NHL Talks Sochi; French Plan for 2016; Georgia Accepts Security Role

NHL Talks Olympics, World Cup

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly says he’s "hopeful" player participation at Sochi 2014 will soon be solved.

"In terms of the Olympics, specifically, [it was] a little more complicated negotiation based on it being in Sochi and the physical location," he told reporters Wednesday during the annual State of the League press conference preceding the start of the Stanley Cup Final.

"The IOC has been more actively involved than it has been in the past," he said.

"The Players' Association has been actively involved with respect to logistics of players, families, guests. We continue to work at it. The parties have been in close contact in recent days and we hope to get together and get it hammered out in the near future."

According to Daly, only then would the NHL and NHLPA begin work on the rest of their international schedule, one that could include a resurrected World Cup of Hockey.

"We'll take a look at World Championship participation and we are very much committed, at least at 10,000 feet, to bringing back a World Cup and doing it on a regular basis," said Commissioner Gary Bettman.

New French NOC Secretary General, Chef de Mission

Denis Masseglia, who was recently reelected president of CNOSF, the French Olympic Committee, has wasted no time in preparing for the 2016 Olympics.

On June 6, the CNOSF executive board held its first meeting in Masseglia’s second term, appointing Jean-Michel Brun as the new secretary general and Franis Luyce as the chef de mission for the 2016 Olympics. Jean-Pierre Mougin, the former secretary general, is now a CNOSF vice president for qualification and training.

Speaking to French media, Masseglia said he is starting his new term aggressively because following his first election, he was tasked with uniting French sport following a three-person election.

"This time, the context is different," he told Francs Jeux. "I feel a willingness of all stakeholders to validate the proposals of the management team."

Masseglia added that the loss of CNOSF vice president Bernard Lapasset for president of SportAccord, the umbrella organization for sport federations, shows that French sport needs to re-think its international strategy. He said French sport "lacks alliances" in international relations to advance its message.

A meeting is scheduled for July 3-4 for all stakeholders in French sport to plot CNOSF’s strategy for the future.

Georgia Accepts Putin’s Offer for Olympic Security Role

Georgia is prepared to accept Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer to take a role in security at next year’sWinter Olympics, Georgian Foreign Minister Maya Panjikidze said Wednesday.

The breakaway region of Abkhazia, which Russia recognizes as independent and Georgia considers part of its territory, is just eight kilometers away from some of next year’s Olympic venues, in and around the Russian city of Sochi.

Russia and Georgia fought a brief war in 2008 over another region with a similar status, South Ossetia, and have yet to restore formal diplomatic relations.

On Friday, Putin said he was "absolutely ready" for Georgia to help with Olympic security, which could be a powerful gesture of reconciliation.

"We also see the potential of cooperation with the Russian Federation in preserving security at the Olympics," Panjikidze said.

Meanwhile, Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili’s special representative to Russia, Zurab Abashidze, said his country "expresses readiness to cooperate with the Russian Federation on issues of preserving security."

Putin did not specify what sort of Georgian help he was prepared to accept, and neither Panjikidze nor Abashidze said what they would offer.

Written by Ed Hula III and Matthew Grayson.

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