Developments concerning our top competition within the last few weeks cannot continue without providing our opinion. So far we will not comment on “promptness” of the DK as far as reporting of unauthorized starts of players or interesting follow-up failure to award penalties in other cases or the entire goofy soap opera like transfers along with tension before the winter Olympics. First of all, we would like to comment on the absurd (we do not allow ourselves to say even unprecedented) yesterday's decision of the DK SZĽH.

We have no idea what records were used by the DK for evaluation, when they were solving the actions of Dudáš against Surový, Lamper against Dudáš and finally Brejčák against Miklík. Nevertheless, if a reasonable person could see these records, his evaluation must be, that Tomáš was the only one, who had a chance to avoid the fight. Each and every reasonable person had to see that when Martin by his obvious move from the central circle went to close the barrier, Tomáš was located far from the place of the fight and had a clear view of the situation in front of him. At that moment he probably evaluated the situation and thought he might make it, but when he realized it is not possible, unfortunately it was too late, while the defending player had no chance to respond.

It is definitely not about Tomáš, also we in Košice are proud of his contribution to the Slovak hockey and we sincerely wish him lot of health. Unfortunately, Martin, and Michel on Sunday did not have a chance to defend themselves or to evaluate the situation differently. The result? The act did not happen and one more time, it did not happen! Despite the fact that Martin's helmet was broken and the action against Michel was assessed as hitting the head and neck already during the match. Should these actions lead to early end of the season of these hockey players, then only it would be the reason to award penalties? And the penalty for Martin?! More than tragicomic. In case Tomáš plays the next match it is three (3) matches and otherwise it is five (5)? Do we assess the act and its intend or a theoretical subjective consequence? Then the logics of the verdict of the DK should be as follows: If Tomáš plays, shouldn't this be the proof of Martin's innocence? We must understand such definitely thoughtless and ambiguous decision as a tendentious decision. Everybody can figure out what Martin's loss mean. Might focused publicity in media or pressure contribute?

We did not have a need to go public with actions against our players. We are not and will not be an organization to collect bogus points, however we are obligated to fight for our fans, partners, players, and employees. We will definitely consider how to deal with such decision, there is many alternatives.

So far, in order to maintain sort-of fairness of our competition, we ask the Disciplinary Committee to summon and extraordinary meeting and cancel their decision, and let Martin Dudáš play in the next match.

Rastislav Rusič, Executive director HC Košice

Július Lang, President HC Košice