The
Coronavirus epidemy wins over sport everywhere, the czech sledge hockey
leagues included. The next victim has fallen recently. the prestigious
LAPP Cup international sledge hockey tournament in Zlín, Czech Republic.
This tournament, that usually takes place every first week in
September, is not going to happen in 2020.
One
or two teams outside Europe leagues were likely to join the home team
and their usual team opponents from Norway, Sweden, Germany, Austria,
Russia and from recently heavily challenged Italy in this annual 10th
year of the LAPP cup tournament.
"It
is not an easy decision but the circumstances forced us to do it that
way. Nobody knows what comes next, individual teams have no idea whether
they would be able to arrive at all, we do not know whether our borders
will be open at that time. There was no other option. Better to cancel
the entire event now than to wait and cancel it in the moment when
everything has started and a lot of money was already involved,"
says Petr Julina, the LAPP Cup's CEO. The cancellation feels a loss the
more that the tournament was likely to acquire more reputation this
year again.
"We believed that the teams outside Europe would increase the tournament's attractivity," he added.
LAPP
Cup takes place in Zlín every September since 2011, it is becoming more
and more prestigious every year and is always followed by an increased
number of fans. The appropriate hockey stadium's full capacity of 600
viewers has been sold out twice during the last year's tournament. Also,
22 players from the 2019's World Para Hockey Championship took place in
the last year's LAPP Cup tournament.
The
game in 2017 between the teams Zlin and Malmö was broadcast live in the
countrywide TV station for the first time in czech clubs history.
