Time for Sports Transparency

Yesterday we blogged about the death of hockey star Alexei Cherepanov. Today an ESPN columnist makes a call for greater transparency in Russia’s top league, the KHL:

Many hockey people who have been to Russia in recent years — whether they’re players, GMs, scouts or agents — describe a certain Wild West element to the country’s society, and its hockey business in particular. The KHL, with its deep pockets and sometimes suspect way of doing business, has done little to disabuse observers of that notion. League officials acknowledged that Radulov was under contract to the Predators before he returned to Russia to play in the KHL this season, but they did nothing to stop him. Avangard Omsk offered Stanley Cup-winning coach Bob Hartley a contract to become its bench boss, then turned around and offered the job to former Canadian Olympic assistant Wayne Fleming. Now, with many troubling questions surrounding Cherepanov’s death, the KHL must choose what kind of league it is going to be.