as well as in the sports department groups on social networks
