Tardif meets President of Bulgaria

“Here you have really good tools. We will work with our Facilities Committee, the Chairperson Viesturs Koziols is here as Tournament Chairman, and will come back with how this can be covered with a roof. That’s why it was important to meet the public authorities. To prove to them that we stand behind them; explain that the development of ice hockey cannot be possible if there is no infrastructure; try to push the idea that there is a need of more ice rinks for training and development of young kids, not one big arena with stands for 10,000 seats,” said Tardif. “We try to offer the President of Bulgaria and the Sport Minister more professional help from IIHF. We’ve got the knowledge and we know how to assist them. There is a new generation of ice rinks, where the energy costs are less and we can do sustainable work.”

“An affordable way must be found to build at least a few rinks in the next few years. There are really so many kids who want to get to know and practise this sport, but they don’t have that opportunity,” said the Minister of Youth and Sports, Vessela Letcheva, during the outdoor game.

“Sports are the foundation on which the future of the nation is built. Countries must develop not only technological and industrial capabilities, but also physically prepare their citizens for the challenges of this future,” the President of Bulgaria, Rumen Radev, was quoted on the official site of the institution.

50 years ago, the Bulgarian men’s national team made its debut in the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship program. In the first game on 8 March 1963 in Stockholm, Bulgaria tied the Netherlands 3-3 and two days later beat Belgium 7-3. After three narrow defeats to Denmark, Austria and Hungary, the “Lions” were ranked fourth in the C-Pool. Three times Bulgaria won the group it participated in – 1998, 2014 and in 2019, when it hosted the competition in the Division III.

The most prestigious moment in the history of Bulgarian ice hockey was the participation in the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck in 1976. Bulgaria was in the company of 11 other teams, including the superpowers Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, USA, Finland and West Germany. After losing to Czechoslovakia, 14-1, Bulgaria fell into Group B and lost to Austria, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Romania and Japan.

“The job of the IIHF is to develop ice hockey all over the world, not only to think about the top division. We created a Development Department,  to focus outside of the…