Uzbekistan

Ice hockey has celebrated a comeback in Uzbekistan during the last few years. During the Soviet times the capital of Tashkent had a hockey team, Binokor, in the Soviet system that made it up to the second-highest league of the Soviet Union.Recently IIHF.com spoke with one of its former players, Vladimir Kapulovski, who is now a coach in Kazakhstan and led Arlan Kokshetau to the Continental Cup triumph.“In Kazakhstan we have winter, in Tashkent it’s like in Florida. But they built an arena for 18,000 spectators, maybe there will be some serious hockey there with a team in the KHL or VHL [Russia’s second league] in the future,” he said eight months ago. And he was right.30 years after Binokor disappeared, Humo Tashkent joined Russia’s second-tier league VHL and with a farm team the top league of neighbouring Kazakhstan. They play in the state-of-the-art Humo Arena in the capital city and thousands of fans have already visited the arena to enjoy the comeback of professional ice hockey in Uzbekistan. But it’s not just about having a professional team that obviously consists mostly of foreign players.With the opening of the first ice rinks in the newer era, Uzbekistan has launched a championship that recently included four clubs – Binokor, Humo, Tashkent and Semurg – and the Uzbekistan Ice Hockey Federation was established on 28 March 2018.Each club has its hockey school with now 200 kids involved. A team Tashkent Select with juniors born in 2008 and 2009 joined the Kazakh championship. There are currently four ice rinks in Tashkent and another one is planned in the city of Samarkand.“I would like to thank all IIHF members who supported us and voted for the UIHF. For us it is a great honour to be accepted into the big ice hockey family of the IIHF. I share this feeling of pride with all hockey fans in my country and strongly believe that our new status will open more opportunities for the development of the game in Uzbekistan,” said UIHF President Bakhtiyor Fazilov.“Getting access to the development and educational programs as well as to the variety of events and tournaments guided by IIHF, new contacts and relations with other member associations definitely will be a significant support for our plans of hockey expansion throughout the country.”