Sports News | Lithuania Offers to Replace Belarus as Hockey Worlds Co-host
Get latest articles and stories on Sports at LatestLY. Lithuania offered to replace ousted Belarus as co-host of this year's hockey world championships on Thursday.
Vilnius, Jan 21 (AP) Lithuania offered to replace ousted Belarus as co-host of this year's hockey world championships on Thursday.
Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonyte "discussed Lithuania's determination" to co-host the tournament with neighboring Latvia in a call with International Ice Hockey Federation president René Fasel, the Baltic nation's government said.
Fasel was a long-time supporter of Belarus continuing as co-host until accepting it had to change plans in fallout from the disputed re-election last year of authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko. Sponsors had told the IIHF they would withdraw if Belarus was retained.
Lithuania's government said the decision “should have been done earlier” to move the tournament.
"Logistically, organizing the tournament in the neighboring countries would also be much more convenient under the conditions of the pandemic," Šimonyte said.
Lithuania, which has not qualified for the men's championship, offered the cities of Vilnius and Kaunas for the tournament, which is scheduled to run from May 21 to June 6. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)