Arbitration Will Decide On Yashin's Participation In World Championships

The controversy surrounding the participation of Alexei Yashin in the 2000 IIHF World Championships in St. Petersburg, Russia, will be settled by arbitration next Saturday, April 29, 2000. The arbitration will take place at the National Hockey League (NHL) headquarters in New York City, USA, at 09.00 h, local time. Yashin was suspended last fall by his club, Ottawa Senators, after refusing to report to the team unless his contract was renegotiated. He spent the last few weeks in Russia practising with the national team, planning to take part in the World Championships if Ottawa were eliminated in the early stage of the NHL's playoffs. The NHL denied the release of Yashin, whose contract expires on June 30, to take part in the tournament in St. Petersburg, which will begin next Saturday. Russia will make their debut in the tournament playing France at the New Arena in the evening game. The Russian National Association consequently requested the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) to challenge the decision of the NHL by staging an arbitration, as foreseen by the IIHF / NHL Players transfer agreement. A draw to appoint one of the two selected arbitrators took place today at the IIHF headquarters in Zurich. Representative of the involved parties attended the meeting: Konstantin Kommissarov on behalf of the Russian National Association and Susan Platt on behalf of the NHL. The two candidates were George Nicolau, North American arbitrator and Gerhard Mosslang, European arbitrator. The draw resulted in the appointment of Mr. Nicolau. Mr. Nicolau is a professional, full-time arbitrator/mediator, a former officer of the Institute for Mediation and Conflict Resolution and a recent ex-president of the National Academy of Arbitrators. For further information Paolo Ianieri IIHF Media Manager Tel: +41 1 289 86 07 Mobile: +41.79 200 8829 E-Mail: ianieri@iihf.com