World Cup: Make the 4 nations to 8 nations

[Summer Rose]

I know you are right on principle. But it is hard to keep politics out altogether. We should avoid going into details over the war, government policy etc, and I know I am sometimes guilty of overstepping in this regard as well. But when it comes to Russian participation, the hockey and politics aspects simply cannot be completely separated. For example, if we discuss whether Russian NHL players should participate, it is hard not to mention that the Finnish and Swedish federations would boycott the tournament if they did.. But of course I cannot disagree with you that we should keep the politics to a minimum. That said, we should also not deliberately ignore that ice hockey has been used as a huge political propaganda tool by the Soviets and now by Russia. That is in contrast to governments in NA and Europe, who do not use ice hockey for propaganda (apart from the odd prime minister or president showing up at one of his nations ice hockey games, looming sheepish). So it is hard to not slightly veer into politics when ice hockey and Russia are discussed. But I promise I will edit myself more going forward on this.

I do see your point and agree, and it's a difficult fine line to walk.

As such, I have decided that this thread has run its course and will be closing it now.