Post by icing101 on Jul 1, 2004 12:23:45 GMT -5
Evgeni Nabokov cleared to play for Russia in IIHF competitions:
The IIHF Executive Committee approved the request by the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia to make Kazakhstan-born goaltender Evgeni Nabokov, 29, eligible to play for Russia in IIHF competitions. Nabokov, of the NHL San José Sharks, was born in 1975 in Ust-Kamenogorsk, in the Kazakhstan republic of the former Soviet Union.
Nabokov represented Kazakhstan in the 1994 IIHF World Championship (C-Pool) at the age of 18 and therefore became, under the old IIHF Statues & Bylaws, ineligible to play for any other country. During the 2003 General Congress, the IIHF adopted a new eligibility rule which says that a player can change his national eligibility, providing he has played for at least four consecutive years in the national competition of his new country where he is a citizen.
Nabokov became, due to political circumstances out of his control, a border-case having played two years in Ust-Kamenogorsk while it belonged to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) before transferring to Dynamo Moscow of the Russian league where he played for three seasons. After being drafted by the San Jose Sharks, Nabokov left Russia in 1997 to play for the Sharks' organisation in the American Hockey League.
"We took on a flexible attitude towards the request of the player and the Russian federation to switch the player's national eligibility," said IIHF General Secretary Jan-Ake Edvinsson. "It became very clear that Mr. Nabokov was a victim of historic circumstances which were totally out of his control and that it would be unfair to him not to approve the request."
Paragraph 204 f) in the IIHF Player Eligibility Rules reads: Exceptional Circumstances can be decided by council.
This decision means that Evgeni Nabokov is eligible to represent Russia in the 2005 IIHF World Championship in Austria and in the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin, Italy. Even without the IIHF decision, Nabokov would have been eligible to play for Russia in the upcoming 2004 World Cup of Hockey, which is a NHL-NHLPA governed tournament where IIHF eligibility rules don't apply.
The IIHF Executive Committee approved the request by the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia to make Kazakhstan-born goaltender Evgeni Nabokov, 29, eligible to play for Russia in IIHF competitions. Nabokov, of the NHL San José Sharks, was born in 1975 in Ust-Kamenogorsk, in the Kazakhstan republic of the former Soviet Union.
Nabokov represented Kazakhstan in the 1994 IIHF World Championship (C-Pool) at the age of 18 and therefore became, under the old IIHF Statues & Bylaws, ineligible to play for any other country. During the 2003 General Congress, the IIHF adopted a new eligibility rule which says that a player can change his national eligibility, providing he has played for at least four consecutive years in the national competition of his new country where he is a citizen.
Nabokov became, due to political circumstances out of his control, a border-case having played two years in Ust-Kamenogorsk while it belonged to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) before transferring to Dynamo Moscow of the Russian league where he played for three seasons. After being drafted by the San Jose Sharks, Nabokov left Russia in 1997 to play for the Sharks' organisation in the American Hockey League.
"We took on a flexible attitude towards the request of the player and the Russian federation to switch the player's national eligibility," said IIHF General Secretary Jan-Ake Edvinsson. "It became very clear that Mr. Nabokov was a victim of historic circumstances which were totally out of his control and that it would be unfair to him not to approve the request."
Paragraph 204 f) in the IIHF Player Eligibility Rules reads: Exceptional Circumstances can be decided by council.
This decision means that Evgeni Nabokov is eligible to represent Russia in the 2005 IIHF World Championship in Austria and in the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin, Italy. Even without the IIHF decision, Nabokov would have been eligible to play for Russia in the upcoming 2004 World Cup of Hockey, which is a NHL-NHLPA governed tournament where IIHF eligibility rules don't apply.
