NHL

Radulov wrong to sign with Russian club

But world governing body won't suspend Nashville Predators forward

John Russell / AP

Ice hockey's world governing body has ruled that Russian forward Alexander Radulov was wrong to sign for a club in his home country while under contract with the Nashville Predators, but won't be suspended.

updated 8:29 p.m. ET Oct. 2, 2008

BERN, Switzerland - Russian forward Alexander Radulov was wrong to sign with a club in his home country while under contract with the Nashville Predators, ice hockey’s world governing body ruled Wednesday.

But the International Ice Hockey Federation said it had no legal basis to suspend him because there is no agreement in place to regulate international transfers. The ruling indicated Radulov had a binding agreement to serve the one year remaining on his Predators’ contract.

The Radulov case has been at the center of a wider dispute between the NHL and Russia’s new Continental Hockey League (KHL) over respecting players’ contracts.

The two sides were set to meet Wednesday after watching the New York Rangers play Metallurg Magnitogorsk in an exhibition — the first match between an NHL and Russian team in 17 years.

The KHL has previously agreed to enter an arbitration case to decide Radulov’s future. The details of where and when that case can proceed have yet to be decided.

“Until the court decision, he will play in Russia,” KHL chairman Alexander Medvedev told The Associated Press Wednesday.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said he hoped the case could be heard at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.

“The actions of the Russian team and the Russian league in allowing him to continue to play is really a slap in the face to what is a well-established legal principle to respect each other’s contracts,” Daly told the AP.

Paul Kelly, the executive director of the NHL Players’ Association, was also present for the meeting at Bern’s Post Finance Arena.

The IIHF ordered an investigation after Radulov signed a three-year deal in July with KHL side Salavat Yulayev Ufa.

Nashville has suspended Radulov indefinitely, but the IIHF said it was powerless to act against the player.

“The IIHF does not support breach of valid and binding agreements,” it said in a statement. “However, the current IIHF statutes and bylaws — as well the absence of an agreement regarding respect of valid contracts between the IIHF and NHL — does not give the IIHF legal base to sanction the player from professional domestic hockey.”

The Radulov signing was announced the day after the IIHF had brought together Daly, Medvedev, Kelly and representatives of all the major European leagues in Zurich, Switzerland, to agree to respect contracts of players from other countries.

That moratorium on poaching players was designed to create stability after the recognized international transfer agreement collapsed last season.

IIHF president Rene Fasel said Wednesday he hoped a new international agreement could be reached by next March, though likely without Russian involvement.

“Everybody is interested in our family to do the best for the game,” Fasel said. “If we use all our energy to fight each other, this is not the way to go.”

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