Chinese, Korean and Japanese teams could join the Kontinental Hockey League, but the timeframe is yet to be figured out.
"During a visit of a KHL delegation to the Chinese People's Republic earlier this month, the first meeting of a Russian-Chinese working group for cooperation in the area of ice hockey was held," a KHL spokesperson told SBD Global, adding that the league proposed a concept for developing hockey in China that includes joining the KHL system by a Chinese professional club "in the short term."
The concept stipulated a Chinese youth squad joining the Junior Hockey League (MHL) as early as the '16-17 season.
Earlier this year, Int'l Ice Hockey Federation President René Fasel said that two Chinese squads could eventually join the KHL.
Meanwhile, KHL board member Vyacheslav Fetisov was quoted by the Russian news agency TASS as saying that a decision about Chinese squads joining the league was made "on a head of state level."
He added that there are plans to create the KHL's new Pacific division, which would include two current teams from Russia's Far East, Admiral Vladivostok and Amur Khabarovsk, and China, Japan and South Korea would be represented by two squads each.
"There is an infrastructure in Japan, and teams could be created in cities where Olympic games were previously held, Nagano and Sapporo," he said. "As for South Korea, they are waiting to start a negotiation process."
Still, a timeframe for Asian squads to join the KHL has yet to be finalized.
"A decision about possible expansion of KHL and creation of a new division in the league's structure could only be made by KHL's board," the league's spokesperson explained. "Currently, this issue is not on the agenda."
Vladimir Kozlov is a writer in Moscow.
