Czechia coach blames Russia for his team being removed from flight
The Russian and Czechia teams were both removed from an Air Canada flight last night. This morning Sergei Zubov tried to downplay the actions of himself and his team, but the manager of the Czechia team, Otakar Čern�, he says it was simply a case of mistaken identity as he blamed everything on the Russian players.
Čern� provided the following account for what occurred.
"We arrived at Calgary Airport about three hours in advance. Our players went to buy souvenirs from Canada and some of the players called their families at home. On the contrary, we saw Russian players sitting at the bar. I warned all our boys in advance that they should wear veils throughout their stay at the airport and observe the distances."
This quote seems to substantiate some of the accounts from Twitter users who claimed to have seen the Russian team at an airport bar.
Čern� continued:
"Then we got on a plane and it should be noted, at that moment we noticed that some members of the Russian expedition obviously did not follow the hygienic rules and alcohol probably played a role in that. One of the members of the Russian implementation team even smoked in the tunnel before boarding the plane. Some of the passengers then complained about the Russians' behavior, and the crew therefore had the entire plane evacuated."
"The problem seemed to be that the flight attendants blamed the situation of the young man in the gray Nike sweatshirts. These sweatshirts were packed by all players before the start of the championship. Unfortunately, the Czech ones look exactly the same as the Russian ones, with the only difference that the sweatshirts of our players have the inscription 'Czech Republic' and the Russian ones 'Russia'. And practically only for that reason, they threw us into the same bag as the Russians and told us that the entire Czech and Russian expedition could no longer board the plane."
"in contrast, the Finns dressed in their classic blue-and-white combination were given permission to board and depart. Although we explained to the Air Canada representatives for about thirty minutes that our players had not violated anything, their decision could not be reversed. Slightly bizarre about the whole situation is that after the plane took off without us, Air Canada representatives apologized to us and at their expense arranged a hotel and a flight to Frankfurt at the same time a day later. They also assured us that we would not fly the same flight as the Russian hockey players."
"We have a clear conscience and I am convinced that our players did not break anything, none of them were even warned by the flight attendants about a poorly fitted mask."
So this appears to be another case of mistaken identity, which unfortunately delayed the Czechia players from getting home to their family in a timely manner.
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