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Stalemate In Lausanne%i[receives a favorable interpretation from the IOC on the pro* amateur problem, he will go toI have staged the championships ' after all. But whatever happens, Dawson emphasized, Canadawill not participate in Sweden,From AP KrtitersLAUSANNE (CP) - The Olympic hockey eligibility question remained unsettled Sunday after a 90-minute meeting between Canadian Amateur Hockey Association officials and International Olympic Committee executive officers near this Swiss city.The Canadians, led by CAHA president Earl Daw§oii of Rivers, Man., received no definite reply to their request for a ruling as to whether amateurs who play against professionals will be contaminated and so lose their eliglblity for Olympic competition.But Dawson said he expects to have an answer “at the latest in eight or nine days.” He said the IOC group gave the Canadians a sympathetic hearing.The meeting with the IOC executive board, led’ by Avery Bnmdage of Chicago, was held at the IOC’s villa headquarters on Lake Geneva.Dawson was accompanied to Switzerland by CAHA past president Fred Page of Vancouver; Gordon Juckes, CAHA executive director, from Winnipeg; Harold Wright of Vancouver, presi-dent of the Canadian Olympic Association, and COA officials Bill Tindall of Toronto and Frank Slmuglutussy of Montreal.Dawson said that if CanadaStockholm next month to discuss the possibility of Canada participating in the 1971 world hockey championships, scheduled for Switzerland.Canada, which was to have been host this year for the first time to the major series of the world tournament, withdrew in January because of an International Ice Ifockey Federation decision that its members could not play against a Canadian team bolstered by professionalsThe federation had agreed last summer that Canada could use nine pros in the 1970 championships. But a warning from Brundage about Olympic stainscaused the hockey federation tobacktrack at an emergency meeting in Geneva last month. Canada quit the 1970 tournament rather than drop its pros.“We had a very favorable and impressive meeting, nnd were led to believe by Mr. Brundage that he is sympathetic to our cause,” Dawson said afler Sunday's meeting.“We think he {Brundage) understands our problem. Hr said the executive board would study the question and let us have an answer very soon.Dawson sad that if the IOC decides amateurs can play alongside, or against, professionals, it means Canada couldto which this year’s tournament svas transferred.Asked whether i favorable IOC ruling would make him bitter, Dawson said:'T don’t think so. I think our attitude would rather be J told you so.’ But not bitter,'’By telephone to Toronto later, Dawson quoted Brundage as saying he believed that “it did not harm a player if be played againfit a professional, -because there was nothing in the book to say so.”Dawson said Brundage gave the opinion that games between amateurs and professionals should take plane providing they were for charitable purposes or for raising funds for the Olympic Games.“But lie said that now that there is thinking of putting professionals into world tournaments, he thinks the whole thing merits a close look,” Dawson sa id.“I would sny I’m optimistic.”Wright, asked whether be believed Canada would liaye a hockey team In the next Olympics, in Sapporo, Japan, in 1972, said:“I would think *so. One thing that was pointed out \va3 that100 per cent tnd that under nocircumstances were we interested in doing anything that circumvented them. Anytime Canada sends a team to the Olympics it’s strictly an amateur team. Mr. Brundage pointed that out—that Canada has aL-ways supported the Olympic amateur rules.Wright said Bnmdage feltthat with more sports being watched across the world ontelevision, and1 with more ndver-lising and money involved each year, “the IOC is having to review the entire subject.”Wright said when you'retalking teams, why a wholeteam that is part amateur and part professional is all professional, I guess.He said, however, that it was pointed out by IOC representatives that “an individual athlete playing with professionals or against professionals could still be an amateur as long as he was living as an amateur himself.“This is the important thing to get clarified,” Wright said.Dawson said: “It’s my assess- ‘ mcnt of the situation that the contaminalion possibility doesn't exist.”When Canada withdrew from international competition in Geneva last month, it was because the five nations to have competed against her in the world tournament this year backed out, feeling there was a possibility that their athletes would be “contaminated” and might lose their Olympic eligibility if they played a Canadian team with professionals on the roster.Canada backs the Olympic rulesipson Salutes The Nats• A «« L A * n -
Newspaper Details
Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg, Manitoba, CA
Mon, Feb 23, 1970
Page 14
Full Page
Clipped by
Jason P.
USA 10 Mar 2019
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