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Hockey Canadaready to quitOTTAWA (CP) — Hockey Canada is preparing a stiff body cheek for the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association which could knock the country’s overseas hockey image back 20 years.Exasperated by CAHA resistance to turning over control of touring Canadian teams to it, Hockey Canada is ready to cease organizing teams for world championships, the Olympic Games and Canada Cup, Lou Lefaive, director of Sport Canada, said Friday.That would mean no professional or university players for national teams, returning the system to before 1964 when senior teams represented the country abroad with little success. And senior hockey is considered weaker now.Lefaive said Hockey Canada hopes the dispute will be resolved by Feb. 9. If not, Hockey Canada will tell Dr. Gunter Zabetski, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, to ask the CAHA to field teams.The heart of the dispute is the selection and organization of the team for the world junior championships, says Torrence Wylie, Hockey Canada’s chairman.But CAHA President Gordon Kenwick said the threat is a smoke screen to hide Alan Eagleson’s inability to sell the Canada Cup scheduled for thisfall.But insiders say the dispute persists because many within the CAHA don’t like Hockey Canada and refuse to accept its control over junior teams. The situation is ironical, they say, because major junior hockey, the top level of junior hockey in the country, isn’t much interested in the CAHA.The CAHA-Hockey Canada dispute flared last year during hearings of a special parliamentary committee on violence in hockey. Eagleson and Doug Fisher, then Hockey Canada chairman, both blasted the CAHA.Other witnesses said they thought international hockey had become too sophisticated for the CAHA and it should concentrate on the growing problems in minor hockey.The sore point was further irritated by the fifth-place finish of the Canadian entry in the world junior championship in Sweden. It was hurt by the loss of many top players who stayed home to play in a CAHA-sanctioned junior tournament held at the same time in Ontario.“We don’t want teams over there with Maple Leafs on. their sweaters when the organization behind them isn’t fully committed,” said Lefaive. “The CAHA is just dragging its heels.”Renwick said the CAHA has done all Hockey Canada has asked. “The contract I submitted to Mr. Wylie on Jan. 12 covers us.”
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