An agreement on the establishment of the Association for Development of Ice Hockey in Islamic Countries was signed in Kazan. The President of the Ice Hockey Federation of Kyrgyzstan, Anvar Omorkanov, said, TASS reports.
«Its goal is to develop hockey in Islamic countries. You all know that it is at the initial stage of development in these countries. We have a lot to learn from Ak-Bars club, teams from Tatarstan, which has a great history of the development of hockey,» Anvar Omorkanov said.
«Our association now wants to apply for the Islamic Games, which are held every four years. There is no hockey there, and we want to start working in this direction,» he added.
Nail Maganov, head of Ak-Bars and the Ice Hockey Federation of the Republic of Tatarstan, was elected President of the Association.
Anvar Omorkanov was elected Vice President of the Association in the Asian region, and the head of the UAE Winter Sports Federation Hamel Al Qubaisi was elected Vice President in the Middle East region. The Association for the Development of Ice Hockey in Islamic Countries includes the federations of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Algeria, Oman, Bahrain, Iran, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, as well as the Republic of Tatarstan. The headquarters of the organization will be located in Kazan.
Recall, the first hockey tournament among the teams of Islamic countries and the Republic of Tatarstan Kazan Hockey Cup will end on Wednesday in Kazan. Kyrgyzstanis lost three matches and finished their participation in the competition. They received the participant’s cup and commemorative medals of the tournament.
